Docs inconsistency about the location of apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

[andersonaddo]

I was just integrating the new Crashlytics SDK (#3580) into my project, and I ran into this little docs inconsistency.

When setting up the /app module, the docs state that apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services' should be placed at the very bottom of the /android/app/build.gradle file.

However, in the new setup docs for Crashlytics, that command is actually placed at the top instead. Clearly, order does matter, since apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services' is always placed after apply plugin: 'com.android.application', and apply plugin: 'com.google.firebase.crashlytics' is meant to be placed after apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services' (wherever that may be).

So what there a reason the docs seemed so insistent that it should be at the bottom? I didn't get any build errors when I moved it to the top

[andersonaddo]

I've looked at StackOverflow and it looks like the firebase docs used to specify that they should be at the bottom. Example 1, Example 2.

They don't anymore, though, so I guess maybe our docs are outdated.

[mikehardy]

I may be wrong about the root cause but I think if you don't get this correct, you'll see this with current versions of react-native-firebase that are checking for google API availability:

/home/mike/work/Kullki/ksocialscore/packages/public-app/node_modules/@react-native-firebase/app/android/src/reactnative/java/io/invertase/firebase/utils/ReactNativeFirebaseUtilsModule.java:29: error: cannot find symbol
import com.google.android.gms.common.GoogleApiAvailability;
                                    ^
  symbol:   class GoogleApiAvailability
  location: package com.google.android.gms.common
/home/mike/work/Kullki/ksocialscore/packages/public-app/node_modules/@react-native-firebase/app/android/src/reactnative/java/io/invertase/firebase/utils/ReactNativeFirebaseUtilsModule.java:80: error: cannot find symbol
    GoogleApiAvailability gapi = GoogleApiAvailability.getInstance();
    ^
  symbol:   class GoogleApiAvailability
  location: class ReactNativeFirebaseUtilsModule
/home/mike/work/Kullki/ksocialscore/packages/public-app/node_modules/@react-native-firebase/app/android/src/reactnative/java/io/invertase/firebase/utils/ReactNativeFirebaseUtilsModule.java:80: error: cannot find symbol
    GoogleApiAvailability gapi = GoogleApiAvailability.getInstance();

I got those android compile errors at any rate, remembered this issue and moved the plugin up, then it seemed to work - I may only be describing a tangential problem but the correlation is strong 🤷‍♂️