gradle 2.8 subproject dependencies - compile() not found

Question

I have a root gradle project and 10 subprojects. I want 5 dependencies to be specified in root project only, without copy-pasting them to all 10 modules. If I write:

subprojects{
  dependencies{
    compile 'org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.3.11'
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-core:4.1.2.RELEASE'
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-context:4.1.2.RELEASE'
  }
}

it says to me that compile() method has not been found. How to make it work so I should specify deps only in one place?

Answer 1

Have you applied java plugin with:

allprojects {
   apply plugin: 'java'
}

or:

subprojects {
   apply plugin: 'java'
}

?

Please remember that you also need to add repositories block. It will be:

repositories {
   mavenCentral()
   jcenter()
}

Answer 2

Gradle Doc Reference: 8.2. Declaring your dependencies

You must wrap the compile dependencies with the dependencies keyword like so:

subprojects {
  dependencies {
    compile 'org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.3.11'
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-core:4.1.2.RELEASE'
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-context:4.1.2.RELEASE'
  }
}

This applies to your root-only libraries as well.