Could not find method jaxws() for arguments [com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4]

I am trying to generate java classes using following code but it's failing for some gradle plugin issue.

I searched for it and found there are many plugin available for generating the java classed from xsd but only few plugins for generating the code form wsdl. jaxb is one of them which I thought to use.

Here is my build.gradle file:

configurations {
    jaxws
}
buildscript {
    ext {
        springBootVersion = "2.1.4.RELEASE"
    }
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-gradle-plugin:$springBootVersion"
        jaxws 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'eclipse'
apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
} 

dependencies {
    compile 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator'
    compile 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
    compile 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web-services'     
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient'
    compile 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4'
} 

task wsimport {
    ext.destDir = file("${projectDir}/src/main/generated")
    doLast {
        ant {
            sourceSets.main.output.classesDir.mkdirs()
            destDir.mkdirs()
            taskdef(name: 'wsimport',
                    classname: 'com.sun.tools.ws.ant.WsImport',
                    classpath: configurations.jaxws.asPath
            )
            wsimport(keep: true,
                    destdir: sourceSets.main.output.classesDir,
                    sourcedestdir: destDir,
                    extension: "true",
                    verbose: "false",
                    quiet: "false",
                    package: "com.abc.test",
                    xnocompile: "true",
                    wsdl: '${projectDir}/src/main/resources/wsdls/wsdl_1.0.0.wsdl') {
                xjcarg(value: "-XautoNameResolution")
            }
        }
    }
}

compileJava {
    dependsOn wsimport
    source wsimport.destDir
}
bootJar {
    baseName = 'API'
    version = '1.0'

}

Now here is the error I am getting when I try to build project using command line.

C:\DEV\workspace\API>gradlew clean build --stacktrace

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file 'C:\DEV\workspace\API\build.gradle' line: 14

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'API'.
> Could not find method jaxws() for arguments [com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4] on object of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler.

Taking reference from this code; https://gist.github.com/ae6rt/8883335

Solution

configurations {
    jaxws
}

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        jaxws 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4'
    }
}

The configuration jaxws is not applicable for build script dependencies. First, it is placed outside of the buildscript configuration and thus not visible. Second, build script dependencies allow for classpath configuration only (External dependencies for the build script). Removing jaxws 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4' from the build script dependencies fixes issue

Could not find method jaxws() for arguments [...]

Next issue is that you define the jax-ws dependency as

compile 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4'

and try to reference it as

taskdef(name: 'wsimport',
        classname: 'com.sun.tools.ws.ant.WsImport',
        classpath: configurations.jaxws.asPath)
                                  ^^^^^

The jaxws configuration has no dependencies defined so far, thus the path is empty. Changing the dependency in question to

jaxws 'com.sun.xml.ws:jaxws-tools:2.1.4'

is likely to resolve this issue for you.

Update

Since Gradle replaced File classesDir with FileCollection classesDirs, as per your comment you're now receiving error

No signature of method: org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DefaultConfigurableFileCollection.mkdirs() is applicable for argument types: () values: [] Possible solutions: min(), tails(), first(), inits(), minus(org.gradle.api.file.FileCollection), min(java.util.Comparator)

on line

sourceSets.main.output.classesDirs.mkdirs()

If you've got only 1 classes output dir, a workaround would be to use

sourceSets.main.output.classesDirs.singleFile.mkdirs()

(from: FileCollection.getSingleFile())