Fix App Bundle/Release build missing index.android.bundle with gradle plugin 4.1.0+/gradle 6.5

[tomoima525]

Summary

• This fix resolves Flavors & App Bundle missing index.android.bundle #29398
• After updating gradle to 6.5+ and android gradle plugin to 4.1.0+(which is recommended in the latest Android Studio 4.1), Running :app:assembleRelease or :app:bundleRelease will not contain index.android.bundle in Apk/AAB. It will be included when the command executed twice.

• This is caused by the task ordering update introduced in gradle plugin 4.1.0+/gradle 6.5. mergeResources task runs before currentAssetsCopyTask(copying the bundle asset file to intermediate output directory) which causes generated Apk/AAB not including the bundle file.
• The fix ensures mergeResources task runs after currentAssetsCopyTask

Changelog

[Android] [Fixed] - Fix App Bundle/Release build missing index.android.bundle with gradle plugin 4.1.0/gradle 6.5

Test Plan

• Reproducible repository https://github.com/tomoima525/android_build_test_rn

  • This project is generated with create-react-native-app and updated Gradle version to 6.5 and com.android.tools.build:gradle plugin to 4.1

• Run ./gradlew clean :app:assembleRelease and ./gradlew clean :app:bundleRelease => reproduces the issue

• After adding the fix above and run ./gradlew clean :app:assembleRelease and ./gradlew clean :app:bundleRelease => The issue is resolved

• Also confirmed the build works properly with android gradle plugin 3.5.3 and gradle 6.2(the default value of create-react-native-app)

[analysis-bot]

Platform	Engine	Arch	Size (bytes)	Diff
ios	-	universal	n/a	--

Base commit: fb14fd4

[analysis-bot]

Platform	Engine	Arch	Size (bytes)	Diff
android	hermes	arm64-v8a	7,389,897	0
android	hermes	armeabi-v7a	7,017,213	0
android	hermes	x86	7,832,109	0
android	hermes	x86_64	7,721,595	0
android	jsc	arm64-v8a	9,536,198	0
android	jsc	armeabi-v7a	9,151,226	0
android	jsc	x86	9,400,874	0
android	jsc	x86_64	9,982,584	0

Base commit: fb14fd4

[emeraldsanto]

I've also been experiencing this since updating this morning, reverting to 4.0.1 and 6.3 works until this PR is merged :)

[tomoima525]

Just rebased so that the commit message is more descriptive

[tomoima525]

I have the reproducible case and fixed case with this patch

https://github.com/tomoima525/android_build_test_rn

Reproducible case

To reproduce the issue, run the command below

$ cd android
$ ./gradlew clean :app:assembleRelease // or ./gradlew clean :app:releaseBundle

app-release.apk will be generated but it does not have index.android.bundle build

Fixed case

I added the fix in #30177 . Running the command below will apply the patch to react.gradle and you can see the issue is resolved

$ yarn add_patch
$ cd android
$ ./gradlew clean :app:assembleRelease // or ./gradlew clean :app:releaseBundle

(The script is tested on Mac. If the copying does not work on Linux, try directly copying the react-patch.gradle to node_modules/react-native/react.gradle)

[mikehardy]

Confirmed for me this fixes the error it says it fixes for RN0.63.3 and android gradle plugin 4.1.0

Here's a patch-package compatible thing you can cut-and-paste

cat patches/react-native+0.63.3.patch

diff --git a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
index 6441d93..c28cbd4 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
+++ b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
@@ -302,6 +302,11 @@ afterEvaluate {
             enabled(currentBundleTask.enabled)
         }
 
+        // mergeResources task runs before the bundle file is copied to the intermediate asset directory from Android plugin 4.1+.
+        // This ensures to copy the bundle file before mergeResources task starts
+        def mergeResourcesTask = tasks.findByName("merge${targetName}Resources")
+        mergeResourcesTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
+
         packageTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
         if (buildPreBundleTask != null) {
             buildPreBundleTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)

[cpojer]

Thanks for your contribution! 👍

[facebook-github-bot]

@cpojer has imported this pull request. If you are a Facebook employee, you can view this diff on Phabricator.

[react-native-bot]

This pull request was successfully merged by @tomoima525 in 53f5500.

^{When will my fix make it into a release? | Upcoming Releases}

[John-Konordo]

Development machine OS: MacOS X
IDE: Ms VSCODE
"react": "^17.0.1",
"react-native": "^0.63.4",
gradle plugin 4.1.1+ / gradle 6.5-all (distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-all.zip)

I had also aply the patch from here #29398 (comment)

I found a workarround to publish my apk to play console and don' t get the error index.android.bundle missing

In root directory of your project run the following commands
cd ./android/
./gradlew clean
rm -rf ~/.gradle/caches/*
cd ..
npx react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res
rm -rf ./android/app/src/main/res/drawable-*
rm -rf ./android/app/src/main/res/raw
cd ./android/
./gradlew assembleRelease

Install my apk to any device and works well and upload the apk to play console and the error dissapear too!

