Gradle for Android

Contrary to how Android applications are typically built, Defold does not use Gradle for the entire build process. Instead Defold uses Android command line tools such as aapt2 and bundletool directly in the local build and only leverages Gradle while resolving dependencies on the build server.

Resolving dependencies

Native extensions can include a build.gradle file in the manifests/android folder to specify the extension dependencies. Example:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-installations:17.2.0'
    implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:18.2.0'
}

The build server will collect the build.gradle files from all the extensions and use these to resolve all dependencies and include them when building the native code.

Examples:

• Firebasebuild.gradle
• Facebook