RN-0.73 change Android configs for RN 0.73 compatibility

[FelipeSSantos1]

Summary

Starting from React Native v0.73 , all libraries will need to be updated with these two one-liners due to Android Gradle Plugin upgrade
react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#671

---

React Native 0.73 will depend on Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.x. This will require all the libraries to specify a namespace in their build.gradle file.

Details
I'd like to share some of the upcoming changes that will happen in 0.73, which is still a bit far, but we'd rather start earlier rather than later.

React Native 0.73 will depend on Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.x, which brings a lot of improvements for Android apps but also a series of notable changes.

Most importantly:

App/Library Developers will now have to install and use Java 17
Library Developers will have to specify a namespace in their build.gradle file.
Specifically, the last change is a breaking change and will make libraries that are not specifying a namespace incompatible with React Native 0.73 (your project won't build).

Support for namespace was added in AGP 7.3.x, which ships with React Native 0.71. Libraries that published a new version with a namespace declared for 0.71 or 0.72 don't need further update. So we invite library authors to do those changes as soon as possible so by the time 0.73 is out, most of the apps are adapted.

What you need to change
Library authors will have to update their android/build.gradle file as follows:

android {
+   namespace = "com.iterable.reactnative"
    ...
}

and remove the package definition from their AndroidManifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
-          package="com.iterable.reactnative">
+          >
...
</manifest>

Further reading
Official Google documentation on namespaces is here.

Test Plan

What's required for testing (prerequisites)?

just build it

What are the steps to test it (after prerequisites)?

Compatibility

OS	Implemented
iOS	❌
Android	✅

Checklist

• I have tested this on a device and a simulator
• I added the documentation in README.md
• I added a sample use of the API in the example project (example/App.tsx)

[FelipeSSantos1]

I added back the namespace to AndroidManifest to keep the previous RN compatibility
react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#671 (comment)

[zoontek]

@felipemillhouse Thanks!

[osamahafez]

@felipemillhouse build fails on previous RN versions

1: Task failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file '/Users/osamahafez/Software/ThatekWork/mobile/thatek-mobile/node_modules/react-native-permissions/android/build.gradle' line: 62

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating project ':react-native-permissions'.
> Could not set unknown property 'namespace' for extension 'android' of type com.android.build.gradle.LibraryExtension.

also downgrading to older releases does not fix the issue except 2.0.0 and below

[FelipeSSantos1]

I fell it’s not related to the PR @osamahafez

[osamahafez]

@felipemillhouse you can see the issue on line 62 where you submitted the PR
here's the commit: c037cf1

Also I submitted an issue here #787 if you like to investigate further on the matter

[FelipeSSantos1]

Is that change released in all versions that you seeing failing? I don’t think so. It’s a new change and it shouldn’t impact previous releases @osamahafez
You can test it checking the node modules folder, deleting the namespace there and trying to build it, likely it’ll fail also

[FelipeSSantos1]

If we confirm the root cause is that change, we need to submit another PR like:

// Conditional for compatibility with AGP <4.2.
    if (project.android.hasProperty("namespace")) {
        namespace = "io.sentry.react"
    }

[osamahafez]

@felipemillhouse I tested it after removing the line namespace = "com.zoontek.rnpermissions"
and build was successful

[FelipeSSantos1]

@felipemillhouse I tested it after removing the line namespace = "com.zoontek.rnpermissions"
and build was successful

Could you make a favor to test with this code?

if (project.android.hasProperty("namespace")) {
        namespace = "com.zoontek.rnpermissions"
    }

I’m far from the computer today and tomorrow, if you could test it would be excellent!
Also few free to send a PR if you are able to, otherwise I’ll send it on Tuesday