Create convenience APIs for artifact exchange between projects

[liutikas]

Expected Behavior

API fan-fiction (no strong opinion on names/shape, just want something simple):

publisher project build.gradle.kts

val producingTask = tasks.register( ...
artifacts.publish(producingTask) {
  attributes {
    attribute( ...
  }
}

consumer project build.gradle.kts

val lazyFileCollection: FileCollection = artifacts.consume("configurationName") {
  attributes {
    attribute( ...
  }
}

dependencies {
  "configurationName"(project(":publishingProject"))
}

Current Behavior (optional)

It is non-trivial to set up artifact publishing for safe cross-project use and docs don't fully explain it end to end

Today, published project:

val producingTask = tasks.register( ...
configurations.create("artifactPublisher") {
    // Note, consumed and resolved are opposite of root project
    isCanBeResolved = false
    isCanBeConsumed = true
    attributes {
        attribute( ...
    }
}
artifacts.add("artifactPublisher", reportTask)

consumer project:

val artifactConsumer = configurations.create("configurationName") {
    isCanBeResolved = true
    isCanBeConsumed = false
    attributes {
        attribute(...
    }
}
// most people make a mistake of not going through artifactView and thus making this eager
val lazyFileCollection = artifactConsumer.incoming.artifactView { }.files

dependencies {
  "configurationName"(project(":publishingProject"))
}

Context

Reaching cross projects is bad, but currently a lot easier to do. project(":publishingProject").tasks.named("producing task").flatMap {} compared to all the code above.

This complexity means folks have to write guides how to do this (e.g. https://www.liutikas.net/2024/12/11/Together-In-Isolation.html) where it could be a lots simpler for a common case.

[ov7a]

This feature request is in the backlog of the relevant team and is prioritized by them.

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Related:

• Improve "Sharing outputs between projects" documentation #28149
• Docs improvement of "Simple sharing of artifacts between projects" section #19318