Specify versionCode in android/gradle projects project root build.gradle

Question

I recently switched from Eclipse to Android Studio (for test purposes) with an production project and it feel really great. I like the gradle way very much.

In Android Studio the project structure looks (simplified) something like this

+RandomProject
|-+Random
| |- build.gradle (lets call it build2)
| |- [...]
|- build.gradle (lets call it build1)
|- [..]

The build1 file has the following content by default:

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

I wonder if its possible/a good practice to specify the versionName and versionCode in that (build1) file, so that it is going to be "inherited" to the build2 file. (and if so, how?)

Thanks for the input.

Answer 1

You can do it with ExtraPropertiesExtension.

RandomProject\build.gradle

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.
ext.compileSdkVersion=19
ext.buildToolsVersion="19"
ext.versionName="1.0.7"
ext.versionCode=7

RandomProject\Random\build.gradle

android {

    compileSdkVersion rootProject.compileSdkVersion
    buildToolsVersion rootProject.buildToolsVersion

    defaultConfig {
        versionName rootProject.versionName
        versionCode rootProject.versionCode
    }
}

Answer 2

The New Build System site now has a tip about this. It's similar to Sergii's answer, but subtly different:

In the root project's build.gradle:

ext {
  compileSdkVersion = 19
  buildToolsVersion = "19.0.1"
}

in all the android modules:

android {
  compileSdkVersion rootProject.ext.compileSdkVersion
  buildToolsVersion rootProject.ext.buildToolsVersion
}