[BUG] Migrate modern build.gradle into 1.x branches

[peternied]

Background

There are many features of OpenSearch and its related ecosystem of tools that are java code as well as gradle plugins. When security was initially [migrated to gradle] the connection to gradle plugins provided by OpenSearch were not included.

After mounting issues such as aligning transitive dependency versions [1], publishing plugin zip files [2], and running OpenSearch's integration tests[3], a [second gradle migration] was performed. This build change was involved.

The security plugin codebase is running this second iteration on its main branches, in addition to the 2.X, and 2.1+ branches.

Problem

1.x and 1.3 branches are using the first iteration of the gradle build, leaving many features are locked away from being backported.

Blocked features backports

• Adds a basic sanity test to run against a remote cluster #1958
• Publish snapshots to maven #2438
• [Backport 1.3] Switch to maven to download plugin snapshots security-dashboards-plugin#1351

Related Issues

• [1] [Bug] jackson dependencies should be synchronized with OpenSearch #1816
• [2] Publish plugin zips to maven repo #1801
• [3] [Testing] Security needs integration tests that run with the distribution suite. #1761
• [migrated to gradle] Migrate build system to gradle #1592
• [second gradle migration] Switch to standard OpenSearch gradle build #1888

[peternied]

@opensearch-project/security Our list of blocked features is only getting longer and its preventing us from following best practices in one of our primarily maintained branches 1.3. According to the release schedule we will at least maintain 1.3 until December 31, 2023. But that window could be extended.

On the difficulty of this work, working on gradle is not often a task we perform, but its relatively simple once in the space with structured example of how the 2.1 migration occurred. It would require gumption, but I think even first time contributors could take this on.

[DarshitChanpura]

Our list of blocked features is only getting longer and its preventing us from following best practices in one of our primarily maintained branches 1.3

Agreed and agreed. Should we take this as a high priority task and update the gradle to second iteration on 1.3 to unblock feature backporting?

[peternied]

Opened this issue in the wrong repo - but it impacts security dashboard plugin too

[cwperks]

Closing this issue. The changes to build.gradle will not be backported to the 1.x branches.