`androidx.browser:browser` updated to `1.9.0-alpha01` breaking the build and CI

[yard2010]

Hello, thank you for maintaining this marvelous project!

Since yesterday my build is failing with:

> Task :app:mergeExtDexDebug FAILED

Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 8.0.

You can use '--warning-mode all' to show the individual deprecation warnings and determine if they come from your own scripts or plugins.

See https://docs.gradle.org/7.5/userguide/command_line_interface.html#sec:command_line_warnings
665 actionable tasks: 17 executed, 648 up-to-date
Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
ERROR:/Users/me/.gradle/caches/transforms-3/1caee3843997b3cdeea9f17ff87e57b9/transformed/browser-1.9.0-alpha01-runtime.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:mergeExtDexDebug'.
> Could not resolve all files for configuration ':app:debugRuntimeClasspath'.
   > Failed to transform browser-1.9.0-alpha01.aar (androidx.browser:browser:1.9.0-alpha01) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=debug, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=24, org.gradle.category=library, org.gradle.dependency.bundling=external, org.gradle.libraryelements=aar, org.gradle.status=release, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
      > Execution failed for DexingNoClasspathTransform: /Users/me/.gradle/caches/transforms-3/1caee3843997b3cdeea9f17ff87e57b9/transformed/browser-1.9.0-alpha01-runtime.jar.
         > Error while dexing.

Going down the rabbit hole, I discovered that androidx:browser released a new version yesterday: 1.9.0-alpha01. It seems like it's incompatible with my ancient gradle/JDK.

Running ./gradlew app:dependencies | grep browser shows that this project is using 1.+ as the version of androidx.browser which made gradle update to 1.9.0-alpha01 breaking the build:

+--- project :react-native-inappbrowser-reborn
|    \--- androidx.browser:browser:1.+ -> 1.9.0-alpha01

Adding this to gradle.build solves the issue:

    configurations.all {
        resolutionStrategy {
            force 'androidx.browser:browser:1.8.0'
      }
    }

Maybe you should provide a more specific version, or lock this dependency, according to the docs:

Using dynamic dependency versions (e.g., 1.+ or [1.0,2.0)) can cause builds to break unexpectedly because the exact version of a dependency that gets resolved can change over time

My experience with Android is limited, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. If there's anyway I can contribute please let me know.

[noway]

@yard2010 great investigative work!

Interestingly enough, develop branch already has a change which would have prevented this failure mode. It uses 1.4.+ instead of 1.+ to require androidx.browser:browser:

react-native-inappbrowser/android/build.gradle

Line 68 in 17b4edb

def defaultAndroidXBrowserVersion = "1.4.+"

Problem is, there hasn't been a release recently and the latest version 3.7.0 doesn't include this change.

@jdnichollsc I know open source maintenance is a tough endeavour and you must have other priorities. Are there any releases planned soon?

[Karishmait06]

Hello, thank you for maintaining this marvelous project!

Since yesterday my build is failing with:

> Task :app:mergeExtDexDebug FAILED

Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 8.0.

You can use '--warning-mode all' to show the individual deprecation warnings and determine if they come from your own scripts or plugins.

See https://docs.gradle.org/7.5/userguide/command_line_interface.html#sec:command_line_warnings
665 actionable tasks: 17 executed, 648 up-to-date
Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
ERROR:/Users/me/.gradle/caches/transforms-3/1caee3843997b3cdeea9f17ff87e57b9/transformed/browser-1.9.0-alpha01-runtime.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:mergeExtDexDebug'.
> Could not resolve all files for configuration ':app:debugRuntimeClasspath'.
   > Failed to transform browser-1.9.0-alpha01.aar (androidx.browser:browser:1.9.0-alpha01) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=debug, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=24, org.gradle.category=library, org.gradle.dependency.bundling=external, org.gradle.libraryelements=aar, org.gradle.status=release, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
      > Execution failed for DexingNoClasspathTransform: /Users/me/.gradle/caches/transforms-3/1caee3843997b3cdeea9f17ff87e57b9/transformed/browser-1.9.0-alpha01-runtime.jar.
         > Error while dexing.

Going down the rabbit hole, I discovered that androidx:browser released a new version yesterday: 1.9.0-alpha01. It seems like it's incompatible with my ancient gradle/JDK.

Running ./gradlew app:dependencies | grep browser shows that this project is using 1.+ as the version of androidx.browser which made gradle update to 1.9.0-alpha01 breaking the build:

+--- project :react-native-inappbrowser-reborn
|    \--- androidx.browser:browser:1.+ -> 1.9.0-alpha01

Adding this to gradle.build solves the issue:

configurations.all {
    resolutionStrategy {
        force 'androidx.browser:browser:1.8.0'
  }
}

Maybe you should provide a more specific version, or lock this dependency, according to the docs:

Using dynamic dependency versions (e.g., 1.+ or [1.0,2.0)) can cause builds to break unexpectedly because the exact version of a dependency that gets resolved can change over time

My experience with Android is limited, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. If there's anyway I can contribute please let me know.

configurations.all {

    resolutionStrategy {
        force 'androidx.browser:browser:1.8.0'
  }
}

added this but still getting error

Execution failed for task ':react-native-inappbrowser-reborn:mergeReleaseResources'.

Could not resolve all files for configuration ':react-native-inappbrowser-reborn:releaseRuntimeClasspath'.
Failed to transform activity-1.9.0.aar (androidx.activity:activity:1.9.0) to match attributes {artifactType=android-res, org.gradle.category=library, org.gradle.dependency.bundling=external, org.gradle.libraryelements=aar, org.gradle.status=release, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
> Execution failed for JetifyTransform: /Users/me/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/androidx.activity/activity/1.9.0/f555772773dbe054d7e5306bc490068ef1ba409e/activity-1.9.0.aar.

[radekmrazek]

It helped me to add to build.gradle => buildscript => ext =>androidXBrowser = "1.8.0"

ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "34.0.0"
        minSdkVersion = 26
        compileSdkVersion = 34
        targetSdkVersion = 34
        ndkVersion = "26.1.10909125"
        kotlinVersion = "1.9.22"
        androidXBrowser = "1.8.0"
    }

[jacksonsmith-sanar]

Hello @jdnichollsc thanks for this amazing project. Is there anything I can support to fix this ?

[uragirii]

I'm using expo CNG to generate my native file, does anyone has suggestion on how to pin the version

Edit: for people like me using expo CNG, install expo-gradle-ext-vars config plugin using

npx expo install expo-gradle-ext-vars

and then put this in your app config plugins array:

[
    'expo-gradle-ext-vars',
    {
      androidXBrowser: '1.8.0',
    },
],

After that just run prebuild with clean flag and your app should work correctly

[Karthik-B-06]

@uragirii Does the above solution break how the package works?