Build Java apps

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  • 6 minutes to read

Azure Pipelines | Azure DevOps Server 2020 | Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018 | TFS 2017

Note

This guidance uses YAML-based pipelines available in Azure Pipelines. For TFS, use tasks that correspond to those used in the YAML below.

Use a pipeline to automatically build and test your Java projects. Learn how to:

  • Create your first Java pipeline.
  • Set up your build environment with Microsoft-hosted or self-hosted agents.
  • Build and test your code with Maven, Gradle, or Ant.

Once you build and test your app, you can deploy to Azure App Service, Azure Functions, or Azure Kubernetes Service. If you're working on an Android project, see Build, test, and deploy Android apps.

Create your first pipeline

Are you new to Azure Pipelines? If so, then we recommend you try this section to create before moving on to other sections.

Get the code

Fork this repo in GitHub:

Import this repo into your Git repo in Azure DevOps Server 2019:

Import this repo into your Git repo in TFS:

            https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/pipelines-java

Sign in to Azure Pipelines

Sign in to Azure Pipelines. After you sign in, your browser goes to https://dev.azure.com/my-organization-name and displays your Azure DevOps dashboard.

Within your selected organization, create a project. If you don't have any projects in your organization, you see a Create a project to get started screen. Otherwise, select the Create Project button in the upper-right corner of the dashboard.

Create the pipeline

  1. Sign in to your Azure DevOps organization and navigate to your project.

  2. Go to Pipelines, and then select New pipeline.

  3. Walk through the steps of the wizard by first selecting GitHub as the location of your source code.

  4. You might be redirected to GitHub to sign in. If so, enter your GitHub credentials.

  5. When the list of repositories appears, select your repository.

  6. You might be redirected to GitHub to install the Azure Pipelines app. If so, select Approve & install.

When the Configure tab appears, select Maven.

  1. When your new pipeline appears, take a look at the YAML to see what it does. When you're ready, select Save and run.

    Save and run button in a new YAML pipeline

  2. You're prompted to commit a new azure-pipelines.yml file to your repository. After you're happy with the message, select Save and run again.

    If you want to watch your pipeline in action, select the build job.

    You just created and ran a pipeline that we automatically created for you, because your code appeared to be a good match for the Maven template.

    You now have a working YAML pipeline (azure-pipelines.yml) in your repository that's ready for you to customize!

  3. When you're ready to make changes to your pipeline, select it in the Pipelines page, and then Edit the azure-pipelines.yml file.

  4. See the sections below to learn some of the more common ways to customize your pipeline.

  1. Create a pipeline (if you don't know how, see Create your first pipeline, and for the template select Maven. This template automatically adds the tasks you need to build the code in the sample repository.

  2. Save the pipeline and queue a build. When the Build #nnnnnnnn.n has been queued message appears, select the number link to see your pipeline in action.

    You now have a working pipeline that's ready for you to customize!

  3. When you're ready to make changes to your pipeline, Edit it.

  4. See the sections below to learn some of the more common ways to customize your pipeline.

Build environment

You can use Azure Pipelines to build Java apps without needing to set up any infrastructure of your own. You can build on Windows, Linux, or macOS images. The Microsoft-hosted agents in Azure Pipelines have modern JDKs and other tools for Java pre-installed. To know which versions of Java are installed, see Microsoft-hosted agents.

Update the following snippet in your azure-pipelines.yml file to select the appropriate image.

              pool:   vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest' # other options: 'macOS-latest', 'windows-latest'

See Microsoft-hosted agents for a complete list of images.

As an alternative to using Microsoft-hosted agents, you can set up self-hosted agents with Java installed. You can also use self-hosted agents to save more time if you have a large repository or you run incremental builds.

Your builds run on a self-hosted agent. Make sure that you have Java installed on the agent.

Build your code

Maven

To build with Maven, add the following snippet to your azure-pipelines.yml file. Change values, such as the path to your pom.xml file, to match your project configuration. See the Maven task for more about these options.

              steps: - task: Maven@3   inputs:     mavenPomFile: 'pom.xml'     mavenOptions: '-Xmx3072m'     javaHomeOption: 'JDKVersion'     jdkVersionOption: '1.11'     jdkArchitectureOption: 'x64'     publishJUnitResults: false     testResultsFiles: '**/TEST-*.xml'     goals: 'package'

For Spring Boot, you can use the Maven task as well. Make sure that your mavenPomFile value reflects the path to your pom.xml file. For example, if you are using the Spring Boot sample repository, your path will be complete/pom.xml.

Customize the build path

Adjust the mavenPomFile value if your pom.xml file isn't in the root of the repository. The file path value should be relative to the root of the repository, such as IdentityService/pom.xml or $(system.defaultWorkingDirectory)/IdentityService/pom.xml.

Customize Maven goals

Set the goals value to a space-separated list of goals for Maven to execute, such as clean package.

For details about common Java phases and goals, see Apache's Maven documentation.

Gradle

To build with Gradle, add the following snippet to your azure-pipelines.yml file. See the Gradle task for more about these options.

              steps: - task: Gradle@2   inputs:     workingDirectory: ''     gradleWrapperFile: 'gradlew'     gradleOptions: '-Xmx3072m'     javaHomeOption: 'JDKVersion'     jdkVersionOption: '1.11'     jdkArchitectureOption: 'x64'     publishJUnitResults: false     testResultsFiles: '**/TEST-*.xml'     tasks: 'build'

Choose the version of Gradle

The version of Gradle installed on the agent machine will be used unless your repository's gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties file has a distributionUrl property that specifies a different Gradle version to download and use during the build.

Adjust the build path

Adjust the workingDirectory value if your gradlew file isn't in the root of the repository. The directory value should be relative to the root of the repository, such as IdentityService or $(system.defaultWorkingDirectory)/IdentityService.

Adjust the gradleWrapperFile value if your gradlew file isn't in the root of the repository. The file path value should be relative to the root of the repository, such as IdentityService/gradlew or $(system.defaultWorkingDirectory)/IdentityService/gradlew.

Adjust Gradle tasks

Adjust the tasks value for the tasks that Gradle should execute, such as build or check.

For details about common Java Plugin tasks for Gradle, see Gradle's documentation.

Ant

To build with Ant, add the following snippet to your azure-pipelines.yml file. Change values, such as the path to your build.xml file, to match your project configuration. See the Ant task for more about these options.

              steps: - task: Ant@1   inputs:     workingDirectory: ''     buildFile: 'build.xml'     javaHomeOption: 'JDKVersion'     jdkVersionOption: '1.11'     jdkArchitectureOption: 'x64'     publishJUnitResults: false     testResultsFiles: '**/TEST-*.xml'

Script

To build with a command line or script, add one of the following snippets to your azure-pipelines.yml file.

Inline script

The script: step runs an inline script using Bash on Linux and macOS and Command Prompt on Windows. For details, see the Bash or Command line task.

              steps: - script: |     echo Starting the build     mvn package   displayName: 'Build with Maven'

Script file

This snippet runs a script file that is in your repository. For details, see the Shell Script, Batch script, or PowerShell task.

              steps: - task: ShellScript@2   inputs:     scriptPath: 'build.sh'

Next Steps

After you've built and tested your app, you can upload the build output to Azure Pipelines, create and publish a Maven package, or package the build output into a .war/jar file to be deployed to a web application.