feat(android): Enable AndroidX and use AndroidX dependencies

[priyankpat]

Fixes Issue #1937

[wf9a5m75]

Should be accepted ASAP.

[priyankpat]

It's planned for 2.0.0 Milestone but I noticed it being a roadblock for lots of devs including myself. Having said that, it might make or break some of the projects depending on the plugins installed (Mainly Cordova plugins). I'd suggest forking and installing @capacitor/android locally as a temporary measure until official release.

These are the Cordova plugins that I am currently using without any issue.

cordova-background-geolocation (3.2.2)
cordova-plugin-actionsheet (2.3.3)
cordova-plugin-background-fetch (5.6.1)
cordova-plugin-cocoalumberjack (0.0.4)
cordova-plugin-dialogs (2.0.2)
cordova-plugin-sim (1.3.3)
cordova-sqlite-storage (3.4.0)
cordova-support-google-services (1.3.1)
phonegap-plugin-multidex (1.0.0)

[josh-m-sharpe]

I tested this by doing the following:

1. fork this branch locally
2. rebase against @capacitor/1.3.0 (released hours ago)
3. cd cli && npm build
4. cd core && npm build
5. in my project: npm link ~/path/to/capacitor/cli
6. in my project: npm link ~/path/to/capacitor/core
7. cap add android

I then opened android studio and ran Refactor -> Migrate to AndroidX. That found some additional changes in android/app/build.gradle and android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml

Here's that diff:

diff --git a/android/app/build.gradle b/android/app/build.gradle
index eabb755..d634287 100644
--- a/android/app/build.gradle
+++ b/android/app/build.gradle
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ android {
         targetSdkVersion 28
         versionCode 1
         versionName "1.0"
-        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
+        testInstrumentationRunner "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
     }
     buildTypes {
         release {
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ repositories {
 
 dependencies {
     implementation fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
-    implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0'
+    implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.0.0'
     implementation project(':capacitor-android')
     testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
-    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.2'
-    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.2'
+    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.1'
+    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.1.0'
     implementation project(':capacitor-cordova-android-plugins')
 }
 
diff --git a/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml b/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
index d416e80..af50629 100644
--- a/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
+++ b/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
         </activity>
 
         <provider
-            android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider"
+            android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"
             android:authorities="${applicationId}.fileprovider"
             android:exported="false"
             android:grantUriPermissions="true">

@PR1YANKPAT3L Should those deps also be updated with this PR?

[josh-m-sharpe]

This seems like something worth merging ASAP. I see it's on the 2.0 milestone, but https://github.com/ionic-team/capacitor/milestones doesn't strike me as being up to date. @jcesarmobile could you add some insight there?

Edit - sorry, I see the milestones have been updated recently. What's going on there? Why are there only 1.1.0 and 2.0.0 milestones when there are 4 released versions since 1.1.0?

[jcesarmobile]

It’s in the 2.0.0 milestone because it’s a breaking change, so can’t be merged ASAP

[josh-m-sharpe]

@jcesarmobile no comment on the lack of milestone maintenance or insight into what's blocking this? Please advise as to what needs to happen to get this released.

[jcesarmobile]

The only milestone I’m maintaining is 2.0.0 to track all the required breaking changes.
I didn’t create the other milestones so I can speak about them because I don’t know.

[priyankpat]

@josh-m-sharpe Thanks for the feedback. I am looking into it, will post updates/changes in a few hours.

[josh-m-sharpe]

@PR1YANKPAT3L nice update. After running android studio's migration I no longer see a diff.

After clicking Run, I get this error though:

Compilation is not supported for following modules: capacitor-android, capacitor-fcm. Unfortunately you can't have non-Gradle Java modules and Android-Gradle modules in one project.

guessing I added capacitor-android incorrectly? I've added it with yarn add ~/capacitor/android

[josh-m-sharpe]

@jcesarmobile What is the plan for 2.0.0?

[josh-m-sharpe]

@PR1YANKPAT3L following up on the previous comment... I'm definitely having trouble linking to a local version of @capacitor/android. As of this writing, I'm installing it into my project like this:

git clone https://github.com/PR1YANKPAT3L/capacitor.git ~/capacitor
cd ~/capacitor/cli
npm install
npm run-script build
cd ~/capacitor/core
npm install
npm run-script build
cd ~/myProject
yarn add -D ../capacitor/cli
yarn add ../capacitor/core
yarn add ../capacitor/android

Then, when I build android, I get a whole slew of errors like the ones below, all referencing node_modules/@capacitor/android instead of my local version.

  symbol:   class CustomTabsServiceConnection
  location: package android.support.customtabs
/Users/vagrant/git/node_modules/@capacitor/android/capacitor/src/main/java/com/getcapacitor/plugin/Browser.java:12: error: cannot find symbol
import android.support.customtabs.CustomTabsSession;

and

/Users/vagrant/git/node_modules/@capacitor/android/capacitor/src/main/java/com/getcapacitor/plugin/background/BackgroundTask.java:8: error: package android.support.v4.content does not exist
import android.support.v4.content.LocalBroadcastManager;

How are you installing/linking/whatever your local version such that you can use it in a project?

Thanks!

[priyankpat]

@josh-m-sharpe I recorded the process for easy install: Link

NOTE: It's important to checkout develop branch as it contains the AndroidX support. I am keeping develop up to date from upstream.

Commands I used in sequence (Starting from your project root directory):

cd ..
git clone https://github.com/PR1YANKPAT3L/capacitor.git
cd capacitor
git checkout develop
cd ..
cd ./example-project
npm i ../capacitor/android --save
npx cap sync
npx cap open android

[jcesarmobile]

You missed a few, but I'll fix it in a separate PR.
Other than that, it looks good, thanks!