Merge "docs: Gradle Android plugin 1.5 release notes b/25618810" into mnc-docs

<p>For a summary of known issues in Android Plugin for Gradle, see <a

href="http://tools.android.com/knownissues">http://tools.android.com/knownissues</a>.</p>

<div class="toggle-content opened">

  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">

    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-opened.png" class="toggle-content-img"

      alt=""/>Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.5.0</a> <em>(November 2015)</em>

  </p>

  <div class="toggle-content-toggleme">

    <dl>

    <dt>Dependencies:</dt>

    <dd>

      <ul>

        <li>Gradle 2.2.1 or higher.</li>

        <li>Build Tools 21.1.1 or higher.</li>

      </ul>

    </dd>

    <dt>General Notes:</dt>

    <dd>

      <ul>

      <li>Integrated the Data Binding Plugin into the Android Plugin for Gradle. To enable it, add

        the following code to each per-project <code>build.gradle</code> file that uses the

        plugin:</li>

<pre>

android {

    dataBinding {

        enabled = true

    }

}

</pre>

      <li>Added a new <a href="http://google.github.io/android-gradle-dsl/javadoc/1.5/" class="external-link">Transform API</a>

       to allow third-party plugins to manipulate compiled <code>.class</code> files before they’re

       converted to <code>.dex</code> files. The Transform API simplifies injecting custom class

       manipulations while offering more flexibility regarding what you can manipulate. To insert a

       transform into a build, create a new class implementing one of the <code>Transform</code>

       interfaces, and register it with <code>android.registerTransform(theTransform)</code> or

       <code>android.registerTransform(theTransform, dependencies)</code>. There’s no need to

       wire tasks together. Note the following about the Transform API:</li>

       <ul>

        <li>A transform can apply to one or more of the following: the current project, subprojects,

          and external libraries.</li>

          <li>A transform must be registered globally, which applies them to all variants.</li>

          <li>Internal code processing, through the Java Code Coverage Library (JaCoCo), ProGuard,

            and MultiDex, now uses the Transform API. However, the Java Android Compiler Kit

            (Jack) doesn’t use this API: only the <code>javac/dx</code> code path does.</li>

          <li>Gradle executes the transforms in this order: JaCoCo, third-party plugins, ProGuard.

          The execution order for third-party plugins matches the order in which the transforms are

          added by the third party plugins; third-party plugin developers can't control the execution

          order of the transforms through an API.</li>

      </ul>

      <li>Deprecated the <code>dex</code> getter from the <code>ApplicationVariant</code> class.

        You can't access the <code>Dex</code> task through the variant API anymore because it’s now

        accomplished through a transform. There's

        currently no replacement for controlling the dex process.</li>

      <li>Fixed incremental support for assets.</li>

      <li>Improved MultiDex support by making it available for test projects, and

        tests now automatically have the <code>com.android.support:multidex-instrumentation</code>

        dependency.</li>

      <li>Added the ability to properly fail a Gradle build and report the underlying error cause

        when the Gradle build invokes asynchronous tasks and there’s a failure in the worker

        process.</li>

      <li>Added support for configuring a specific Application Binary Interface (ABI) in variants

        that contain multiple ABIs.</li>

      <li>Added support for a comma-separated list of device serial numbers for the

        <code>ANDROID_SERIAL</code> environment variable when installing or running tests.</li>

      <li>Fixed an installation failure on devices running Android 5.0 (API level 20) and higher

        when the APK name contains a space.</li>

      <li>Fixed various issues related to the Android Asset Packaging Tool (AAPT) error output.</li>

      <li>Added JaCoCo incremental instrumentation support for faster incremental builds. The

        Android Plugin for Gradle now invokes the JaCoCo instrumenter directly. To force a newer

        version of the JaCoCo instrumenter, you need to add it as a build script dependency.</li>

      <li>Fixed JaCoCo support so it ignores files that aren’t classes.</li>

      <li>Added vector drawable support for generating PNGs at build time for backward-compatibility.

        Android Plugin for Gradle generates PNGs for every vector drawable found in a resource

        directory that doesn’t specify an API version or specifies an

        <code>android:minSdkVersion</code> attribute of 20 or lower in the

        <code>&lt;uses-sdk&gt;</code> element in the app manifest. You can set PNG densities by

        using the <code>generatedDensities</code> property in the <code>defaultConfig</code> or

        <code>productFlavor</code> sections of a <code>build.gradle</code> file.</li>

      <li>Added sharing of the mockable <code>android.jar</code>, which the plugin generates only

        once and uses for unit testing. Multiple modules, such as <code>app</code> and

        <code>lib</code>, now share it. Delete <code>$rootDir/build</code> to regenerate it. </li>

      <li>Changed the processing of Java resources to occur before the obfuscation tasks instead of

        during the packaging of the APK. This change allows the obfuscation tasks to have a chance

        to adapt the Java resources following packages obfuscation.</li>

      <li>Fixed an issue with using Java Native Interface (JNI) code in the experimental library

        plugin.</li>

      <li>Added the ability to set the platform version separately from the

        <code>android:compileSdkVersion</code> attribute in the experimental library

        plugin.</li>

     </ul>

    </dd>

  </div>

</div>

<div class="toggle-content closed">

  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">

    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-closed.png" class="toggle-content-img"

      alt=""/>Android Plugin for Gradle, Revision 1.3.1</a> <em>(August 2015)</em>

  </p>