Unsupported Gradle DSL method found: 'compile()'!

Question

I\'m going through Google\'s documentation on \"Add Google Play Services to Your Project\" in Android Studio: https://developer.android.com/google/play-services/setup.html

Answer 1

Think of “Gradle DSL method” as a Java method. So in Gradle, methods can be distinguished by either {} or “.”. So

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
}

is the same as

dependencies.compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])

where both “dependencies” and “compile” are methods.

So you are including a method somewhere in your build.gradle file that is not supported by your program. For example, make your dependencies this:

dependencies {
    nothing 'this.does.nothing.build:gradle:0.7.+'
}

Which is the same as writing:

dependencies.nothing 'this.does.nothing.build:gradle:0.7.+'

And you will see an error saying “unsupported Gradle DSL method found: ‘nothing()’!” Obviously "nothing" is not a real method. I just made it up.

So one of your "compile" methods inside your build.gradle is wrong.