[pixelknitter]

Confirmed for me this fixes the error it says it fixes for RN0.63.3 and android gradle plugin 4.1.0

Here's a patch-package compatible thing you can cut-and-paste

cat patches/react-native+0.63.3.patch

diff --git a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
index 6441d93..c28cbd4 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
+++ b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
@@ -302,6 +302,11 @@ afterEvaluate {
             enabled(currentBundleTask.enabled)
         }
 
+        // mergeResources task runs before the bundle file is copied to the intermediate asset directory from Android plugin 4.1+.
+        // This ensures to copy the bundle file before mergeResources task starts
+        def mergeResourcesTask = tasks.findByName("merge${targetName}Resources")
+        mergeResourcesTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
+
         packageTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
         if (buildPreBundleTask != null) {
             buildPreBundleTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)

@mikehardy For those discovering this solution, I thought I'd figure out exact instructions to patch from 0.63.3 as my project is not ready to migrate to 0.64; this seems like a good option. I've not used patch-package before, running patch-package patches/react-native+0.63.3.patch would require me to make the changes to the node_modules myself first, correct?

[mikehardy]

@pixelknitter - nope, yarn add patch-package && mkdir patches drop the patch file into there (named correctly! that's how patch-package figures out what package etc) then yarn patch-package should do it. Or all the equivalent-different-but-same npm commands.

If you are making a new patch (like how I generated this file) to fix some bug where you are the first person to find+fix, then you hack around in node_modules by hand yes, and run yarn patch-package <package name> and it will create a new patch for you with your new change in it for distribution like this patch here

[pixelknitter]

@pixelknitter - nope, yarn add patch-package && mkdir patches drop the patch file into there (named correctly! that's how patch-package figures out what package etc) then yarn patch-package should do it. Or all the equivalent-different-but-same npm commands.

If you are making a new patch (like how I generated this file) to fix some bug where you are the first person to find+fix, then you hack around in node_modules by hand yes, and run yarn patch-package <package name> and it will create a new patch for you with your new change in it for distribution like this patch here

Thanks for the detailed response!

[mouhsnimohamed]

if you'r using proguard add an exception to android/app/proguard-rules.pro:

-keep class com.mypackage.BuildConfig { *; }

com.mypackage should match the package value in your app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml file.

[xczaixian]

Confirmed for me this fixes the error it says it fixes for RN0.63.3 and android gradle plugin 4.1.0

Here's a patch-package compatible thing you can cut-and-paste

cat patches/react-native+0.63.3.patch

diff --git a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
index 6441d93..c28cbd4 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
+++ b/node_modules/react-native/react.gradle
@@ -302,6 +302,11 @@ afterEvaluate {
             enabled(currentBundleTask.enabled)
         }
 
+        // mergeResources task runs before the bundle file is copied to the intermediate asset directory from Android plugin 4.1+.
+        // This ensures to copy the bundle file before mergeResources task starts
+        def mergeResourcesTask = tasks.findByName("merge${targetName}Resources")
+        mergeResourcesTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
+
         packageTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
         if (buildPreBundleTask != null) {
             buildPreBundleTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)

thank you, but it's not work for me.
i supplement code below to make it work.

def compressAssetsTask = tasks.findByName("compress${targetName}Assets")
compressAssetsTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)

[mikehardy]

@xczaixian this is no longer a problem with current versions (0.64.1) - I'm not carrying this patch any longer as it has been integrated and released. Better to update and get the real fix

[9christian9]

Ciao,
I'm writing for all the people who, like me, have experienced this problem.

Affected Versions

• React Native: 0.67.x
• Gradle 7.2.x - 7.3.x

The common error

Unable to load script. Make sure you're either running a Metro server (run 'react-native start') or that your bundle 'index.android.bundle' is packaged correctly for release.

In short, index.android.bundle is missing.
Common problem when trying to use productFlavors.

The problem
I found that the problem is in a native react gradle task, to be precise in the copy task called currentAssetsCopyTask located in react.gradlefile.
As I understand, this "task" is responsible for copying the assets and in particular index.android.bundle and pasting them into the temporary directories used to generate the APK.

The solution
I created a repo that with a js script solves the problem before building the android app
https://github.com/9christian9/FIX-Android-productFlavors-RN0.67-gradle7.2-7.3

I hope this will help.
With ♥ by Christian