Adding local .aar files to my gradle build

So I have created an Android library and successfully compiled it into a .aar file. I called this aar file: "projectx-sdk-1.0.0.aar". Now I want my new project to depend on this aar so what I have done is follow this post.

But the post confuses me since I do not get the desired result:

> The package name of the aar is : com.projectx.photosdk and the module inside is called sdk

Here is my current project structure:

|-SuperAwesomeApp
|--.idea
|--gradle
|--App
|---aars
|----projectx-sdk-1.0.0.aar
|---build
|---jars
|---src
|---build.gradle

And here is my Gradle build file:

apply plugin: 'android'

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        flatDir {
            dirs 'aars'
        }
    }
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 19
    buildToolsVersion "19.0.1"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 11
        targetSdkVersion 19
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            runProguard false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:gridlayout-v7:19.0.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:19.0.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:19.0.1'


    compile 'com.projectx.photosdk:sdk:1.0.0@aar'
//    compile files( 'aars/sdk-1.0.0.aar' ) // Does not work either
}

EDIT

The errors I am getting:

Failed to refresh Gradle project 'SuperAwesomeApp'
     Could not find com.projectx.photosdk:sdk:1.0.0.
     Required by:
     SuperAwesomeApp:App:unspecified

You put your flatDir block in the wrong repostories block. The repositories block inside buildscript tells Gradle where to find the Android-Gradle plugin, but not the rest of the dependencies. You need to have another top-level repositories block like this:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    flatDir {
        dirs 'aars'
    }
}

I tested this and it works okay on my setup.

With recent versions of Android Studio, tested with 1.3, to use local .AAR file and not one fetched from maven/jcenter repository, just go to File > New > New module and choose Import .JAR/.AAR Package.

What you will end up with is a new module in your project that contains very simple build.gradle file that looks more or less like this:

configurations.create("default")
artifacts.add("default", file('this-is-yours-package-in-aar-format.aar'))

Of course, other projects have to reference this new module with regular compile project directive. So in a project that uses this new module which is simple a local .aar file has this in it's build.gradle

[...]
dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.0'
    compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.0'
    [...]

    compile project(':name-of-module-created-via-new-module-option-described-above')
}
[...]

In Android Studio 3.1.3 with gradle 3.0.1.
Simply adding implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.aar']) or implementation files('libs/app-release.aar') without any other flatdir works.

These days (over 1 year after this question) with Android Studio >1.0, local dependency does work properly:

• The android sdk looks for dependencies in a default local repo of: $ANDROID_HOME/extras/android/m2repository/

• In a local library project you can publish the aar to this directory. Here's a snippet that can be added to your module's build.gradle file (ex: sdk/build.gradle)

    apply plugin: 'maven'
  
    uploadArchives {
        repositories {
            mavenDeployer {
                repository(url: "file://localhost" + System.getenv("ANDROID_HOME")
                    + "/extras/android/m2repository/")
                pom.version = '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
                pom.groupId = 'your.package'
                pom.artifactId = 'sdk-name'
            }
        }
    }
  

• some reference gradle docs http://gradle.org/docs/current/userguide/artifact_management.html

• In your library project, run ./gradlew uploadArchives to publish the aar to that directory

• In the application project you want to use the library in, add the dependency to your project/app/build.gradle. compile 'your.package:sdk-name:1.0-SNAPSHOT'

For local dependency, the next gradle build should find the previously deployed archive and that's it!

---

In my case, I use the above for local dev, but also have a Bamboo continuous integration server for the Library that publishes each build to a shared Nexus artifact repository. The full library code to deploy the artifact then becomes:

uploadArchives {
    repositories {
        mavenDeployer {
            if (System.getenv("BAMBOO_BUILDNUMBER") != null) {
                // Deploy to shared repository
                repository(url: "http://internal-nexus.url/path/") {
                    authentication(userName: "user", password: "****")
                }
                pom.version = System.getenv("BAMBOO_BUILDNUMBER")
            } else {
                // Deploy to local Android sdk m2repository
                repository(url: "file://localhost" + System.getenv("ANDROID_HOME")
                        + "/extras/android/m2repository/")
                pom.version = '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
            }

            pom.groupId = 'your.package'
            pom.artifactId = 'sdk-name'
        }
    }
}

In order to tell applications to download from my internal Nexus repository, I added the internal Nexus maven repository just above jcenter() in both "repositories" blocks in the project/build.gradle

repositories {
    maven {
        url "http://internal-nexus.url/path/"
    }
    jcenter()
}

And application dependency then looks like compile 'your.package:sdk-name:45' When I update the 45 version to 46 is when my project will grab the new artifact from the Nexus server.

With the newest Gradle version there is now a slightly updated way of doing what Stan suggested (see maving publishing)

apply plugin: 'maven-publish'

publishing {
    publications {
        aar(MavenPublication) {
            groupId 'org.your-group-id'
            artifactId 'your-artifact-id'
            version 'x.x.x'

            // Tell maven to prepare the generated "*.aar" file for publishing
            artifact("$buildDir/outputs/aar/${project.getName()}-release.aar")
        }
    }
    repositories {
        maven {
            url("file:" + System.getenv("HOME") + "/.m2/repository")
        }
    }
}

It seems adding .aar files as local dependency is not yet supported(Planned to be supported in 0.5.0 Beta)

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=55863

But the way you are using your library in dependency will only work if your library is on central maven repository or in the local maven repository.

Refer this for How to use local maven repository to use .aar in module dependencies.

http://www.flexlabs.org/2013/06/using-local-aar-android-library-packages-in-gradle-builds

This is for Kotlin DSL (build.gradle.kts) assuming you put the files in my-libs subdirectory relative to where the build file is located:

dependencies {
    implementation(
        fileTree("my-libs/") {
            // You can add as many include or exclude calls as you want
            include("my-first-library.aar")
            include("another-library.aar")
            // You can also include all files by using a pattern wildcard
            include("*.jar")
            exclude("the-bad-library.jar")
        }
    )
    // Other dependencies...
}

For more ways to do this, see Gradle documentations and this post and this post.