execute task before android gradle build?

Question

is it possible for Gradle to execute a task before calling

gradle build 

Something like precompile. Someone please help. Is something like this possible and how?

Answer 1

You can do it in this way:

task build << {     println 'build' } task preBuild << {     println 'do it before build' } build.dependsOn preBuild 

Thanks to that task preBuild will be automatically called before build task.

If you want to run preBuild in configuration phase (previous example run preBuild in execution phase) you can do it in this way:

task build << {     println 'build' } build.doFirst {     println 'do it before build' } 

More about gradle build lifecycle can be read here http://www.gradle.org/docs/current/userguide/build_lifecycle.html.

Answer 2

For those who are wondering how to do this in an Android project, this worked for me:

task myTask << {   println "here's a task" } preBuild.dependsOn myTask