Programming Tutorials

  You have likely encountered this error immediately after upgrading your Flutter project's dependencies or bumping your Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) version to 8.0 or higher: > Task :app:processDebugMainManifest FAILED Error: Namespace not specified. Please specify a namespace in the module's build.gradle file like so: android { namespace 'com.example.myapp' } This build failure is not a Flutter bug; it is a deliberate architectural change in the Android build ecosystem that breaks older project templates. The Root Cause: AGP 8.0 and the Manifest Prior to Android Gradle Plugin 8.0, the  package  attribute in your  AndroidManifest.xml  served two distinct purposes: Application ID:  It uniquely identified your app on the Google Play Store and on the device. Java/Kotlin Namespace:  It determined the package structure for generated classes like  R.java  (resources) and  BuildConfig.java . AGP 8.0 officially removed support for using ...

  The migration to Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.0 represents a significant shift in the Android build ecosystem. For Flutter developers upgrading their   android/   directory—often to support newer Java versions or meet Play Store requirements—the build process frequently terminates with this error: > Task :app:processDebugMainManifest FAILED Execution failed for task ':app:processDebugMainManifest'. > com.android.builder.errors.EvalIssueException: Namespace not specified. Please specify a namespace in the module's build.gradle file like so: android { namespace 'com.example.myapp' } This error is not a suggestion; it is a breaking change enforcement. This post outlines the architectural reason for this shift and details the exact implementation required to resolve it in a Flutter environment. The Root Cause: Manifest vs. Gradle decoupling Historically, the  package  attribute in  AndroidManifest.xml  served two distinct purposes: A...