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Gradle Cargo plugin

The plugin provides deployment capabilities for web applications to local and remote containers in any given Gradle build by leveraging the Cargo Ant tasks. The plugin supports WAR and EAR artifacts.

The typical use case for this plugin is to support deployment during development. Keep in mind that Cargo uses hot deployment which over time fills up the PermGen memory of the JVM process running your container. Continuously deploying an artifact will inevitablity lead to a java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. Cargo does support container management capabilities (starting/stopping of remote containers) via the so-called Cargo daemon. However, in continuous deployment scenarios you often want to need perform more complex operations.

Usage

To use the plugin's functionality, you will need to add the its binary artifact to your build script's classpath and apply the plugin.

Adding the plugin binary to the build

The plugin JAR needs to be defined in the classpath of your build script. It is available on the Gradle plugin portal. The following code snippet shows an example on how to retrieve it with the buildscript syntax:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        gradlePluginPortal()
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.bmuschko:gradle-cargo-plugin:2.9.0'
    }
}

Provided plugins

The JAR file comes with two plugins:

The com.bmuschko.cargo plugin helps you get started quickly. If you only need to deal with a single container product, this is the preferrable option. Most plugin users will go with this option. To use the Cargo plugin, include the following code snippet in your build script:

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo'

If you need full control over your deployment tasks, you will want to use the com.bmuschko.cargo-base plugin. The downside is that each task has to be configured individually in your build script. To use the Cargo base plugin, include the following code snippet in your build script:

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo-base'

Configuring the Cargo version

The com.bmuschko.cargo-base plugin already sets up the dependencies for Cargo. In order to do so, it chooses a default version of the libraries. Alternatively, you can define a custom version of the Cargo libraries. To do so, please use the cargo configuration name in your dependencies closure, and keep the below in mind:

• Remote deployment functionality will only work with a Cargo version >= 1.1.0 due to a bug in the library (see CARGO-962 for more information).
• Setting configuration properties will only work with a Cargo version >= 1.9.10 due to missing feature in the library (see CARGO-1578 for more information). The following example demonstrates how to use the version 1.9.10 of the Cargo libraries:

dependencies {
    def cargoVersion = '1.9.10'
    cargo "org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-core-uberjar:$cargoVersion",
          "org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-licensed-dtds:$cargoVersion",
          "org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-ant:$cargoVersion"
}

Tasks

The cargo plugin pre-defines the following tasks out-of-the-box:

Project layout

The Cargo plugin uses the same layout as the War plugin.

Extension properties

The Cargo plugin defines the following convention properties in the cargo closure:

• containerId: The container ID you are targeting. Please see the list of supported containers on the Cargo website.
• port: The TCP port the container responds on (defaults to 8080).

Within cargo you can define optional properties for the 1..n deployment artifacts in a closure named deployable. Each deployment artifact would be specified in its own closure:

• file: Any type that can be passed to Project.files(Object...) and resolves to a single file or a directory including arbitrary artifacts, exploded WAR directories and dependency configurations to be deployed to container (defaults to project/module artifact - WAR or EAR file).
• context: The URL context the container is handling your web application on (defaults to WAR/EAR name).

Keep in mind that you do not have to define the deployable closure if you just want to deploy the artifact defined by your Gradle project/module.

Within cargo you can define properties for remote containers in a closure named remote:

• protocol: The protocol of the remote container (defaults to http).
• hostname: The hostname of the remote container.
• username: The username credential for the remote container (optional).
• password: The password credential for the remote container (optional).

Within cargo you can define properties for local containers in a closure named local:

• jvmArgs: The JVM arguments for a local container.
• outputFile: The log file of your local container (defaults to writing to the console).
• logFile: The Cargo log file of your local container (defaults to writing to the console).
• logLevel: The log level to run the container with (optional). The valid levels are low, medium and high.
• homeDir: The home directory of your local container installation.
• configHomeDir: The home directory of your local container's configuration.
• configFile: The configuration files you want to add to your container's configuration. The configFile is a closure itself and requires you to provide the attributes files and toDir. A FileCollection should be used as files attribute and toDir should be a String. Multiple configuration file destinations can be defined by creating more than one configFile closure.
• rmiPort: The port to use when communicating with this server, for example to start and stop it.
• startStopTimeout: The timeout (in ms) in which to determine if the container is successfully started or stopped (defaults to 120000ms).
• extraClasspath: A FileCollection that provides extra elements to the local container classpath (optional).
• sharedClasspath: A FileCollection that provides extra elements to the application classpath, and not to the local container (optional).

