# Chapter 26. Standard Gradle plugins

There are a number of plugins included in the Gradle distribution. These are listed below.

## 26.1. Language plugins

These plugins add support for various languages which can be compiled for and executed in the JVM.

Table 26.1. Language plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`java` | `java-base` | - | Adds Java compilation, testing and bundling capabilities to a project. It serves as the basis for many of the other Gradle plugins. See also Chapter 44, Java Quickstart.
`groovy` | `java`, `groovy-base` | - | Adds support for building Groovy projects. See also Chapter 52, Groovy Quickstart.
`scala` | `java`, `scala-base` | - | Adds support for building Scala projects.
`antlr` | `java` | - | Adds support for generating parsers using Antlr.

## 26.2. Incubating language plugins

These plugins add support for various languages:

Table 26.2. Language plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`assembler` | - | - | Adds native assembly language capabilities to a project.
`c` | - | - | Adds C source compilation capabilities to a project.
`cpp` | - | - | Adds C++ source compilation capabilities to a project.
`objective-c` | - | - | Adds Objective-C source compilation capabilities to a project.
`objective-cpp` | - | - | Adds Objective-C++ source compilation capabilities to a project.
`windows-resources` | - | - | Adds support for including Windows resources in native binaries.

## 26.3. Integration plugins

These plugins provide some integration with various runtime technologies.

Table 26.3. Integration plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`application` | `java`, `distribution` | - | Adds tasks for running and bundling a Java project as a command-line application.
`ear` | - | `java` | Adds support for building J2EE applications.
`jetty` | `war` | - | Deploys your web application to a Jetty web container embedded in the build. See also Chapter 46, Web Application Quickstart.
`maven` | - | `java`, `war` | Adds support for publishing artifacts to Maven repositories.
`osgi` | `java-base` | `java` | Adds support for building OSGi bundles.
`war` | `java` | - | Adds support for assembling web application WAR files. See also Chapter 46, Web Application Quickstart.

## 26.4. Incubating integration plugins

These plugins provide some integration with various runtime technologies.

Table 26.4. Incubating integration plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`distribution` | - | - | Adds support for building ZIP and TAR distributions.
`java-library-distribution` | `java`, `distribution` | - | Adds support for building ZIP and TAR distributions for a Java library.
`ivy-publish` | - | `java`, `war` | This plugin provides a new DSL to support publishing artifacts to Ivy repositories, which improves on the existing DSL.
`maven-publish` | - | `java`, `war` | This plugin provides a new DSL to support publishing artifacts to Maven repositories, which improves on the existing DSL.

## 26.5. Software development plugins

These plugins provide help with your software development process.

Table 26.5. Software development plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`announce` | - | - | Publish messages to your favourite platforms, such as Twitter or Growl.
`build-announcements` | announce | - | Sends local announcements to your desktop about interesting events in the build lifecycle.
`checkstyle` | `java-base` | - | Performs quality checks on your project's Java source files using Checkstyle and generates reports from these checks.
`codenarc` | `groovy-base` | - | Performs quality checks on your project's Groovy source files using CodeNarc and generates reports from these checks.
`eclipse` | - | `java`,`groovy`, `scala` | Generates files that are used by Eclipse IDE, thus making it possible to import the project into Eclipse. See also Chapter 44, Java Quickstart.
`eclipse-wtp` | - | `ear`, `war` | Does the same as the eclipse plugin plus generates eclipse WTP (Web Tools Platform) configuration files. After importing to eclipse your war/ear projects should be configured to work with WTP. See also Chapter 44, Java Quickstart.
`findbugs` | `java-base` | - | Performs quality checks on your project's Java source files using FindBugs and generates reports from these checks.
`idea` | - | `java` | Generates files that are used by Intellij IDEA IDE, thus making it possible to import the project into IDEA.
`jdepend` | `java-base` | - | Performs quality checks on your project's source files using JDepend and generates reports from these checks.
`pmd` | `java-base` | - | Performs quality checks on your project's Java source files using PMD and generates reports from these checks.
`project-report` | `reporting-base` | - | Generates reports containing useful information about your Gradle build.
`signing` | base | - | Adds the ability to digitally sign built files and artifacts.
`sonar` | - | java-base, java, jacoco | Provides integration with the Sonar code quality platform. Superceeded by the `sonar-runner` plugin.

## 26.6. Incubating software development plugins

These plugins provide help with your software development process.

Table 26.6. Software development plugins

Plugin Id | Automatically applies | Works with | Description
`build-dashboard` | reporting-base | - | Generates build dashboard report.
`build-init` | wrapper | - | Adds support for initializing a new Gradle build. Handles converting a Maven build to a Gradle build.
`cunit` | - | - | Adds support for running CUnit tests.
`jacoco` | reporting-base | java | Provides integration with the JaCoCo code coverage library for Java.
`sonar-runner` | - | java-base, java, jacoco | Provides integration with the Sonar code quality platform. Supersedes the `sonar` plugin.
`visual-studio` | - | native language plugins | Adds integration with Visual Studio.
`wrapper` | - | - | Adds a `Wrapper` task for generating Gradle wrapper files.
`java-gradle-plugin` | java |  | Assists with development of Gradle plugins by providing standard plugin build configuration and validation.

## 26.7. Base plugins

These plugins form the basic building blocks which the other plugins are assembled from. They are available for you to use in your build files, and are listed here for completeness. However, be aware that they are not yet considered part of Gradle's public API. As such, these plugins are not documented in the user guide. You might refer to their API documentation to learn more about them.

Table 26.7. Base plugins

Plugin Id | Description
base | Adds the standard lifecycle tasks and configures reasonable defaults for the archive tasks: adds build `ConfigurationName` tasks. Those tasks assemble the artifacts belonging to the specified configuration. adds upload `ConfigurationName` tasks. Those tasks assemble and upload the artifacts belonging to the specified configuration. configures reasonable default values for all archive tasks (e.g. tasks that inherit from `AbstractArchiveTask`). For example, the archive tasks are tasks of types: `Jar`, `Tar`, `Zip`. Specifically, `destinationDir`, `baseName` and `version` properties of the archive tasks are preconfigured with defaults. This is extremely useful because it drives consistency across projects; the consistency regarding naming conventions of archives and their location after the build completed.
java-base | Adds the source sets concept to the project. Does not add any particular source sets.
groovy-base | Adds the Groovy source sets concept to the project.
scala-base | Adds the Scala source sets concept to the project.
reporting-base | Adds some shared convention properties to the project, relating to report generation.

## 26.8. Third party plugins

You can find a list of external plugins at the Gradle Plugins site.