chore(build): update to Gradle 8.12 and set CI to use JDK 17 (#308)

Upgraded the build system to Gradle 8.12 and updated the CI pipeline to use JDK 17 for improved compatibility and performance.

gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.10.1-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.12-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
 validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME