[Feature] Add Gradle Convention Plugin 🎉

[LloydBlv]

Overview

This PR introduces the Gradle Convention Plugin to the Picsum project, aiming to standardize and simplify the Gradle build configuration across the project. The plugin encapsulates common Gradle configurations and conventions, making the build scripts cleaner, more maintainable, and easier to understand.

Changes

• Gradle Convention Plugin Integration: Implemented the custom Gradle convention plugin that defines project-wide Gradle settings and dependencies.
• Build Script Updates: Refactored the existing build scripts to adopt the new conventions and configurations defined by the plugin. This includes updates to dependency management, task configurations, and other build-related settings.

Impact

• Build Configuration Standardization: Ensures consistency across build scripts, making it easier for new contributors to understand the project structure and contribute.
• Improved Maintainability: Centralizes the Gradle configurations, reducing duplication and potential discrepancies across modules.
• Simplified Build Scripts: By abstracting common configurations into the plugin, build scripts are now more concise and focused on module-specific settings.

Testing

• Conducted thorough testing to ensure that all existing functionality remains unaffected by these changes. This includes running all unit tests, integration tests, and manual testing of the build process.
• Verified that the project builds successfully with the integrated convention plugin and that all configurations are applied as expected.

How to Test

• Checkout this branch.
• Run ./gradlew build to ensure that the project builds successfully.
• Optionally, run any specific tests or commands to verify the changes in your development environment.

Additional Notes

• This is a step towards improving our build system and development process. Feedback and suggestions on the convention plugin are welcome.