Receiving a build error when upgrading to gradle 3.3 and android build tools 2.3.0

Question

I just updated my build files

Gradle from 2.14.1 to 3.3 Android Plugin from 2.2.3 to 2.3.0

I am receiving the following error. Seems like some thirdparty plugin issue. Can anyone shed light to it? I cant find anything in change logs related to this change.

A problem occurred configuring project ':apis'.

Failed to notify project evaluation listener.

The "android" command is no longer included in the SDK. Any references to it (e.g. by third-party plugins) should be removed.

The build file in which error is thrown looks something like this

apply plugin: 'android-sdk-manager'
apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
apply plugin: 'android-apt'

android {
  compileSdkVersion Integer.parseInt(ANDROID_SDK_VERSION)
  buildToolsVersion ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION

  // Legacy apache network stack
  useLibrary 'org.apache.http.legacy'

  defaultConfig {
    minSdkVersion Integer.parseInt(ANDROID_MIN_SDK_VERSION)
    targetSdkVersion Integer.parseInt(ANDROID_SDK_VERSION)
    consumerProguardFiles 'proguard-rules.pro'
  }

  compileOptions {
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_7
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_7
  }

  packagingOptions {
    exclude 'LICENSE.txt'
    exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
    exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
    exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
  }

  lintOptions {
    abortOnError false
  }
}

...

Answer 1

android-apt has been deprecated and, as per the migration guide:

As of the Android Gradle plugin version 2.2, all functionality that was previously provided by android-apt is now available in the Android plugin.

You can remove android-apt and follow the migration guide to get the equivalent functionality.

Similarly, as per the sdk-manager-plugin page:

This plugin is deprecated and is no longer being developed. Tools and dependencies are automatically downloaded using version 2.2.0 of the Android Gradle plugin or newer.

So it too can be removed.

Answer 2

Want to summarize what it take for us to upgrade:

1. Upgrade to gradle 3.3 and android build tools 2.3.0

   -classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.3'
   +classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.0'
   

   and

   -distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.14.1-all.zip
   +distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-all.zip
   

   These should be done by Android Studio automatically when you upgrade.

2. Remove android-apt and sdk-manager-plugin as suggested by @ian

   -classpath 'com.neenbedankt.gradle.plugins:android-apt:1.8'
   

   and

   -apply plugin: 'android-sdk-manager'
   -apply plugin: 'com.neenbedankt.android-apt'
   

   These plugins are deprecated and no longer needed in newer version of gradle.

3. Change the build tool version number in the app/build.gradle file:

   -  buildToolsVersion "23.0.3"
   +  buildToolsVersion '25.0.0'
   

4. Search for all apt in the gradle file and replace with annotationProcessor. As an example, we are using AutoValue and Parceler and we'll have to do these:

   -  apt "com.ryanharter.auto.value:auto-value-gson:$autoValueGsonVersion"
   +  annotationProcessor "com.ryanharter.auto.value:auto-value-gson:$autoValueGsonVersion"
   

   and

   -  apt "org.parceler:parceler:$parcelerVersion"
   +  annotationProcessor "org.parceler:parceler:$parcelerVersion"
   

5. Finally, which is also important, clean and rebuild.