Changes needed for gradle 3.0.1 compatibility

[pacamara]

Some minor changes are needed for gradle 3.0.1 compatibility: in android/build.gradle:

• Remove the buildToolsVersion, gradle now specifies a default and the current value conflicts with that.
• Declare dependencies using api not compile per https://developer.android.com/studio/build/gradle-plugin-3-0-0-migration.html#new_configurations

We are currently hacking these changes with a script in status.im, and would rather it is fixed upstream. Thanks!

Parent issue: status-im/status-mobile#3037

[nitaliano]

Will this have any complications with apps that are created with react-native init?

[pacamara]

Yes, it turns out to be a breaking change for apps authored with react-native init, requiring manual changes to the generated code to fix. Please see software-mansion/react-native-svg#581 (comment) A solution could be to provide a separate gradle 3 tag?

[nitaliano]

I personally hate being on an older version of gradle and would love to get this into master instead of it being on a tag. Someone opened a PR on react native to upgrade gradle recently facebook/react-native#17747 would like to see what happens with this PR before attempting to create a gradle3 tag

[msand]

I very much agree here. Developing and debugging native code for android has improved significantly with the version changes in my PR. Requiring manual changes or monkey-patching for all newcomers just to get the same benefits seems counter productive, unless there are actual blocking changes which need to be fixed anyway instead.

[nitaliano]

@pacamara it doesn't appear like the PR I mentioned above will be merged in anytime soon, and I will also need gradle3 in an upcoming app so when I do that I'll cut a gradle3 tag for people to use

[pacamara]

@nitaliano Got it, thanks Nick.

[johncadengo]

Is this still an open issue? What version of gradle is compatible?

[kristfal]

We're now aligned with RN59, so this should now longer be an issue.