Migration Gradle Dependencies to Version Catalogs — libs.versions.toms (Part 3)

For this article we will see and explain the new way to initialize the Libraries and Plugins into libs.versions.toms file and after initialize them inside the Dependencies section in Gradle files. This is the third part of the series “Migration from Groovy to Kotlin DSL Gradle”.

The new way gives the possibilities to us (Developers) when we have multiple applications or multiple modules inside in one project to make the Libraries and Plugins fully generic for whole the project.

The Version Catalogs is separated into three sections: versions, libraries and plugins. The “libraries” section has group, name and version.ref for each library. For the “plugins” section has id and version.ref. for each plugin. For those keywords we will see an example below.

Important Note: When you initialize Libraries and Plugins into libs.versions.toms file, you have to Sync the Project, so, the Android Studio generated the dependencies.

[versions]
# initialize the versions number of the libraries and plugins

[libraries]
# initialize the libraries group, name and version number

[plugins]
# initialize the plugins id, and version number

Example with Library

Kotlin

val activityVersion by extra("1.9.0")

dependencies {
    implementation("androidx.activity:activity-compose:$activityVersion")
}

Version Catalogs with Kotlin

The group section, androidx.activity, is the first part until : (Quote), and the name section is second part after : (Quote), activity-compose, and the last section is the library version number.

[version]
activityCompose = "1.9.0"

[libraries]
androidx-activity-compose = { group = "androidx.activity", name = "activity-compose", version.ref = "activityCompose" }

Kotlin

dependencies {
    implementation(libs.androidx.activity.compose)
}

Example with Plugins

Kotlin

plugins {
    id("com.android.application")
    id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android")
    id("com.google.devtools.ksp")
}

Version Catalogs with Kotlin

[version]
agp = "8.5.0"
kotlin = "2.0.0"
kspVersion = "2.0.0-1.0.22"

# Here is the library section

[plugins]
androidApplication = { id = "com.android.application", version.ref = "agp" }
jetbrainsKotlinAndroid = { id = "org.jetbrains.kotlin.android", version.ref = "kotlin" }
ksp = { id = "com.google.devtools.ksp", version.ref = "kspVersion" }hilt-android = { id = "com.google.dagger.hilt.android", version.ref = "hiltVersion" }

Bonus (Most common Libraries and Plugins for your projects)

Note: I will try to add more Libraries and Plugins in the future. I will update the versions

Version Catalogs

[versions]
agp = "8.5.2"
kotlin = "2.0.10"
coreKtx = "1.13.1"
junit = "4.13.2"
junitVersion = "1.2.1"
espressoCore = "3.6.1"
lifecycleRuntimeKtx = "2.8.4"
activityCompose = "1.9.1"
composeVersion = "1.6.8"
composeHiltNavigationVersion = "1.2.0"
composeNavigationVersion = "2.7.7"
uiComposeVersion = "1.6.8"
animationComposeVersion = "1.6.8"
foundationComposeVersion = "1.6.8"
composeBom = "2024.06.00"
roomVersion = "2.6.1"
kspVersion = "2.0.10-1.0.24"
retrofitVersion = "2.11.0"
okHttpVersion = "4.12.0"
coilVersion = "2.7.0"
coroutineVersion = "1.8.1"
materialVersion = "1.12.0"
hiltVersion = "2.52"
hiltCompilerVersion = "1.2.0"
swipeRefreshLayoutVersion = "1.1.0"
gsonVersion = "2.11.0"
paletteVersion = "1.0.0"
imagePickerAndroid = "2.0.15"
percentagesWithAnimationComposeVersion = "1.0.0"

