Transitive dependencies not resolved for aar library using gradle

Question

I have investigated a while and probably saw most popular answers here related to aar and transitive dependencies but somehow it is still not clear for me how to make this working.

So:

I have android library with given gradle config:

apply plugin: 'android-library'
apply plugin: 'android-maven'

version = "1.0.0"
group = "com.somepackage"

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        mavenLocal()
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.github.dcendents:android-maven-plugin:1.0'
    }
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 19
    buildToolsVersion '19.0.3'

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 10
    }
}

repositories {
    maven { url 'http://www.bugsense.com/gradle/' }
}

dependencies {
    provided 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:+'
    provided 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:+'
    compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.2.4'
    compile 'com.bugsense.trace:bugsense:3.6'
    compile 'commons-net:commons-net:3.3'
}

Then I am deploying it to local maven repo with gradle install. POM file of the deployed library looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.sprezzat</groupId>
  <artifactId>app</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <packaging>aar</packaging>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.bugsense.trace</groupId>
      <artifactId>bugsense</artifactId>
      <version>3.6</version>
      <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
      <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
      <version>3.3</version>
      <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
      <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
      <version>2.2.4</version>
      <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

And finally gradle config of my android application using above library as a dependency:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.9.+'
    }
}
apply plugin: 'android'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    mavenLocal()
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 15
    buildToolsVersion "19.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 10
        targetSdkVersion 18
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:+'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:+'
    compile 'com.somepackage:LIBRARY_NAME:1.0.0@aar'
}

And after deploying application on phone I am getting NoClassDefFoundError for classes belonging to compile dependencies of my android library.

Inspecting my android application dependencies using gradle dependencies:

apk - Classpath packaged with the compiled main classes.
+--- com.google.android.gms:play-services:+ -> 4.3.23
|    \--- com.android.support:support-v4:19.0.1 -> 19.1.0
+--- com.android.support:appcompat-v7:+ -> 19.1.0
|    \--- com.android.support:support-v4:19.1.0
\--- com.somepackage:LIBRARY_NAME:1.0.0

According to above tree, all transitive dependencies are not detected. Where is the problem and how should it be done correctly?

Solution 1

I have solved my problem by setting transitive attribute for my aar dependency:

compile ('com.somepackage:LIBRARY_NAME:1.0.0@aar'){
    transitive=true
}

Solution 2

you should not use "@aar", if use "@" is become "Artifact only notation", if you want to use "@" and want have dependence transitive, you should add "transitive=true"

Solution 3

Try this if you are using aar locally:

compile(project(:your-library-name)) {
    transitive=true
}

Solution 4

I was having a similar problem and felt I could share the steps of solving the problem.

The basic idea of not being able to use the transitive dependencies while you are publishing your own aar is actually not having the .pom file generated with the expected transitive dependencies.

I was using 'maven-publish' plugin for my android aar dependency to publish it in my own private maven repository. The transitive dependencies were not resolved when my other projects were adding my aar dependency in their build.gradle. Hence here what I did to modify the .pom file while publishing my aar.

An important thing to note here that, the dependencies which you want to have the transitive behavior should be imported using the api in your library project's build.gradle file like the following.

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    api 'com.android.volley:volley:1.0.0'
    api "com.google.code.gson:gson:$globalGsonVersion"
}

Now as I said earlier, I was using maven-publish plugin to publish the aar dependency and hence my publishing task in the gradle looks like the following.

publishing {
    publications {
        mavenAar(MavenPublication) {
            from components.android
        }

        mavenJava(MavenPublication) {
            pom.withXml {
                def dependenciesNode = asNode().appendNode('dependencies')
                // Iterate over the api dependencies (we don't want the test ones), adding a <dependency> node for each
                configurations.api.allDependencies.each {
                    def dependencyNode = dependenciesNode.appendNode('dependency')
                    dependencyNode.appendNode('groupId', it.group)
                    dependencyNode.appendNode('artifactId', it.name)
                    dependencyNode.appendNode('version', it.version)
                }
            }
        }
    }

    repositories {
        maven {
            // Your repository information goes here
        }
    }
}

Hence, I used another mavenJava task to publish the .pom file in my private maven repo so that when the aar file is added as a dependency to some other module, it gets the .pom information and download the transitive dependency.

To complete the answer, this is how you should add the dependency in the build.gradle file for your own published aar to me imported.

api('com.example.masudias:my_lib:1.0.0@aar') {
    transitive = true
}

Solution 5

Transitive dependency

transitive means that the consumer(e.g. app) includes a producer and all producer's dependencies(e.g. libraries). It increase build time and can create some issues with dependency versions

By default, Gradle dependency has transitive = true

api ('com.package:library:0.0.1')
//the same
api ('com.package:library:0.0.1') {
    transitive = true
}

When you use @artifact notation it has transitive = false

api ('com.package:library:0.0.1@aar')
//the same
api ('com.package:library:0.0.1@aar') {
    transitive = false
}

View more solutions

Comments

[cwc]

@PeterNiederwieser Omitting the @aar causes Gradle to attempt to grab the artifact as a .jar file. This kills the build.

[tasomaniac]

It did not worked for me. I have the exact problem. I have 2 libraries and one of them is using the other. compile project(':LeafPeripheralsContract') { transitive=true } did not work. It complained about transitive. And I created an aar and tried to add transitive to it. It did not complain but it did not include it in the other aar package as well.

[lostintranslation]

Did not work for me either. I have a classifier in the dependency as well. Wondering if that is the problem. Using Android Studio RC1 with gradle build tools 0.14.4.

[lostintranslation]

Yup, if you are using classifiers, doesn't seem like transitive deps work. Look here: code.google.com/p/android/issues/…

[Jeffrey Blattman]

if you have both .jar and .aar artifacts, this is the only solution to use the @aar and include transitives.

[srain]

This answer is helpful. There was a typo in my previous comment and I deleted that one. Thanks for your answer, have a good day :).

[Manish]

Hi, its not working for me. I have created one library project which internally uses volley library. I have included aar file created using library project in my application. I am getting "Error:(8, 26) error: package com.android.volley does not exist" error. In my library project, I have included volley using compile(project(':volley')){ transitive = true }

[Jalpesh]

Hey Manish, Facing the same issue, did you find any solution?

[Alejandro Rangel]

I'm stuck with the same problem

[FloG]

Are you including the aar as flatDir? If so, I would refer you to the following comment: stackoverflow.com/questions/25698160/…

[skyshine]

where should i place pom file in android application

[Sergey Dryganets]

In case you are using flavors for your aar you need to workaround this issue as well: github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/1487

[Micha]

That worked, thanks! Not sure why adding the transitive dependencies to the POM isn't default behaviour though.

[Nikhil Kumar]

Nice one! Just to add a point here. When the dependencies are added as api, the scope of the dependency within the pom file is compile. But if the dependencies are added as implementation, the scope becomes runtime in the pom file.

[Reaz Murshed]

Thank you for these addition @NikhilKumar. Appreciate it!

[Bill Mote]

An important thing to note here that, the dependencies which you want to have the transitive behavior should be imported using the api in your library project's build.gradle file like the following. OMG, thank you.