Cordova plugin development – adding aar

Here’s what I’ve done to use a gradle reference with a Cordova plugin, I think this might help you.

Global structure :

pluginFolder/
  build-extras.gradle
  plugin.xml
  yourDirContainingYourAAR/
  src/
    android/
      yourFile.gradle
      myPlugin.java

Put your library, say foo.aar, in the yourDirContainingYourAAR directory (create it if needed)

• In the plugin.xml file :

  <platform name="android">
      <!-- your configuration elements, references, source files, etc... -->
  
      <framework src="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30757208/src/android/yourFile.gradle" custom="true" type="gradleReference" />
  
      <resource-file src="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30757208/yourDirContainingYourAAR/foo.aar" target="libs/foo.aar" />
  </platform>
  

• In the gradle file yourFile.gradle :

  repositories{    
    jcenter()
    flatDir {
        dirs 'libs'
     }
  }
  
  dependencies {
     compile(name:'foo', ext:'aar')
  }
  
  android {
    packagingOptions {
      exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
      exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
    }
  }
  

• In the root folder of your plugin (same level as plugin.xml ) create a build-extras.gradle.
  If needed, add or remove minSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion according to your project needs :

  android {
      defaultConfig {
          minSdkVersion 16
          targetSdkVersion 22
      }
  
     packagingOptions {
         exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
         exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
     }
  }