Container properties

Within local and remote you can define container-specific properties. These properties can be looked up on the Cargo homepage. The following example shows how to set the AJP port for a local Tomcat container:

cargo {
    local {
        containerProperties {
            property 'cargo.tomcat.ajp.port', 9099
        }
    }
}

System properties

Local containers can use system properties passed to it. The following example shows how to set a single system property named myproperty:

cargo {
    local {
        systemProperties {
            property 'myproperty', 'myvalue'
        }
    }
}

Automatically bootstrapping a local container

If you decide to use the ZIP installer Cargo will automatically download your container. You can define its properties in the closure installer. The installer only applies to "local" Cargo tasks.

• installUrl: The URL to download the container distribution from.
• downloadDir: Target directory to download the container distribution to.
• extractDir: Directory to extract the downloaded container distribution to.

Please refer to the individual configuration properties on the Cargo homepage. All of these properties can be overridden by project properties. The name of the project properties is the same as in the Cargo manual.

If you wish to benefit from Gradle dependency cache when resolving container distributions you can use a configuration instead of a url when configuring the installer:

configurations {
    tomcat
}

dependencies {
    tomcat "org.apache.tomcat:tomcat:9.0.14@zip"
}

cargo {
    local {
        installer {
            installConfiguration = configurations.tomcat
        }
    }
}

Example

cargo {
    containerId = 'tomcat6x'
    port = 9090

    deployable {
        context = 'myawesomewebapp'
    }

    remote {
        hostname = 'cloud.internal.it'
        username = 'superuser'
        password = 'secretpwd'
    }

    local {
        homeDir = file('/home/user/dev/tools/apache-tomcat-6.0.32')
        outputFile = file('build/output.log')
        startStopTimeout = 60000

        containerProperties {
            property 'cargo.tomcat.ajp.port', 9099
        }
    }
}

FAQ

I want to automatically assemble my project's artifact when executing a Cargo deployment task.

The task cargoRunLocal does not automatically depend on the assemble task. The reason behind that is that you might not want to deploy your project's artifact or your project does not generate a WAR or EAR file. Instead you might want to deploy one or more external artifacts. If your workflow looks like "compile the code", "generate the artifact" and "deploy" then you make a Cargo deployment task depends on the assemble task. Here's one example:

cargoRunLocal.dependsOn assemble

I am working on a multi-project build. Can I apply the same Cargo configuration to all of my web projects?

Gradle allows for filtering subprojects by certain criteria. To inject the relevant configuration from the root project of your build, you will need to identify all subprojects that apply the War plugin (of course the same concept works for Ear projects). Use the configure method to apply the Cargo plugin and your configuration as shown in the following code snippet:

def webProjects() {
    subprojects.findAll { subproject -> subproject.plugins.hasPlugin('war') }
}

gradle.projectsEvaluated {
    configure(webProjects()) {
        apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo'

        cargo {
            containerId = 'tomcat7x'

            remote {
                hostname = 'localhost'
                username = 'manager'
                password = 'manager'
            }
        }
    }
}

I would like to deploy multiple artifacts to my container. How do I do that?

You would specify each artifact in a separate deployable closure. Each of the closures should assign a unique URL context. The following example demonstrates how a Cargo setup with three different artifacts deployed to a local Tomcat:

cargo {
    containerId = 'tomcat6x'
    port = 9090

    deployable {
        file = file('/home/foo/bar/web-services.war')
        context = 'web-services'
    }

    deployable {
        file = file('/home/foo/bar/web-app.war')
        context = 'web-app'
    }

    deployable {
        file = file('/home/foo/bar/enterprise-app.ear')
        context = 'enterprise-app'
    }

    local {
        homeDir = file('/home/user/dev/tools/apache-tomcat-6.0.32')
    }
}

Is there a way to let Cargo automatically install the container I'd like to use?

