Upgrading to Jetpack Compose Alpha 12 causes errors on setContent

Question

I upgraded to Jetpack Compose 1.0.0-alpha12 and started to run into issues.

Firstly, the setContent method I was using showed as deprecated.

From the Alpha 12 release notes, I noticed that it said:

ComponentActivity.setContent has moved to androidx.activity.compose.setContent in the androidx.activity:activity-compose module. (Icf416)

So I removed my import androidx.compose.ui.platform.setContent and switched it to import androidx.activity.compose.setContent, which removed the deprecation.

However, I then got an error that says:

w: Flag is not supported by this version of the compiler: -Xallow-jvm-ir-dependencies
w: ATTENTION!
This build uses unsafe internal compiler arguments:
-XXLanguage:+NonParenthesizedAnnotationsOnFunctionalTypes
This mode is not recommended for production use,
as no stability/compatibility guarantees are given on
compiler or generated code. Use it at your own risk!
e: Classes compiled by an unstable version of the Kotlin compiler were found in dependencies.
Remove them from the classpath or use '-Xallow-unstable-dependencies' to suppress errors
e: /[my path]/MainActivity.kt: (39, 9): Class 'androidx.activity.compose.ComponentActivityKt' is
compiled by an unstable version of the Kotlin compiler and cannot be loaded by this compiler

And again, I was able to work around that by changing my build.gradle file to have:

kotlinOptions {
    jvmTarget = '1.8'
    useIR = true
    // I added this line
    freeCompilerArgs += "-Xallow-unstable-dependencies"
}

While that let me compile my app, I now get the following exception at runtime:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: No static method setContent(
Landroidx/activity/ComponentActivity;Landroidx/compose/runtime/Com
positionContext;Lkotlin/jvm/functions/Function2;)V in class 
Landroidx/activity/compose/ComponentActivityKt; or its super classes
(declaration of 'androidx.activity.compose.ComponentActivityKt' appears in [my apk]

How can I fix this and upgrade my app to Jetpack Compose 1.0.0-alpha12?

Answer 1

As per this issue, this issue is related to the new androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.3.0-alpha01 artifact.

From that issue:

Activity 1.3.0-alpha02 has been released and fixes this issue.

Apps using Compose alpha12 and specifically artifacts like androidx.compose.ui:ui-test-junit4:1.0.0-alpha12 that internally use setContent should add the activity-compose:1.3.0-alpha02 dependency to their dependencies block to ensure that the 1.3.0-alpha01 artifact is not used

So to fix your app, you should:

1. Remove the freeCompilerArgs += "-Xallow-unstable-dependencies" line from the build.gradle file (as it is no longer needed)

2. Add a specific dependency on Activity Compose 1.3.0-alpha02:

implementation 'androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.3.0-alpha02'

By adding that dependency, any direct usages of setContent as well as internal usages by androidx.compose.ui:ui-tooling:1.0.0-alpha12 or androidx.compose.ui:ui-test-junit4:1.0.0-alpha12 will use the fixed Activity Compose 1.3.0-alpha02 release.