This is a Yeoman generator that scaffolds out an API service backed by Java 8 and Dropwizard, using Gradle as a build system and for dependency manager.
Install Yeoman via npm:
$ npm install -g yo
Once you've got Yeoman set up, install this generator:
$ npm install -g generator-dropwizard-gradle
Create the directory in which your new project will live, then call Yeoman to scaffold out your project:
$ mkdir awesome
$ cd awesome
$ yo dropwizard-gradle
Answer a couple of easy questions, and you'll be greeted with a ready-to-rock project. Open the directory up in your Java IDE of choice (I like IDEA), import the project as a Gradle project, and you're good to go.
You can start your server for testing like so:
./gradlew run
This will start the server with the configuration file at:
<project>-distribution/src/dev/var/conf/server.yml
And the keystore / truststores at:
<project>-distribution/src/standard/var/conf
Wow, that was fast! Once you're ready to deploy, run:
$ ./gradlew distZip
from the root of the project, and you'll receive a handy deployable .zip with all of your Java dependencies and runtime configuration:
$ ls awesome-distribution/build/distributions/
$ awesome-distribution-0.0.0.zip
Use git flow and you'll get automatically-sane version tags on your deployable artefacts, too. Ship that .zip onto your server, unzip it, and start your service as you would any Dropwizard server:
$ unzip awesome-distribution-0.0.0.zip
$ cd awesome-distribution-0.0.0
$ ./bin/awesome-distribution server var/conf/server.yml
Hit up your server in a browser (http://localhost:8000/ by default), and you should see your shiny new application, live and ready to go.