AndroidAutoVersion

This is a Gradle plugin, for Android developers, that automates app versioning.

Migrating from v1

If you're updating this plugin from version 1, read the migration guide.

Why

Thinking of versioning in terms of major, minor, and patch makes it easier to update your app and takes the guess work out of it.

Issue one of these gradle commands:

• ./gradlew bumpPatch
• ./gradlew bumpMinor
• ./gradlew bumpMajor

and your app will be updated accordingly.

Requirements

• Android Gradle Plugin 3.0+
• Gradle 4.0+

Installation

Step 1

Include the following in your top-level build.gradle file:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.github.alexfu:androidautoversion:$latest_version'
  }
}

Change $latest_version to the latest release version found here.

Step 2

Include the following in your app-level build.gradle file:

apply plugin: 'com.github.alexfu.androidautoversion'

Step 3

Remove versionCode and versionName from your defaultConfig block!

Usage

When building your project for the first time with this plugin, you should notice a new file added to your project: [module name]/version. This is called a version file. You should check this file into version control (i.e. git) since this file will contain the current version information.

If you're adding AndroidAutoVersion to an already existing project you need to populate the version file's major, minor, patch, and buildNumber fields with what was in the versionName and versionCode fields.

For example, a project with the following app/build.gradle file:

  defaultConfig {
    versionName "2.0.5"
    versionCode 9
  }

Should update the version file to look like so:

{"major":2,"minor":0,"patch":5,"buildNumber":9}

Every time you want to make a release, decide if it's a major, minor, or a patch. If you're not sure, check out the rules outlined here to make your decision. Then, once you've decided, run one of the following gradle tasks:

• ./gradlew bumpPatch
• ./gradlew bumpMinor
• ./gradlew bumpMajor

Running one of these will update the version but will not make a release. To update and make a release, you can append your release task to the end of your update task. For example:

./gradlew bumpMinor assembleRelease

Tips

Alpha/Beta

If you have alpha/beta versions of your app and want to signify that in your version, i.e. 1.2.3.alpha, then you can use the versionNameSuffix property in your alpha/beta product flavors. For example:

android {
    productFlavors {
        alpha {
            versionNameSuffix ".alpha"
        }

        beta {
            versionNameSuffix ".beta"
        }
    }
}

Automate release workflow

Because this plugin allows you to update your app version from the command line, you can completely automate your entire release workflow with a simple script.

./gradlew clean bumpPatch assembleRelease && git add app/version && git commit -m "Update version."