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?

Answer 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
}

Answer 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"

Answer 3

Try this if you are using aar locally:

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

Answer 4

Simply adding @aar at the end of the dependency is what worked for me.

dependencies {
    implementation 'org.videolan.vlc:libvlc:3.0.13@aar'
}

Answer 5

For me complete publishing solution looks like this:

apply plugin: 'com.github.dcendents.android-maven'

group = GROUP
version = VERSION

// you could move it to env variable or property
def publishFlavorless = true
def firstTask = null

android.libraryVariants.all { variant ->

    if (variant.name.toLowerCase().contains("debug")) {
        // Workaround for https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/1487
        if (publishFlavorless && firstTask == null) {
            def bundleTask = tasks["bundle${variant.name.capitalize()}Aar"]
            firstTask = bundleTask
            artifacts {
                archives(firstTask.archivePath) {
                    builtBy firstTask
                    name = project.name
                }
            }
        }
        return
    }

    def bundleTask = tasks["bundle${variant.name.capitalize()}Aar"]

    artifacts {
        archives(bundleTask.archivePath) {
            classifier variant.flavorName
            builtBy bundleTask
            name = project.name
        }
    }
}

install {
    repositories.mavenInstaller {
        // This generates POM.xml with proper parameters
        pom.project {
            name POM_NAME
            artifactId POM_ARTIFACT_ID
            // For aar it is equal to 'aar' with jar transitive dependencies won't work
            packaging POM_PACKAGING
            description POM_DESCRIPTION
        }
    }
}

The transitive = true block is required as well ...