Gradle

Overview

Clever Cloud offers you to run your Gradle projects. You can deploy this kind of project without changing your code, but running it on Clever Cloud needs some configuration files or environment variables, to add parameters like your gradle task for example.

Gradle is a project automation tool that builds upon the concepts of Apache Ant and Apache Maven and introduces a Groovy-based domain-specific language (DSL) instead of the more traditional XML form of declaring the project configuration.

Note : like other runtimes, Java application need listen on 0.0.0.0:8080

Create an application on Clever Cloud

With the web console

Refer to Quickstart for more details on application creation via the console.

With the Clever Tools CLI

1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally or follow our CLI getting started guide.
2. In your code folder, do clever create --type <type> <app-name> --region <zone> --org <org> where :
   1. type is the type of technology you rely on
   2. app-name the name you want for your application,
   3. zone deployment zone (par for Paris and mtl for Montreal)
   4. org the organization ID the application will be created under.

Refer to clever create for more details on application creation with Clever Tools.

Setting up environment variables on Clever Cloud

With the Clever Cloud console

1. Go to the Clever Cloud console, and find the app you want to fine tune under it’s organization.
2. Find the Environment variables menu and select it.
3. In this menu, you will see a form with VARIABLE_NAME and variable value fields.
4. Fill them with the desired values then select Add.
5. Don’t forget to “Update Changes” at the end of the menu.

With the Clever Tools CLI

1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally. Refer to our CLI getting started.
2. In your code folder, do clever env set <variable-name> <variable-value>

Refer to environment variables reference for more details on available environment variables on Clever Cloud.

You can of course create custom ones with the interface we just demonstrated, they will be available for your application.

Available Java versions

Set the environment variable CC_JAVA_VERSION to the version you want.

We follow the official Java roadmap by supporting both LTS and latest non-LTS versions.

We are using OpenJDK distribution for mentioned Java versions.

Every non-LTS versions where Premier support ends will be removed without warning as you should be able to switch to the next available non-LTS version without any trouble.

Accepted values are the following:

(graalvm-ce for GraalVM 21.0.0.2, based on OpenJDK 11.0)

Configure your Java application

You must provide a clevercloud/gradle.json file (gradle.json file in clevercloud folder which is at the root of your repository) that contains at least the following:

{
  "deploy": {
    "goal": "grails:run"
  }
}

That is the only option you really need to supply.

Optional configuration

The full configuration can look like the following:

{
  "build": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "goal": "<string>"
  },
  "deploy": {
    "goal": "<string>"
  }
}

You can use the following properties:

Custom run command

If you need to run a custom command you can specify it through the CC_RUN_COMMAND environment variable. This will override the default way of running your application.

Example:

CC_RUN_COMMAND="java -jar somefile.jar <options>"

Environment injection

Clever Cloud can inject environment variables that are defined in the dashboard and by add-ons linked to your application.

For Java applications, the environment is injected in the System.getProperties() object.

So, to use a variable, you just need System.getProperties().getProperty("MY_VARIABLE").

For Groovy applications, just use the System.getProperty("MY_VARIABLE").

The Gradle Wrapper

Since Gradle can come in many versions, Clever Cloud automatically support the Gradle Wrapper ↗.

Just create and commit the gradlew file and the wrapper jar and properties files. Your working repository should look like this:

Monitor your application with New Relic

You can use New Relic to monitor your application on Clever Cloud.

Please refer to our New Relic documentation to configure it for your application.

Git Deployment on Clever Cloud

You need Git on your computer to deploy via this tool. Here is the official website of Git to get more information: git-scm.com

Setting up your remotes

1. The “Information” page of your app gives you your Git deployment URL, it looks like this:

   1. git+ssh://git@push.clever-cloud.com/<your_app_id>.git
   2. Copy it in your clipboard

2. Locally, under your code folder, type in git init to set up a new git repository or skip this step if you already have one

3. Add the deploy URL with git remote add <name> <your-git-deployment-url>

4. Add your files via git add <files path> and commit them via git commit -m <your commit message>

5. Now push your application on Clever Cloud with git push <name> master

Refer to git deployments for more details.

More configuration

Need more configuration? To run a script at the end of your deployment? To add your private SSH key to access private dependencies?

Go check the Common configuration page.

You may want to have an advanced usage of your application, in which case we recommend you to read the Administrate documentation section.

If you can’t find something or have a specific need like using a non supported version of a particular software, please reach out to the support.

Enable health check during deployment

The healthcheck allows you to limit downtimes. Indeed, you can provide Clever Cloud with paths to check. If these paths return something other than 200, the deployment will fail.

Add one (or several) environment variable as such:

CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH=/my/awesome/path

Or

CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH_0=/my/awesome/path
CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH_1=/my/other/path

The deployment process checks all paths. All of them must reply with a 200 OK response code.

By default, when no environment variable (for ex: APP_HOME) is defined, the monitoring checks your repository root path /.

Example

Using the path listed above, below are the expected logs:

Response from GET /my/awesome/path is 200
Response from GET /my/other/path is 500
Health check failed:
- GET /my/other/path returned 500.
If the deployment fails after this message, please update your configuration and redeploy.

In this example, the first path is OK, but the second one failed. This gives you a hint on what failed in your application.

Best practice for healthcheck endpoints

To make the most of a healthcheck endpoint, have it check your critical dependencies. For example:

• execute SELECT 1 + 1; on your database
• retrieve a specific Cellar file
• ping a specific IP through a VPN