Calling Ivy from Groovy or Java

Copyimport org.apache.ivy.Ivy
import org.apache.ivy.core.module.descriptor.DefaultDependencyDescriptor
import org.apache.ivy.core.module.descriptor.DefaultModuleDescriptor
import org.apache.ivy.core.module.id.ModuleRevisionId
import org.apache.ivy.core.resolve.ResolveOptions
import org.apache.ivy.core.settings.IvySettings
import org.apache.ivy.plugins.resolver.URLResolver
import org.apache.ivy.core.report.ResolveReport
import org.apache.ivy.plugins.parser.xml.XmlModuleDescriptorWriter


public File resolveArtifact(String groupId, String artifactId, String version) {
        //creates clear ivy settings
        IvySettings ivySettings = new IvySettings();
        //url resolver for configuration of maven repo
        URLResolver resolver = new URLResolver();
        resolver.setM2compatible(true);
        resolver.setName('central');
        //you can specify the url resolution pattern strategy
        resolver.addArtifactPattern(
            'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/[organisation]/[module]/[revision]/[artifact](-[revision]).[ext]');
        //adding maven repo resolver
        ivySettings.addResolver(resolver);
        //set to the default resolver
        ivySettings.setDefaultResolver(resolver.getName());
        //creates an Ivy instance with settings
        Ivy ivy = Ivy.newInstance(ivySettings);

        File ivyfile = File.createTempFile('ivy', '.xml');
        ivyfile.deleteOnExit();

        String[] dep = [groupId, artifactId, version]

        DefaultModuleDescriptor md =
                DefaultModuleDescriptor.newDefaultInstance(ModuleRevisionId.newInstance(dep[0],
                dep[1] + '-caller', 'working'));

        DefaultDependencyDescriptor dd = new DefaultDependencyDescriptor(md,
                ModuleRevisionId.newInstance(dep[0], dep[1], dep[2]), false, false, true);
        md.addDependency(dd);

        //creates an ivy configuration file
        XmlModuleDescriptorWriter.write(md, ivyfile);

        String[] confs = ['default'];
        ResolveOptions resolveOptions = new ResolveOptions().setConfs(confs);

        //init resolve report
        ResolveReport report = ivy.resolve(ivyfile.toURL(), resolveOptions);

        //so you can get the jar library
        File jarArtifactFile = report.getAllArtifactsReports()[0].getLocalFile();

        return jarArtifactFile;
}

resolveArtifact( 'log4j', 'log4j', '1.2.16' )