How to get IntelliJ to associate Gradle sources with build.gradle? - intellij-idea

Question

When writing Gradle scripts for my Java project, specifically, when writing build.gradle files, IntelliJ does not recognize the Gradle API.
For instance, Gradle methods calls like apply, dependencies configure appear with a black line under them and it is not possible to navigate to method declarations, there is no auto-completion etc.
I managed to work around this by adding compile gradleApi() to the build's dependencies block. However, I don't want to have this explicit dependency in my code.
I tried editing IntelliJ's project structure and add a dependency on a Gradle library (tried gradle-core and gradle-all) to my modules, but that seems to have no effect.
Is there a way to make IntelliJ associate all build.gradle files with the Gadle sources?

Answer 1

I solved this problem as follows:
As mention in already posted answers, configure gradle
update gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties file
change bin to all in distributionUrl i.e.
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.8.3-bin.zip
to
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.8.3-all.zip
OR
[optional] If you are using old version of gradle wrapper and wanted to upgrade, then execute
./gradlew wrapper --gradle-version 6.8.3 --distribution-type all
Update gradle task (if present in build file)
wrapper {
gradleVersion = '6.8.3'
distributionType = Wrapper.DistributionType.ALL
}
Before importing the project to IntelliJ-Idea IDE, update build.gradle and add java and idea plugin to the plugins list
plugins {
id "java-library"
id "idea"
}
From a terminal, execute ./gradlew clean build idea or simply ./gradlew idea
Import project to IntelliJ idea.
Go to Preferences --> build,Execution,Deployment --> BuildTools --> Gradle
You can see
Restart IntelliJ idea IDE.
So above we have configured both of the options so choose either of them, except the specified location option. That's it.
Before
After
Autocomplete functionality as mentioned in this answer.

Answer 2

I had similar frustrations with Grails 3, which defines and runs a wrapper task when an app is created. Changing to the "all" zip in the wrapper properties file did not work because this kept getting changed back to the "bin" zip.
This was solved when it was understood that the "gradle-wrapper.properties" file simply stores the values from the "wrapper" task, and if this task is run after the properties are changed, they get changed right back.
This is easily fixed by setting some properties on the wrapper task:
wrapper.gradleVersion='3.2.1'
wrapper.distributionType=Wrapper.DistributionType.ALL
Now importing the project into IDEA gives you smart editing of your build.gradle.

Answer 3

when I choose build.gradle in IDEA and open it, IDE prompts
You can configure Gradle wrapper to use distribution with sources. It will provide IDE with Gradle API/DSL documentation.
I choose Ok, apply suggestion!
after project refreshing I am able to use code completion

Answer 4

before you import your project, configure it to use the customizable gradle wrapper as per the instructions here :-
https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html
add a task to your top level project like this:-
task wrapper(type: Wrapper) {
println "Wrapper gradleVersion = '2.12'"
gradleVersion = '2.12'
}
or whatever the latest version is.
make sure you can build the project from the gradle command line before you try importing into intelliJ, using the ./gradlew command, which will download and install a gradle distribution for you the first time you build.
set your java home, intelliJ home and gradle home variables in your machine and in intelliJ (mine look like this, yours may be different depending on your setup and your history of hacking around your machine...:-
(from .bashrc
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home
)
When you do import, choose the customisable gradle wrapper. if all is well, when you open the top level build.gradle for your project, you will be asked to configure sources for the gradle dsl, which will also update your gradle wrapper properties file to this:-
#Thu Mar 31 14:04:00 BST 2016
distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.12-all.zip
.. the change being from ... bin.zip to all.zip. and that's it. This had been giving me lots of grief for a long time, but that's the way to do it. (on IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1 CE at least...)
most of this was in
Dimitry's answer too, but I couldn't get it to work using the default wrapper , it had to be the customisable wrapper.