Dependency 'androidx.webkit:webkit:1.5.0' requires 'compileSdkVersion' to be set to 32 or higher

Question

According to the documentation for "webview_flutter", the package requires Android SDK 20+. Immediately after running flutter pub add webview_flutter and restarting my app (without even attempting to use WebView yet), I'm greeted with the following error:

One or more plugins require a higher Android SDK version.
Fix this issue by adding the following to /Users/chris/Projects/app/android/app/build.gradle:
android {
  compileSdkVersion 32
  ...
}


FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:checkDebugAarMetadata'.
> A failure occurred while executing com.android.build.gradle.internal.tasks.CheckAarMetadataWorkAction
   > One or more issues found when checking AAR metadata values:

     Dependency 'androidx.webkit:webkit:1.5.0' requires 'compileSdkVersion' to be set to 32 or higher.
     Compilation target for module ':app' is 'android-31'

BUILD FAILED in 4s
Exception: Gradle task assembleDebug failed with exit code 1

The device I'm testing on and compiling for is running version 31.

My android/app/build.gradle file:

...

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'kotlin-android'
apply from: "$flutterRoot/packages/flutter_tools/gradle/flutter.gradle"

android {
    compileSdkVersion flutter.compileSdkVersion
    ndkVersion flutter.ndkVersion

    ...

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion flutter.minSdkVersion
        targetSdkVersion flutter.targetSdkVersion
        versionCode flutterVersionCode.toInteger()
        versionName flutterVersionName
    }

    ...
}

flutter {
    source '../..'
}

dependencies {
    implementation "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:$kotlin_version"
}

I've also attempted to change the minSdkVersion to what the docs suggest, to no avail:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 20
    }
}

I'll happily use an older version of webkit if it allows the compile sdk version to be lower, but I've tried flutter_webview versions 1.0.7 and 2.8.0 with the same result. How do I avoid this seemingly restrictive behaviour?

Will changing the compileSdkVersion to 32 as it suggests, still allow me to support devices using 31 or lower?

Answer 1

I fixed this issue by increasing sdk version to 33. Refer below code:

android {
ndkVersion "25.0.8775105"
compileSdkVersion 33
ndkVersion flutter.ndkVersion

compileOptions {
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}

kotlinOptions {
    jvmTarget = '1.8'
}

sourceSets {
    main.java.srcDirs += 'src/main/kotlin'
}

defaultConfig {
    // TODO: Specify your own unique Application ID (https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id.html).
    applicationId "com.anncad.news_app_flutter"
    // You can update the following values to match your application needs.
    // For more information, see: https://docs.flutter.dev/deployment/android#reviewing-the-build-configuration.
    minSdkVersion 21
    targetSdkVersion 33
    versionCode flutterVersionCode.toInteger()
    versionName flutterVersionName
}

buildTypes {
    release {
        // TODO: Add your own signing config for the release build.
        // Signing with the debug keys for now, so `flutter run --release` works.
        signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
    }
}

}