New Android App Bundle

[thelittlefireman]

Hi,
Do you plan to integrate the new "Android App Bundle" feature ?
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/05/io-2018-everything-new-in-google-play.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bViNOUeFuiQ

the new command is : 'gradlew app:bundle'
https://youtu.be/bViNOUeFuiQ?t=14m10s

Thanks for all
Thomas :)

[JakeWharton]

Seems like the API was updated to include them which is nice: https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/edits/bundles. Should be a fairly straightforward change. The only problem I see is determining the developer intent as to whether they want to publish an APK or a bundle.

[gtcompscientist]

I've been trying to enable this with the intent of having parallel tasks for APKs and Bundles. Unfortunately, I'm at an impasse that I can't resolve.
Getting the Bundle API you have to use:

• com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.2.0-alphaXX Currently alpha14, and
• com.google.apis:google-api-services-androidpublisher:v2-rev76-1.23.0

These build just fine for the plugin. However, when I try to reference that plugin in a project that is compatible with 1.2.1-beta1, I get the following error on Gradle Sync:
Unable to load class 'com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException'

https://github.com/gtcompscientist/gradle-play-publisher/tree/bundles

[gtcompscientist]

Update, with my latest push, I've got it properly trying to push the bundle (wasn't setting the right dependsOn), but:

• bundle for each variant isn't available the way that the assemble is
• Also, the outputs for the variant doesn't contain the bundle.

The first "but" is relatively trivial, but would cause the plugin to crash/fail Gradle sync for a project that doesn't use a version of Android Tools that includes the bundle tasks.

The second "but" is thornier, because you would end up hunting for that file, which is 😞...

[JakeWharton]

File a bug for each and link it here. I will escalate.

[gtcompscientist]

#79954442 Requesting bundle task being available in the ApplicationVariant

#79951839 Gradle BundleVariantOutput should be included in the ApplicationVariant -> Outputs

[gtcompscientist]

Was able to get the bundle (albeit somewhat surreptitiously) and attempt the upload.

From my logging it appears to properly upload all of the data (~35.6MB), but there's a timeout happening inside the upload().execute() command.

Relevant Code: PlayPublishBundleTask.groovy:Line 50
def bundle = edits.bundles().upload(variant.applicationId, editId, bundleFile).execute()
Stack trace:
stack_trace.txt

[SUPERCILEX]

Yeah, you'll want to go into the helper file and wrap the credential in an intercepter which boosts the timeouts. I was going to share my fork with everyone a few days ago, but I get a weird 404 everytime I try uploading. I've contacted support so we'll see how that goes.

[gtcompscientist]

🤦‍♂️ Great tip, @SUPERCILEX, definitely helped.

However, it appears there's another issue in the API with uploading secondary data:
#79951879 Unable to upload deobfuscation files through API after uploading bundle through API
#79951880 Unable to upload "What's New" text through API after uploading bundle through API

Digging into the API a little more, it looks like there may be a deeper change needed in how the plugin handles the "What's New" (See: Edit.tracks)

[JakeWharton]

Just a heads up that those two issues might be closed since they're problems with the Google Play Developer API and not Android Gradle itself. If they are I'll file them internally. I would also look for a place to report feedback directly to the Google Play Developer team on their website/documentation.

[SUPERCILEX]

Yeah, I used the question icon on the Play Console to file a support request. I'll update this issue whenever it gets resolved, but dunno if @gtcompscientist you want to file a request too anyway.

[gtcompscientist]

I'll submit one when I get back to my machine, I should have realized I needed to submit those there.

[bhurling]

@gtcompscientist looks like they released a v3 of their client library to support the new tracks/releases structure: com.google.apis:google-api-services-androidpublisher:v3-rev3-1.23.0 but it requires some refactoring of the publishing tasks. Wanna give it a shot?

[gtcompscientist]

@bhurling Yep. I'll dig in today, if I have time. Definitely changes a fair amount!

[gtcompscientist]

Thinking more about this, I don't think we should add a task for this, you're either uploading Bundles or APKs, so it should probably be a configuration flag. This, of course, assumes that some of the previously mentioned issues are corrected anytime soon.

[knordbo]

Any estimate on when this will be available from the snapshot release? Would be awesome to try out.

[SUPERCILEX]

@knordbo I'll see if we can get this in a snapshot build tomorrow. (The code is there, it's just waiting to be reviewed)

[knordbo]

@SUPERCILEX cheers!

[hardysim]

So it's done? Great 👍

Which version / snapshot do I need? And how do I enable it to output an App Bundle instead of an APK?

[SUPERCILEX]

There are a new set of tasks:

• publishBundle - publish all variants
• publishReleaseBundle - for specific variants

If you're using publish or publishRelease, you'll want to enable bundles:

play {
    // ...
    defaultToAppBundles = true
}

This is false by default because App Bundles require Google Play App Signing.

The snapshot build instructions are available here.

[peterfortuin]

I tested the snapshot build and I could upload my app bundle without any problems! Thanks for the awesome work!

[SUPERCILEX]

@peterfortuin Woot! v2.0 is going to be awesome! 😁

[hardysim]

2.0.0-SNAPSHOT seems broken 😢

Could not set unknown property 'pk12File' for object of type com.github.triplet.gradle.play.PlayPublisherExtension.

When switching to jsonFile I get a similar error.
Has someone tested this?

[knordbo]

Change jsonFile to serviceAccountCredentials

[hardysim]

Thx @knordbo - that's helping.

But now I'm running into the next error:

What went wrong:
A problem was found with the configuration of task ':app:publishReleaseBundle'.
Directory 'app\build\generated\gpp\release\res\release-notes' specified for property 'releaseNotesDir$plugin' does not exist.

Is there a readme / howto on how to migrate to 2.0.0? I've only found the CHANGELOG but there's nothing about the release-notes.

[knordbo]

I've reported that issue before @SUPERCILEX might know when the fix for it will be in. The workaround is to create the play folder with release notes inside.

[hardysim]

Hmm, I cannot find a corresponding issue for the release-notes folder (only #361 when the whole play-folder is missing).

I found out, that I needed to create the file src/main/play/release-notes/en-US/default. With that, the publishing works and an App Bundle is pushed to the store 🎉.

[knordbo]

Yup that is the workaround. Issue #361 is indeed the problem. It appears to be marked resolved, but as you point out the issue still remains.

[SUPERCILEX]

@hardysim @knordbo My apologies, you two were right. 😊 I had tested the release notes fix without running a clean so I had the folder left over. Anyway, #390 actually fixes the issue.

[hardysim]

Will there be a new release with this included (when)?