Android Jetpack Migration Guide

What is Android Jetpack?
In a nutshell, Jetpack is Google’s official suite of libraries, tools, and guidance to enable developers to write high-quality apps more easily. Please read here for more details.
Why you should migrate to Jetpack?
The Jetpack libraries are a rebranding of the existing Android libraries. Google took this opportunity to do some much needed clean up of their Android libraries.
Migrating to Jetpack brings the following benefits:
  • Simplify app architecture by using Jetpack components.
  • Make it quick and easy to build robust, high-quality apps.
  • To be able to continue to use Google libraries and new Google updates,
    meaning that it will become a hard requirement if you want to continue to use the latest Google libraries.
  • If you want to target the latest Android version, then you have to migrate to Jetpack. Without that, you will be able to target your application only to the Android API level 28 (Android 9).
Right now all of the Android Support Libraries have already migrated to Jetpack. Additionally, all new libraries supported by Google will be released as part of Jetpack.
Google libraries that are part of Jetpack
  • Room - modern Android database
  • Livedata - asynchronous UI updates
  • ViewModel - for MVVM architecture
  • All libraries that previously were developed under Support Library project, for example AppCompat, CardView, ConstraintLayout, Multidex
Starting with version
2.48.0
, our SDK will be built with Jetpack. To make sure that your application will handle this correctly, you should consider migrating your application to Jetpack.
NOTE: You don’t have to migrate your project, if:
  • You are already using Jetpack.
  • You don’t use our PayButton integration.
How to verify if you need to migrate?
Open the
build.gradle
 file and check if you have any
com.android.support.*
 dependencies and the
io.payworks:mpos.android.ui
 dependency (PayButton). If you do have both of these dependencies then you DO need to migrate.
NOTE: Even if you don’t have to migrate your project yet, it is very highly recommended to do so. Without migrating to AndroidX you will not receive the latest updates from Google libraries (like AppCompat).
How to migrate?
  1. Update your project to use Support Library version
    28.0.0
  2. Run automatic migration built-in Android Studio, click
    Refactor -> Migrate to AndroidX
     option. Please use the latest Android Studio version available at the moment.
  3. Check if any other third-party libraries you may be using need additional migration steps.
  4. Make sure you are able to compile and run your project.
  5. Update PayButton and other Payworks dependencies to version:
    2.48.0
  6. Right now you are ready to update your application to target the latest Android version - you can set
    targetSdkVersion 29
     in your
    build.gradle
    .
If you face any problems during the migration process, please refer to official migration guide provided by Google.
Verify if migration is successful
After a successful migration you should find the following changes in your project:
  • In the
    gradle.properties
     file you should see the following lines:
    android.useAndroidX=true
    android.enableJetifier=true
  • In the
    build.gradle
     file you should see that all
    com.android.support.*
     dependencies are changed to
    androidx.*
     dependencies. For example:
    com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0
     should be changed to:
    androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.0.0
  • All imports in your classes and xml layouts are changed to use the
    androidx.*
     namespace.
    For example:
    import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity
     should be replaced by:
    import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
    In xml layouts:
    android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
     should be replaced by:
    androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
Additional resources