How to apply plugin as Map in Gradle's build script?

Question

How can I apply plugin as Map in Gradle? We can use:

Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>()
map.put('plugin', 'java')
apply(map)

But when write:

apply [plugin:'java']

An error occured. Why?

Answer 1

The correct Groovy syntax to pass a map to a method is apply the: "map" or apply([the: "map"]) . apply[...] is subscript syntax (such as when indexing into an array) which isn't defined here.

Answer 2

apply([plugin:'java']) or apply plugin:'java' will work but not apply[plugin:'java'] .

apply , most likely, is groovy method call and someMethod[key:value] is not valid groovy method call.