Please add chaquopy support to be built into a library module (AAR)

[gecsbernat]

I am trying to use chaquopy https://chaquo.com/chaquopy/ android plugin for developing an android app that uses python script for some serious calculations, and I would like to make the app module as an android library (.AAR) to be able to reuse that in other project. (.eg ionic app).

[audvi]

Yes, that would be a really nice feature. I would need it too.

[mhsmith]

If anyone else would like this feature, please subscribe to this issue and add a thumbs-up above.

[im-ranu]

I need too

[SNVID]

Agree - would be a great feature!

[VicentIborra]

I need to use chaquopy plugin from an android library too.

[ghost]

This feature is great

[VicentIborra]

Hi, we need to use Python in an app module (com.android.library). It's possible to install ChaquoPy in a module with 7.0.2 version? Thanks!

[mhsmith]

Currently Chaquopy can only be used in a top-level app, not in an AAR.

[VicentIborra]

We need this feature for our project. It's scheduled to develop this function in Chaquopy?

[mhsmith]

Can you give some details of your development workflow, and explain why you want to use Chaquopy in an AAR rather than directly in the top-level app?

[mhsmith]

@audvi @im-ranu @SNVID @TheForgetTime: Can you answer the question above? I'd like to understand why people need this feature.

[audvi]

Hello, We have an application that is chunked into modules. Some modules are generic and reused in different applications. The module that should use chaquopy is an implementation of the generic module. To use chaquopy I had to destroy the complete architecture of the application and put back the modules into the top level app. Now, the generic modules are dependant of the top level app to work which is an ugly implementation. Audrey VIDAL

[VicentIborra]

Hi Malcolm,
We are developing a module for a project. This project is an Android app, but our module is only an optional part of this project. We need allow people of another University to work with the app without this module. We can't force people to install ChaquoPy, dependencies, Python libraries... They only need these features if they decide to install our module, so we need install Python from the module, not from the app.

[SNVID]

Hi @mhsmith ,

I gave a thumbs up for this feature because my company has a Xamarin application that could make use of a separate python application we have.

Xamarin cannot directly use Android code, however it can bind Android libraries for use.

BTW The native Android application we tested Chaquopy with worked wonderfully well as a top level app!

[mhsmith]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm thinking of adding support for a single Chaquopy-based AAR per app. So your options would be either:

• Build Chaquopy into the top-level app, but not any AAR; or
• Build Chaquopy into exactly one AAR, but not the top-level app. The top-level app would still be able to use the Chaquopy API to access the AAR's Python code, but it wouldn't be able to contain any Python code of its own.

Would this solve your use cases?

[VicentIborra]

Thanks Malcolm,
Could I build Chaquopy in the AAR and run Python scripts from this AAR? In this case, settings will be in gradle files of the module, right? Do I need some configuration in app level files?

[mhsmith]

All the Python settings would be in the library module's build.gradle file. The only change required to the app-level build.gradle file would be to add the library as a dependency.

[VicentIborra]

Thanks, I tested and I received this error (with ChaquoPy 6.3.0):

groovy.lang.MissingPropertyException: Could not get unknown property 'applicationVariants' for object of type com.android.build.gradle.LibraryExtension.
	at org.gradle.internal.metaobject.AbstractDynamicObject.getMissingProperty(AbstractDynamicObject.java:87)
	at org.gradle.internal.metaobject.AbstractDynamicObject.getProperty(AbstractDynamicObject.java:61)
	at com.android.build.gradle.LibraryExtension_Decorated.getProperty(Unknown Source)
	at com.chaquo.python.PythonPlugin.afterEvaluate(PythonPlugin.groovy:182)
	at com.chaquo.python.PythonPlugin$_apply_closure2.doCall(PythonPlugin.groovy:54)

[mhsmith]

Yes, it won't work in the current version, I was talking about a plan for the next version.

[bdovaz]

Yes, please. I'm also developing an Android app in Xamarin that need to use this library to run some python code.

[aditmodhvadia]

This would be a very useful feature. As it provides separation of concern and independence in development flow.

[mhsmith]

This issue is fixed in Chaquopy 8.0.0. To upgrade, open your app's top-level build.gradle file and change the version number of com.chaquo.python:gradle.

As mentioned above, Chaquopy can still only be used in one module in a project: either in the app module, or in exactly one library module. Attempting to use it in multiple modules will give the error “More than one file was found with OS independent path”.

[vidheyoza]

Hi,

Thank you for the new release!

We use JitPack to easily sync up our library modules to the main app. I added a new release for the library and went to JitPack to import as dependency, but it is showing this error log:

A problem occurred starting process 'command 'python3''. Please set buildPython to your Python executable path. See https://chaquo.com/chaquopy/doc/current/android.html#buildpython.

Also, I'm getting this error while trying to add the dependency:

Failed to resolve: com.github.organization:app-python-library:v0.0.1

Are these issues connected? And how do I resolve them? I've passed the right dependencies for JitPack as well as Chaquopy.

[mhsmith]

If you're using a service to build a Chaquopy-based module, then that service will need to have Python available. The only way to avoid this is if your module doesn't use any feature which runs Python at build time: specifically, the features in these sections of the documentation:

• Requirements
• Bytecode compilation
• Static proxy generator

[vidheyoza]

Okay, so the alternative would be to update the package manually on the main app whenever I make changes on the AAR right?

[mhsmith]

I think your options are:

• Arrange for Python to be available on the JitPack server, if possible; or
• Build the AAR yourself rather than using JitPack.