[libraries]
# My Library - https://github.com/NicosNicolaou16/ImagePickerAndroid
image-picker-android = { group = "com.github.NicosNicolaou16", name = "ImagePickerAndroid", version.ref = "imagePickerAndroid" }
# My Library - https://github.com/NicosNicolaou16/PercentagesWithAnimationCompose
percentages-with-animation-compose = { group = "com.github.NicosNicolaou16", name = "PercentagesWithAnimationCompose", version.ref = "percentagesWithAnimationComposeVersion" }
# Architecture
androidx-core-ktx = { group = "androidx.core", name = "core-ktx", version.ref = "coreKtx" }
androidx-lifecycle-runtime-ktx = { group = "androidx.lifecycle", name = "lifecycle-runtime-ktx", version.ref = "lifecycleRuntimeKtx" }
androidx-swipe-refresh-layout = { group = "androidx.swiperefreshlayout", name = "swiperefreshlayout", version.ref = "swipeRefreshLayoutVersion" }
# Compose
androidx-activity-compose = { group = "androidx.activity", name = "activity-compose", version.ref = "activityCompose" }
androidx-compose-bom = { group = "androidx.compose", name = "compose-bom", version.ref = "composeBom" }
androidx-ui = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui", version.ref = "uiComposeVersion" }
androidx-ui-graphics = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui-graphics" }
androidx-ui-tooling = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui-tooling" }
androidx-material3 = { group = "androidx.compose.material3", name = "material3" }
androidx-ui-tooling-preview = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui-tooling-preview" }
androidx-navigate-compose = { group = "androidx.navigation", name = "navigation-compose", version.ref = "composeNavigationVersion" }
androidx-hilt-compose = { group = "androidx.hilt", name = "hilt-navigation-compose", version.ref = "composeHiltNavigationVersion" }
androidx-compose-runtime = { group = "androidx.compose.runtime", name = "runtime", version.ref = "composeVersion" }
androidx-compose-runtime-livedata = { group = "androidx.compose.runtime", name = "runtime-livedata", version.ref = "composeVersion" }
androidx-lifecycle-viewmodel-compose = { group = "androidx.lifecycle", name = "lifecycle-viewmodel-compose", version.ref = "lifecycleRuntimeKtx" }
androidx-animation = { group = "androidx.compose.animation", name = "animation", version.ref = "animationComposeVersion" }
androidx-foundation = { group = "androidx.compose.foundation", name = "foundation", version.ref = "foundationComposeVersion" }
# Room Database
androidx-room-runtime = { group = "androidx.room", name = "room-runtime", version.ref = "roomVersion" }
androidx-room-compiler = { group = "androidx.room", name = "room-compiler", version.ref = "roomVersion" }
androidx-room-ktx = { group = "androidx.room", name = "room-ktx", version.ref = "roomVersion" }
# Retrofit
retrofit = { group = "com.squareup.retrofit2", name = "retrofit", version.ref = "retrofitVersion" }
retrofit-gson = { group = "com.squareup.retrofit2", name = "converter-gson", version.ref = "retrofitVersion" }
# OkHttp
okHttp = { group = "com.squareup.okhttp3", name = "okhttp", version.ref = "okHttpVersion" }
# Gson
gson = { group = "com.google.code.gson", name = "gson", version.ref = "gsonVersion" }
# Coil
coil = { group = "io.coil-kt", name = "coil-compose", version.ref = "coilVersion" }
# Coroutine
coroutine-core = { group = "org.jetbrains.kotlinx", name = "kotlinx-coroutines-core", version.ref = "coroutineVersion" }
coroutine-android = { group = "org.jetbrains.kotlinx", name = "kotlinx-coroutines-android", version.ref = "coroutineVersion" }
# Material
material = { group = "com.google.android.material", name = "material", version.ref = "materialVersion" }
# Hilt
dagger-android = { group = "com.google.dagger", name = "hilt-android", version.ref = "hiltVersion" }
dagger-compiler = { group = "com.google.dagger", name = "hilt-compiler", version.ref = "hiltVersion" }
hilt-compiler = { group = "androidx.hilt", name = "hilt-compiler", version.ref = "hiltCompilerVersion" }
# Palette
androidx-palette-ktx = { group = "androidx.palette", name = "palette-ktx", version.ref = "paletteVersion" }
# Unit Test
junit = { group = "junit", name = "junit", version.ref = "junit" }
androidx-junit = { group = "androidx.test.ext", name = "junit", version.ref = "junitVersion" }
androidx-espresso-core = { group = "androidx.test.espresso", name = "espresso-core", version.ref = "espressoCore" }
androidx-ui-test-manifest = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui-test-manifest", version.ref = "composeVersion" }
androidx-ui-test-junit4 = { group = "androidx.compose.ui", name = "ui-test-junit4" }


