Gradle 3.0.0 alpha variant output issue

Question

I want to have a different versionCode for debug build type rather than the one in release build type. This used to work by using the configuration from below in Gradle Android plugin v2.3.2 (Gradle v3.3), but doesn't have any effect now in v3.0.0-alpha5 (Gradle v4.1-milestone-1). Any ideas as to what changed in the newest Gradle plugin that makes it ignore the variant.mergedFlavor.versionCode attribute?

buildTypes {    
      debug {
                applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
                versionNameSuffix "-" + buildTime()
                android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
                    if (variant.buildType.name != buildTypes.debug.name) return
                    variant.outputs.all {
                        outputFileName = "${archivesBaseName}-${variant.name}-v${variant.versionName}-signed.apk"
                        variant.mergedFlavor.versionCode = Integer.parseInt(buildTimeSmall())
                    }
                }
            }
}

Answer 1

As a workaround before the 3.0 release, if anybody is looking for a solution, you can use:

output.setVersionCodeOverride(Integer.parseInt(buildTimeSmall()))

Thanks to Jerome, reference: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/63785806#comment6

Answer 2

From migration guide:

Using the Variant API to manipulate variant outputs is broken with the new plugin. It still works for simple tasks, such as changing the APK name during build time, as shown below:

// If you use each() to iterate through the variant objects,
// you need to start using all(). That's because each() iterates
// through only the objects that already exist during configuration time—
// but those object don't exist at configuration time with the new model.
// However, all() adapts to the new model by picking up object as they are
// added during execution.
android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
    variant.outputs.all {
        outputFileName = "${variant.name}-${variant.versionName}.apk"
    }
}

However, more complicated tasks that involve accessing outputFile objects no longer work. That's because variant-specific tasks are no longer created during the configuration stage. This results in the plugin not knowing all of its outputs up front, but it also means faster configuration times. As an alternative, we will introduce new APIs to provide similar functionality.