how to download external files in gradle?

Question

I have a gradle project which requires some data files available somewhere on the internet using http. The goal is that this immutable remote file is pulled once upon first

Answer 1

Kotlin Version of @Benjamin's Answer

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath("com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.0.1")
    }
}

tasks.register("downloadPdf"){
    val path = "myfile.pdf"
    val sourceUrl = "https://file-examples-com.github.io/uploads/2017/10/file-sample_150kB.pdf"
    download(sourceUrl,path)
}

fun download(url : String, path : String){
    val destFile = File(path)
    ant.invokeMethod("get", mapOf("src" to url, "dest" to destFile))
}