[plugins]
androidApplication = { id = "com.android.application", version.ref = "agp" }
jetbrainsKotlinAndroid = { id = "org.jetbrains.kotlin.android", version.ref = "kotlin" }
ksp = { id = "com.google.devtools.ksp", version.ref = "kspVersion" }
hilt-android = { id = "com.google.dagger.hilt.android", version.ref = "hiltVersion" }
compose-compiler = { id = "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.compose", version.ref = "kotlin" }

Application Gradle

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.androidApplication)
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrainsKotlinAndroid)
    alias(libs.plugins.ksp)
    alias(libs.plugins.hilt.android)
    alias(libs.plugins.compose.compiler)
}

dependencies {

    //My Library - https://github.com/NicosNicolaou16/ImagePickerAndroid
    implementation(libs.image.picker.android)
    //My Library - https://github.com/NicosNicolaou16/PercentagesWithAnimationCompose
    implementation(libs.percentages.with.animation.compose)
    //Architecture
    implementation(libs.androidx.core.ktx)
    implementation(libs.androidx.swipe.refresh.layout)
    implementation(libs.androidx.lifecycle.runtime.ktx)
    //Compose
    implementation(libs.androidx.activity.compose)
    implementation(platform(libs.androidx.compose.bom))
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui)
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui.graphics)
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui.tooling.preview)
    implementation(libs.androidx.material3)
    implementation(libs.androidx.navigate.compose)
    implementation(libs.androidx.hilt.compose)
    implementation(libs.androidx.compose.runtime)
    implementation(libs.androidx.compose.runtime.livedata)
    implementation(libs.androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.compose)
    implementation(libs.androidx.animation)
    implementation(libs.androidx.foundation)
    //Room Database
    implementation(libs.androidx.room.runtime)
    ksp(libs.androidx.room.compiler)
    implementation(libs.androidx.room.ktx)
    //Retrofit
    implementation(libs.retrofit)
    implementation(libs.retrofit.gson)
    //OkHttp
    implementation(libs.okHttp)
    //Gson
    implementation(libs.gson)
    //Coil
    implementation(libs.coil)
    //Coroutines
    implementation(libs.coroutine.core)
    implementation(libs.coroutine.android)
    //Material
    implementation(libs.material)
    //Hilt
    implementation(libs.dagger.android)
    ksp(libs.dagger.compiler)
    ksp(libs.hilt.compiler)
    //Palette
    implementation(libs.androidx.palette.ktx)
    //Unit Test
    testImplementation(libs.junit)
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.junit)
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.espresso.core)
    androidTestImplementation(platform(libs.androidx.compose.bom))
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.test.junit4)
    debugImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.tooling)
    debugImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.test.manifest)
}

Top Level Gradle

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.androidApplication) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrainsKotlinAndroid) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.ksp) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.hilt.android) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.compose.compiler) apply false
}

You can find all of these Libraries and Plugins to the following project in my GitHub account in this project:

Project

GitHub - NicosNicolaou16/Libraries-Plugins-Version-Catalogs-Example: This project is an empty…

Version Catalog

Libraries-Plugins-Version-Catalogs-Example/gradle/libs.versions.toml at main ·…

Application Dependencies — Gradle

Libraries-Plugins-Version-Catalogs-Example/app/build.gradle.kts at main ·…

Top Level Gradle

Libraries-Plugins-Version-Catalogs-Example/build.gradle.kts at main ·…

I hope you find the article and sample project useful. Let me know your opinion under the comments, feel free to report any issue. I will appreciate it if you let a clap, so, if I have your support to continue writing.

Next, you can check the Part 1 and Part 2 for this article that it shows the other Gradle files.

Migration from Groovy to Kotlin DSL Gradle (Part 1)

Migration from Groovy to Kotlin DSL Gradle (Part 2)

References:

Migrate your build to version catalogs | Android Studio | Android Developers