How to gradle build?

So our plugins run out of those 64K functions in DEX build, and now I try my hands on the gradle building but I thinks I’m missing some fundamental information how to do that.

Can someone please give me a step by step instructions how to make a build from editor to phone using gradle?

Environment:
OS X 10.11.6
Unity 5.5.2p3
javac 1.8.0_102
Android Studio 2.3
Android SDK Tools 25.2.5
Android SDK Platform-tools 25.0.4
Android SDK Build-tools 25.0.2
Android 7.1.1 (API 25)
Android Support Repository 47
Google Play services 39
Google Repository 45

Steps I managed to take this far:

  1. Made a project
  2. Installed too many plugins on it for Dalvik build
  3. Followed instructions from Unity - Manual: Gradle for Android
  4. Ran in the problems even with that
  5. Followed instructions to export the project.
  6. Installed gradle-3.4.1
  7. Added it to /etc/paths
  8. Ran gradle in the exported folder (where the build.gradle is) and got a following:

Starting a Gradle Daemon (subsequent builds will be faster)

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

  • Where:
    Build file ‘/Users/username/Desktop/Projects/android_test/Project01/build.gradle’ line: 20

  • What went wrong:
    A problem occurred evaluating root project ‘Project01’.

Failed to apply plugin [id ‘com.android.application’]
Gradle version 2.10 is required. Current version is 3.4.1. If using the gradle wrapper, try editing the distributionUrl in /Users/username/Desktop/Projects/android_test/Project01/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties to gradle-2.10-all.zip

  • Try:
    Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED

Total time: 3.493 secs

So what did I do wrong and what I am missing?

Starting with Unity 5.5, you can export your Android game using Gradle (which comes installed with the Unity editor).

I suggest you gave that a try.

I did that in step 5, then what?

You shouldn’t run gradle from the command line; you should select “Gradle” as the build system inside Unity and let it run the build. If you run into issues, feel free to contact me via this link.