Publishing Gradle Android Library to Jcenter

Publishing Gradle AAR libraries is one of the bigger pain points with Android's new build system - it's not as integrated and direct as it is with the Maven build system. Pretty much anyone has his/hers own solution to this problem and here is mine based on published FuzzyDateFormatter library.

1. Generate JavaDoc and source JARs

Both Maven Central and jCenter require you to publish a JavaDoc and Source JARs for your public projects. We're going to use android-maven-plugin to generate those.

Add required build dependencies to your top-level build.gradle file:

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.
buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.2.1'
        classpath 'com.github.dcendents:android-maven-plugin:1.2'
        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
}

and add javadoc and source jar generation tasks to your project's build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
apply plugin: 'com.github.dcendents.android-maven'
apply plugin: 'com.jfrog.bintray'

// This is the library version used when deploying the artifact
version = "1.0.1"

android {
    compileSdkVersion 21
    buildToolsVersion "22.0.1"
    resourcePrefix "fuzzydatetime__"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 9
        targetSdkVersion 21
        versionCode 2
        versionName version

    }
    buildTypes {
    }
}

def siteUrl = 'https://github.com/izacus/FuzzyDateFormatter'      // Homepage URL of the library
def gitUrl = 'https://github.com/izacus/FuzzyDateFormatter.git'   // Git repository URL
group = "<maven group id>"                                        // Maven Group ID for the artifact


install {
    repositories.mavenInstaller {
        // This generates POM.xml with proper parameters
        pom {
            project {
                packaging 'aar'
                
                // Add your description here
                name '<Your library description>'
                url siteUrl
                
                // Set your license
                licenses {
                    license {
                        name 'The Apache Software License, Version 2.0'
                        url 'http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt'
                    }
                }
                developers {
                    developer {
                        id '<your user ID>'
                        name '<your name>'
                        email '<your email>'
                    }
                }
                scm {
                    connection gitUrl
                    developerConnection gitUrl
                    url siteUrl

                }
            }
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
}

task sourcesJar(type: Jar) {
    from android.sourceSets.main.java.srcDirs
    classifier = 'sources'
}

task javadoc(type: Javadoc) {
    source = android.sourceSets.main.java.srcDirs
    classpath += project.files(android.getBootClasspath().join(File.pathSeparator))
}

task javadocJar(type: Jar, dependsOn: javadoc) {
    classifier = 'javadoc'
    from javadoc.destinationDir
    options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
}
artifacts {
    archives javadocJar
    archives sourcesJar
}

And with that you have Maven part of deployment done - you can run ./gradlew install and it'll install the AAR to your local M2 repository.

2. Setup BinTray upload

For bintray we will use their official gradle plugin.

Add it to the main build.gradle as a dependency:

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.2.1'
        classpath 'com.jfrog.bintray.gradle:gradle-bintray-plugin:1.2'
        classpath 'com.github.dcendents:android-maven-plugin:1.2'
        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
}

and add bintray configuration to your libraries build.gradle:

Properties properties = new Properties()
properties.load(project.rootProject.file('local.properties').newDataInputStream())

bintray {
    user = properties.getProperty("bintray.user")
    key = properties.getProperty("bintray.apikey")

    configurations = ['archives']
    pkg {
        repo = "maven"
        name = "<Your library name>"
        websiteUrl = siteUrl
        vcsUrl = gitUrl
        licenses = ["Apache-2.0"]
        publish = true
    }
}

Note that your BinTray APIkey is going to be read from local.properties file which should not be commited to the Git repository.

3. Register on BinTray.com

To actually upload the artifact you need to create a BinTray.com account. After you create it, you'll have repository maven created by default. Now you just need to get your API key - click on your username -> API key.

Then add required data to your local.properties file:

bintray.user=<your bintray username>
bintray.apikey=<your bintray API key>

After that you can upload and publish the artifact by simply running

./gradew bintrayUpload

The first time you publish your library, you'll have to open the BinTray site, click on your package and click on Maven Central. This will requiest a review and public listing of your library on jCenter repository.

For a full example examine the source of FuzzyDateFormatter.