Migrate to Gradle version catalog and convention plugins

Gradle always has been hard to grasp because of multiple ways to do the same thing. With the project scaling and requirements increasing it is crucial to scale our build logic and support developers across the teams. This talk will cover how to migrate to Gradle centralized version catalogs and share some of the build logic as convention plugins. This method is adopted by AndroidX project, Now In Android, and many more.

Transcript

1. Migrate to Gradle version catalog and convention plugins Merab Tato Kutalia Android GDE @TatoKutalia
2. 🗿 Stone Age - Groovy • Easy setup • Tons of examples Pros
3. 🗿 Stone Age - Groovy • Easy setup • Tons of examples • No type-safety • Manual version management • “ext” blocks (no code completion) Pros / Cons
4. “ext” block classic dependency management
5. 🏰 Medieval Age- buildSrc • Code completion • IDE support (navigation) • Type-safety Pros
6. 🏰 Medieval Age- buildSrc • Code completion • IDE support (navigation) • Type-safety • Non-trivial setup • Frequent cache loss (version update clears the cache) • Android Studio dependency update Pros / Cons
7. buildSrc Typical module structure
8. 🚀 Modern Age - Version Catalog Pros • Type safety • Standard for libraries and plugins • 1 line implementation via bundles • No cache loss • Auto dependency updates • Best practices and easy to setup • Publish 🤯
9. 🚀 Modern Age - Version Catalog • Type safety • Standard for libraries and plugins • 1 line implementation via bundles • No cache loss • Auto dependency updates • Best practices and easy to setup • Publish 🤯 • Android Studio support 🫠 ➡ ☀ Pros / Cons
10. 📜 lib.versions.toml [versions] is used to declare the version numbers that will be referenced later by plugins and libraries. [libraries] Define the libraries [bundles] Are used to define a set of dependencies [plugins] Are used to define plugin
11. 󰠼 Assemble
12. 1. create lib.versions.toml root gradle folder
15. 2. create Gradle plugin configure build.gradle.kts and settings.gradle.kts
17. 3. add plugin to root settings.gradle - Composite Build
19. 4. Enable feature stable in Gradle 7.4 not required when using 7.4+
21. Usage
22. Usage
23. 🚦 Limitations • Not supported in precompiled scripts - use type-unsafe api • IDE support? 🚀
24. ☣ Type-Unsafe API
25. 🪛 Tools - Renovate https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate
26. 🪛 Tools - refreshVersions https://github.com/jmfayard/refreshVersions
27. Q&A
28. Proprietary + Confidential 🫠 Android Studio
29. 🏗 Convention Plugins • Convention over configuration • Standard API by Gradle • Share build logic • Composable • Type-unsafe API for version catalogs 😭
30. 🦾 Assemble
31. 1. reuse/create Gradle plugin configure build.gradle.kts and settings.gradle.kts
33. 2. Code
34. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { } } }
35. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { with(pluginManager) { apply("com.android.application") apply("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") } } } }
36. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { with(pluginManager) { apply("com.android.application") apply("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") } extensions.configure<BaseAppModuleExtension> { } } } }
37. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { with(pluginManager) { apply("com.android.application") apply("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") } extensions.configure<BaseAppModuleExtension> { compileSdk = 33 } } } }
38. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { with(pluginManager) { apply("com.android.application") apply("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") } extensions.configure<BaseAppModuleExtension> { compileSdk = 33 defaultConfig.apply { targetSdk = 33 minSdk = 26 applicationId = "me.tatocaster.gradleversioncatalogexample" versionCode = 1 versionName = "1.0" } } } } }
39. class AndroidApplicationConventionPlugin : Plugin<Project> { override fun apply(target: Project) { with(target) { with(pluginManager) { apply("com.android.application") apply("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") } extensions.configure<BaseAppModuleExtension> { compileSdk = 33 defaultConfig.apply { targetSdk = 33 minSdk = 26 applicationId = "me.tatocaster.gradleversioncatalogexample" versionCode = 1 versionName = "1.0" } compileOptions { sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11 targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11 } } } } }
40. 🧩 Result
41. 🧩 Composable
43. 🔎 Explore “Now in Android” https://github.com/android/nowinandroid
44. 🧱 Resources • Now In Android - https://github.com/android/nowinandroid • Convention plugins - https://docs.gradle.org/current/samples/sample_convention_plugins.html • Version Update plugin - https://github.com/littlerobots/version-catalog-update-plugin
45. Q&A