Several Android-specific questions, while integrating Ads Mediation (15+ networks)

Questions
#1

I’m trying to develop native extension for AppLovin Max ads mediation (WIP Android only - AdColony, AppLovin, Pangle, Facebook, InMobi, Smaato, Tapjoy, Verizon, Vungle only adapters for now)

First, I want to say a “Great thank you” to @AGulev for Unity Ads and new-admob (which I use as template and example - I couldn’t have done anything without them).
And then I describe the problems faced while integrating ad-networks AAR-packages (and that may face anyone who will integrate ads mediation):

:white_check_mark: Java 8 Support (Smaato, Verizon) and element <queries> in <manifest> (AdMob, InMobi, myTarget, Pangle)
Workaroud: Use Defold 1.2.181 BETA (or above) with D8 support

:white_check_mark: Facebook Ads
Got an runtime-error on ads initialization:

Can't load Audience Network Dex. Please, check that audience_network.dex is inside of assets folder.
java.io.FileNotFoundException: audience_network.dex

Related to #5710
Workaroud: Manually add custom assets to native extension resources. In my case - copy audience-network-sdk-6.3.0.aar/assets/audience_network.dex to myextension/res/android/assets/audience_network.dex.
(also already there is PR - thanks Defold devs for fast fix)

:white_check_mark: 3rd party activity from ARR
Got an runtime-error while opening Mediation Debugger activity:

...
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.applovin.sdk.R$layout" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/lib/arm, /data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/base.apk!/lib/armeabi-v7a, /system/lib, /vendor/lib, /data/downloads, /data/priv-downloads]]
    at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
...

Workaroud: add package name to ext.manifest aaptExtraPackages section to force AAPT2 to generate R.class file in package namespace. ('com.applovin.sdk' in my case).
I’m not sure this is expected behaviour and I didn’t found this in navive extension manuals.

:x: Mintegral (not solved)
Got an runtime-error on ads initialization:

...
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.mintegral.msdk.out.MTGConfiguration" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/lib/arm, /data/app/com.defold.applovinexample/base.apk!/lib/armeabi-v7a, /system/lib, /vendor/lib, /data/downloads, /data/priv-downloads]]
    at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
...

Class com.mintegral.msdk.out.MTGConfiguration is present in classes2.dex (but not in main DEX) - seems related to legacy-multidex problem. Also this error may be related to Fb+Push issue

I tried to set minSdk=21 or change in manifest <application android:name="androidx.multidex.MultiDexApplication"> to avoid legacy-multidex but it didn’t help.

:x: AdMob / Google Ad Manager and Applovin conflict (not solved)
com.applovin:applovin-sdk:10.1.2 and com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.8.0 contains conflicting dependencies, got an D8 Compilation failed error:

Error in /tmp/.gradle/unpacked/com.google.android.gms-play-services-measurement-base-18.0.0.aar/classes.jar:com/google/android/gms/internal/measurement/zze.class:
Type com.google.android.gms.internal.measurement.zze is defined multiple times: /tmp/.gradle/unpacked/com.google.android.gms-play-services-measurement-base-18.0.0.aar/classes.jar:com/google/android/gms/internal/measurement/zze.class, /tmp/.gradle/unpacked/com.google.android.gms-play-services-measurement-impl-16.4.0.aar/classes.jar:com/google/android/gms/internal/measurement/zze.class
Compilation failed

I tried to play around ext.manifest aaptExcludePackages section, but looks like section is obsolete and I’ve got Error in 'extension-maxsdk/ext.manifest': Manifest context variable unsupported: aaptExcludePackages.

:x: myTarget (not solved)
Got an extender-error:

Missing 'package' key attribute on element package at [:com.my.target.mytarget-sdk-5.11.3:] 
AndroidManifest Validation failed

Not sure but it may be related to manifest-merger version don’t support Android 11 specific manifests.

And I will be grateful for any clues how to solve problems above…

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IronSource SDK native extension
#2

Note that we just now had to revert the support for d8 in the 1.2.181 BETA because it didn’t work with certain packages (e.g. facebook). http://d.defold.com/beta/ (ff5b94e)

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#3

Sad to hear this… But in any case, I’m happy with the fact that now we always can to build and run extender locally. And for me it’s a good opportunity to learn Docker at last.

PS I’m not sure (not an android specialist) but seems to run with --release flag D8 multidex behavior similar to DX (place classes in main dex while 64k methods limit not reached), but may affect other unwanted properties (strip debug info etc.)

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#4

We will reintroduce d8 support in the next release again.

I believe --debug is default for d8. But for it to work the java classes must be compiled (using javac) with the -g option to include the required debug info. D8 arguments: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/d8#general_usage

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