Maven pom.xml, Lifecycle & Gradle at a Glance

Anatomy of a pom.xml

groupId:artifactId:version uniquely identify your artifact in a repository. <dependencies> list what you need (with a <scope> — compile default, test, provided, runtime); <plugins> extend the build (compiler settings, packaging, tests).

<project>
  <groupId>com.acme</groupId>
  <artifactId>orders-service</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

The lifecycle, in order

Maven's default lifecycle runs phases in order, each including everything before it: validate → compile → test → package → verify → install → deploy. Running mvn package also compiles and tests first; mvn install additionally copies the artifact into your local ~/.m2 repository for other local projects to depend on.

Gradle at a glance

Gradle expresses the same dependencies in a shorter Kotlin/Groovy DSL, models tasks as a graph instead of fixed phases, and only re-runs tasks whose inputs actually changed — its incremental build cache is why Gradle builds are typically faster on repeat runs.

dependencies {
    implementation("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web")
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter")
}

tasks.test {
    useJUnitPlatform()
}