Update Android Gradle plugin to latest version and declare namespace about appcenter-sdk-android

[MikhailSuendukov]

Hi @fabiendem , thank you for reaching out to us, I will discuss this with the team and come back with news soon

[MikhailSuendukov]

Hi @fabiendem. I wanted to update you on our recent testing with the SDK. We've rigorously tested our SDK in applications using Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) version 8.x and found no issues. The SDK operated as expected, and AppCenter services started successfully without any problems.
Given these results, it's clear that it's not necessary to build the SDK with AGP 8.0 specifically, even though it has introduced changes to the declaration of namespaces in the Gradle file. Our SDK, which is currently built with AGP 4.2.2, continues to be fully compatible.
Based on these findings, there's no requirement for us to update our AGP at this time.
If you don't have any further concerns, I'll proceed to close this issue. If you have any other questions or if there's anything else you'd like us to investigate, please feel free to let us know. You're welcome to reopen this issue at any time.

[fabiendem]

Hi @MikhailSuendukov,
Thanks for the details. Could you please read below and reconsider?

The Android Gradle plugin 8 introduced this breaking change, which requires Android modules to declare a namespace: https://developer.android.com/build/releases/gradle-plugin#namespace-dsl
You must set a namespace in the AppCenter library for apps which use AGP 8+:

• https://developer.android.com/build/configure-app-module#set-namespace
• https://developer.android.com/build/publish-library/prep-lib-release#choose-namespace

Projects which are built with AGP 8+ will require modules to have the namespace set.

You may not need to bump the AGP version in your library, but the Android AppCenter SDK should at least declare a namespace to be compatible with apps built using AGP 8+.
Example in this repo (uses AGP 4.2.2 internally): https://github.com/zoontek/react-native-permissions/pull/782/files

If you want to be retro-compatible with older AGP version, you may be able to use this snippet: react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#671 (comment)

When you say:

We've rigorously tested our SDK in applications using Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) version 8.x and found no issues. The SDK operated as expected, and AppCenter services started successfully without any problems.

🤔 In this case why not upgrading? But I understand it may not be urgent

Thank you!

[MikhailSuendukov]

Thank you very much for your information, in this case, could you please clarify for me what consequences can lead to the fact that we will not have a namespace in our build file when connecting our current SDK to an application using AGP v8, as far as I understand, the use of this property is advisory? Because I tested it on the AGP v8 sample application and there were no problems when starting the services. Thank you in advance.

[fabiendem]

Thank you very much for your information, in this case, could you please clarify for me what consequences can lead to the fact that we will not have a namespace in our build file when connecting our current SDK to an application using AGP v8, as far as I understand, the use of this property is advisory? Because I tested it on the AGP v8 sample application and there were no problems when starting the services. Thank you in advance.

It is announced as a breaking change: https://developer.android.com/build/releases/gradle-plugin#namespace-dsl
But maybe Google's recommendation is incorrect. You should at least start to see warnings when you build your app with dependencies which are not declaring the namespace.

Breaking change: namespace required in module-level build script
You must set the namespace in the module-level build.gradle.kts file, rather than the manifest file. You can start using the namespace DSL property starting with AGP 7.3.

This whole thing has been triggered by this post: react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#671 (comment)

Even though we work on a React Native app, we're using AppCenter Android at the Android level.
I wouldn't be surprised if native Android project will ask you for the same.

[MikhailSuendukov]

Hmm. I am unable to reproduce either the error or the warning using our SDK with the application with AGP version v8.0.0. Could you please help me with repro?