Cargo allows for defining a container that gets automatically downloaded and installed on your local disk. All you need to do is to specify the installer closure. The following code snippet downloads, installs and uses Tomcat 7:

cargo {
    containerId = 'tomcat7x'

    local {
        installer {
            installUrl = 'http://apache.osuosl.org/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.27/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.27.zip'
            downloadDir = file("$buildDir/download")
            extractDir = file("$buildDir/extract")
        }
    }
}

I'd like to add a configuration file to my local container. How do I do that?

For local containers a closure named configFile can be used that defines the source files and directory you would like to use the file from at runtime. If you need to copy files into more than one destinations just create multiple configFile closures.

cargo {
    containerId = 'jboss5x'

    local {
        configFile {
            files = project.files('src/main/jboss5/login-config.xml')
            toDir = 'conf'
        }

        configFile {
            files = project.files('src/main/jboss5/login-config.xml', 'src/main/jboss5/sample-users.properties')
            toDir = 'conf/props'
        }
    }
}

To add binary file(s) you should use file closure(s) instead:

cargo {
    containerId = 'glassfish3x'

    local {
        file {
            file = file('../config/db/mysql-connector-java-5.1.23-bin.jar')
            toDir = 'lib'
        }
    }
}

I want to set up and configure my own Cargo task for more than one container. Can this be done?

Absolutely. The Cargo base plugin provides all tasks needed to set up deployment tasks. All you need to do is to create one or more tasks and configure the mandatory properties. The following example shows how to set up local container tasks for Tomcat and Jetty:

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo-base'

task myTomcatRun(type: com.bmuschko.gradle.cargo.tasks.local.CargoRunLocal) {
    containerId = 'tomcat7x'
    homeDir = file('/home/user/dev/tools/apache-tomcat-7.0.42')
}

task myJettyRun(type: com.bmuschko.gradle.cargo.tasks.local.CargoRunLocal) {
    containerId = 'jetty9x'
    homeDir = file('/home/user/dev/tools/jetty-distribution-9.0.4.v20130625')
}

I'd like to create deployment tasks for a rolling deployment to multiple remote containers. How do I do this?

Gradle allows for dynamically creating tasks based on your build script logic. The following example shows how to create three Tomcat deployment tasks and how to configure them with the help of a simple data structure. At the end of the script we also add another task that triggers the deployment to all remote containers.

class RemoteContainer {
    String name
    String hostname
    Integer port
    String username
    String password
}

def remoteContainers = [new RemoteContainer(name: 'tomcat1', hostname: 'remote-tomcat1',
                                            port: 9090, username: 'admin', password: 's3cr3t'),
                        new RemoteContainer(name: 'tomcat2', hostname: 'remote-tomcat2',
                                            port: 8050, username: 'deployer', password: 'qwerty'),
                        new RemoteContainer(name: 'tomcat3', hostname: 'remote-tomcat3',
                                            port: 8888, username: 'su', password: 'powerful')]

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo-base'

remoteContainers.each { config ->
    task "deployRemote${config.name.capitalize()}"(type: com.bmuschko.gradle.cargo.tasks.remote.CargoDeployRemote) {
        description = "Deploys WAR to remote Tomcat '${config.name}'."
        containerId = 'tomcat7x'
        hostname = config.hostname
        port = config.port
        username = config.username
        password = config.password
    }
}

task deployToAllRemoteTomcats {
    dependsOn remoteContainers.collect { "deployRemote${it.name.capitalize()}" }
    description = 'Deploys to all remote Tomcat containers.'
    group = 'deployment'
}

Before a remote deployment I would like to restart my container. Can this be done?

Yes, this is possible with the help of the Cargo daemon functionality. Please refer to the Cargo online documentation for setting up the Cargo daemon JVM process and configuring a container. With this plugin, you can use custom tasks to start and stop a container. The following example stops, starts and then redeploys an artifact.

apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.cargo'

cargo {
    ...
}

ext.tomcat7HandleId = 'tomcat7'

task cargoDaemonStop(type: com.bmuschko.gradle.cargo.tasks.daemon.CargoDaemonStop) {
    handleId = tomcat7HandleId
}

task cargoDaemonStart(type: com.bmuschko.gradle.cargo.tasks.daemon.CargoDaemonStart) {
    handleId = tomcat7HandleId
}

cargoDaemonStart.mustRunAfter cargoDaemonStop
cargoRedeployRemote.dependsOn cargoDaemonStop, cargoDaemonStart