What are the benefits of developing Android App using Gradle or Maven software?

Question

Hi I was just wondering why one would choose to develop an Android app not in an IDE like eclipse etc but with a build automation tool like Gradle, or a Maven plugin? Thanks.

Answer 1

Gradle and Maven are build automation tools not development environments, you'd still use an IDE (like eclipse or IntelliJIdea) to develop the app and the IDE would use the build automation tools for the build process.
Your question should be why use a build automation tool to build the app instead of just using the IDE.

The answer is that a build automation tool has many advantages over the simple javac build:

• It can interact with source control.
• It can run unit tests.
• It can do automatic deployments for continuous integration. and more.

If you are a single programmer developing a small standalone android app then you may not get many benefits from using a build automation tool, but will probably need to do some tasks manually. Build automation tools are indispensable in larger projects where many developers may be contributing to the code, or when the app is part of a larger system and it is necessary to ensure everything integrates.