Libraries Management Best Practices

This document explains best practices to manage external libraries more effectively in Katalon Studio.

Scenario

Reduce the Classpath synchronization failure between Gradle's cache and Katalon Studio's Groovy compiler

Purpose and Strategic Value

• Automation and Extension: Utilizing external libraries to handle complex tasks (like CSV processing) and extend Katalon's capabilities.

• Dependency Standardization: Implementing Gradle to specify and automatically download necessary dependencies, ensuring all necessary libraries are included in the build.

• Preventing Conflicts: Understanding the difference between compileOnly and implementation to mitigate high conflict risk and ensure code uses the correct library version provided by the runtime environment.

• Build Readiness: Utilizing the getDeps task to collect all necessary dependencies and copy them into the project's Drivers/ folder, which is vital for execution stability, especially in CI/CD environments.

Key Takeaways

• Tool Requirement: Users must install and use Gradle (recommended version 7.5.1) to manage libraries.

• Best Practice Scope: Use the compileOnly scope for common libraries (like Apache Commons, Groovy, Selenium) that Katalon Studio already bundles to mitigate conflict risk.

• Build Output Control: Use the implementation scope only for brand new, specialized libraries that are not expected to be provided externally.

• Functionality of getDeps: The getDeps task collects all necessary dependencies (runtimeClasspath) and copies the .jar files into the project's Drivers/ folder.

• Pre-check: It is important to check if Katalon supports a specific library and determine the compatible version before adding it. 

Prerequisites (What to Prepare)

Install the Gradle

https://gradle.org/install/

1. Check the Gradle version.

gradle -version

Result:

------------------------------------------------------------ Gradle 7.5.1 ------------------------------------------------------------ Build time: 2022-08-05 21:17:56 UTC Revision: d1daa0cbf1a0103000b71484e1dbfe096e095918 Kotlin: 1.6.21 Groovy: 3.0.10 Ant: Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.11 compiled on July 10 2021 JVM: 17.0.17 (Homebrew 17.0.17+0) OS: Mac OS X 15.6.1 aarch64

The Gradle version must be compatible with the Java version

Compatibility Matrix

Check if Katalon supports that library and what version is compatible

Best Practices Steps

I. Use Gradle to download desired dependencies

Gradle

Specify the libraries that we want to include in the build.gradle file

The task getDeps function can help Collects all necessary dependencies (including all implementation, runtime, and compile-only libraries) needed for the main project code to execute successfully. Copies all these collected .jar files into the project's Drivers/ folder.

Build the Gradle

gradle getDeps

ComplieOnly vs Implementation

Feature	compileOnly	implementation
Required Stage	Compile Time Only.	Compile Time AND Runtime.
Visibility	The dependency is not visible to downstream consumers (other modules depending on your project).	The dependency is visible to downstream consumers.
Included in Final Build	NO. The .jar file is not packaged into the final output (.jar or application build).	YES. The .jar file is packaged into the final output.
Primary Use Case	Used for dependencies that are provided by the runtime environment (e.g., Katalon Studio, Tomcat, JDK).	Used for core libraries that are essential for the application to function and are not expected to be provided externally.
Impact on Conflicts	Mitigates Conflict Risk: Forces your code to use the version already present in the runtime environment.	High Conflict Risk: If the version you specify conflicts with the runtime version, you will likely encounter a runtime error.
Benefit in Katalon	Best Practice for common libraries (like Apache Commons, Groovy, Selenium) that Katalon already bundles.	Only use for brand new, specialized libraries that are definitively not included in Katalon's distribution.

II. Check Library Load

Conclusion

The process of managing external libraries involves specifying dependencies in the build.gradle file , running a build task like gradle getDeps to download and copy the libraries , and finally checking if the library is loaded. Successful library integration is crucial for maintaining project integrity, minimizing conflicts, and extending test automation capabilities.