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Android Plugin for Gradle Release Notes

The Android build system uses the Android Plugin for Gradle to support building Android applications with the Gradle build toolkit. The plugin runs independent of Android Studio so the plugin and the Gradle build system can be updated independently of Android Studio.

Note: When you update Android Studio or open a project in a previous version of Android Studio, Android Studio prompts you to automatically update the plugin and Gradle to the latest available versions. You can choose to accept these updates based on your project's build requirements.

Revisions

The sections below provide notes about successive releases of the Android Plugin for Gradle, as denoted by revision number. To determine what revision of the plugin you are using, check the version declaration in the project-level build.gradle file.

For a summary of known issues in Android Plugin for Gradle, see http://tools.android.com/knownissues.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.2.0 (April 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.
  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Enhanced support for running unit tests with Gradle.
    • Added support to include Java-style resources in the classpath when running unit tests directly from Gradle.
    • Added unit test dependency support for Android ARchive (AAR) artifacts.
    • Added support for the unitTestVariants property so unit test variants can be manipulated using the build.gradle file.
    • Added the unitTest.all code block under testOptions to configure customized tasks for unit test. The following sample code shows how to add unit test configuration settings using this new option: 
      android {
  testOptions {
    unitTest.all {
      jvmArgs '-XX:MaxPermSize=256m' // Or any other gradle option.
    }
  }
}
    • Fixed the handling of enums and public instance fields in the packaging of the mockable-android.jar file.
    • Fixed library project task dependencies so test classes recompile after changes.
  • Added the testProguardFile property to apply ProGuard files when minifying a test APK.
  • Added the timeOut property to the adbOptions code block for setting the maximum recording time for Android Debug Bridge screen recording.
  • Added support for 280 dpi resources.
  • Improved performance during project evaluation.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.1.3 (March 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.
  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Fixed issue with duplicated dependencies on a test app that triggered a ProGuard failure.
  • Fixed Comparator implementation which did not comply with the JDK Comparator contract and generated a JDK 7 error.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.1.2 (February 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.
  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Normalized path when creating a mockable JAR for unit testing.
  • Fixed the archivesBaseName setting in the build.gradle file.
  • Fixed the unresolved placeholder failure in manifest merger when building a library test application.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.1.1 (February 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.
  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Modified build variants so only variants that package a Wear app trigger Wear-specific build tasks.
  • Changed dependency related issues to fail at build time rather than at debug time. This behavior allows you to run diagnostic diagnostic tasks (such as 'dependencies') to help resolve the conflict.
  • Fixed the android.getBootClasspath() method to return a value.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.1.0 (February 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.
  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Added new unit test support
    • Enabled unit tests to run on the local JVM against a special version of the android.jar file that is compatible with popular mocking frameworks, for example Mockito.
    • Added new test tasks testDebug, testRelease, and testMyFlavorDebug when using product flavors.
    • Added new source folders recognized as unit tests: src/test/java/, src/testDebug/java/, src/testMyFlavor/java/.
    • Added new configurations in the build.gradle file for declaring test-only dependencies, for example, testCompile 'junit:junit:4.11', testMyFlavorCompile 'some:library:1.0'.

      Note: Test-only dependencies are not currently compatible with Jack (Java Android Compiler Kit).

    • Added the android.testOptions.unitTests.returnDefaultValues option to control the behaviour of the mockable android.jar.
  • Replaced Test in test task names with AndroidTest. For example, the assembleDebugTest task is now assembleDebugAndroidTest task. Unit test tasks still have UnitTest in the task name, for example assembleDebugUnitTest.
  • Modified ProGuard configuration files to no longer apply to the test APK. If minification is enabled, ProGuard processes the test APK and applies only the mapping file that is generated when minifying the main APK.
  • Updated dependency management
    • Fixed issues using provided and package scopes.

      Note: These scopes are incompatible with AAR (Android ARchive) packages and will cause a build with AAR packages to fail.

    • Modified dependency resolution to compare the dependencies of an app under test and the test app. If an artifact with the same version is found for both apps, it's not included with the test app and is packaged only with the app under test. If an artifact with a different version is found for both apps, the build fails.
  • Added support for anyDpi resource qualifier in resource merger.
  • Improved evaluation and IDE sync speeds for projects with a large number of Android modules.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.0.1 (January 2015)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 up to 2.3.x.

    Note: This version of the Android Plugin for Gradle is not compatible with Gradle 2.4 and higher.

  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Fixed issue with Gradle build failure when accessing the extractReleaseAnnotations module. (Issue 81638).
  • Fixed issue with Disable passing the --no-optimize setting to the Dalvik Executable (dex) bytecode. (Issue 82662).
  • Fixed manifest merger issues when importing libraries with a targetSdkVersion less than 16.
  • Fixed density ordering issue when using Android Studio with JDK 8.

Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.0.0 (December 2014)

Dependencies:
  • Gradle 2.2.1 up to 2.3.x.

    Note: This version of the Android Plugin for Gradle is not compatible with Gradle 2.4 and higher.

  • Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.
General Notes:
  • Initial plugin release.

Updating the Android Plugin for Gradle Version

The Android Plugin for Gradle version is specified in the File > Project Structure menu or the project-level build.gradle file. The plugin version applies to all modules built in that Android Studio project. This example updates the Android Plugin for Gradle to version 1.1.0: 

...
     dependencies {
         classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.1.0'
     }
...

Caution: You should not use dynamic dependencies (+) in version numbers. Using this feature can cause unexpected version updates and difficulty resolving version differences.

If you're building with Gradle but using not Android Studio, the build process downloads the latest Android Plugin for Gradle plugin when it runs.

Updating the Gradle Version

Android Studio requires Gradle version 2.2.1 or later. To view and update the Gradle version, edit the Gradle distribution reference in the gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties file. This example shows the Android Plugin for Gradle version set to 2.2.1.

...
distributionUrl=http\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.2.1-all.zip
...

For more details about the supported Android Plugin for Gradle properties and syntax, click the link to the Plugin Language Reference.

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