Gradle: How can I access files from one subproject in another subproject via configuration?

Question

I have a gradle build with many subprojects. One subproject generates a WAR and needs to include xhtml files from ui-module subprojects that will be included in the WAR. At the moment I search for the ui-modules programatically and copy the files. But I was wondering if I could solve it with a separate configuration.

I want to generate zip files with the xhtml files into the configuration uiModule as artifacts. Later the artifacts should be unzipped into the war. My build.gradle for the ui-modules looks like this

configurations {
  uiModule
}

task zipXhtmlFiles(type: Zip) {
  from 'xhtmlResources'
}

artifacts {
  uiModule zipXhtmlFiles
}

The war should access the xhtmlFiles like this

apply plugin: 'war'
dependencies {
  uiModule project('someUiModuleProject')
}

war {
  //unzipping will be done later
  from configurations.uiModule.allArtifacts
}

However, when I create the war, the zipXhtmlFiles is not executed and when I print the arifacts they don't contain the zip files. Can this be solved without writing an extra task class? Am I getting something wrong?