Grails 2.3.7 remove itext 2.0.8 jar

Question

I trying to update an application from grails 2.2.4 to 2.3.7 and i have issues with iText dependencies.

executing grails resources-dependencies show me that i have 2 jars for iText

+--- org.grails:grails-docs:2.3.7
|    \--- org.xhtmlrenderer:core-renderer:R8
|    \--- org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.8
|    \--- org.grails:grails-gdoc-engine:1.0.1
|    \--- **com.lowagie:itext:2.0.8**
|    \--- commons-lang:commons-lang:2.6
+--- org.grails.plugins:jasper:1.8.0
|    \--- **com.lowagie:itext:2.1.7**
|         \--- bouncycastle:bcmail-jdk14:138
|         \--- bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk14:138
|         \--- org.bouncycastle:bctsp-jdk14:1.38
|              \--- org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk14:1.38
|              \--- org.bouncycastle:bcmail-jdk14:1.38

I tried to remove itext 2.0.8 adding on BuildConfig

grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
    // inherit Grails' default dependencies
    inherits("global") {
    excludes "itext" 
 }

however when i refresh dependencies Grails add itext 2.0.8 anyway.

Someone could give me an hint for a solution?

Best Regard

Answer 1

itext 2.0.8 is a dependency of a dependency: grails-docs. What you can do is exclude grails-docs from the inherited global dependencies and then specifically add it excluding itext.

grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
    // inherit Grails' default dependencies
    inherits("global") {
        excludes "grails-docs"
    }

    dependencies {
        // specify dependencies here under either 'build', 'compile', 'runtime', 'test' or 'provided' scopes e.g.
        // runtime 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:5.1.24'
        build('org.grails:grails-docs:2.3.7') {
            excludes 'itext'
        }
    }
}

This will produce

+--- org.grails:grails-docs:2.3.7
|    \--- org.xhtmlrenderer:core-renderer:R8
|    \--- org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.8
|    \--- org.grails:grails-gdoc-engine:1.0.1
|    \--- commons-lang:commons-lang:2.6

Answer 2

There is no need to exclude the itext version,instead explicitly add the version in dependency as below. This would override any plugins itext with the below version. In future ,adding a new plugin with itext also won't cause any issue.

 dependencies {
         build "com.lowagie:itext:2.1.0"
    }

Note: Don't exclude any itext or grails-docs.