What is the difference between Configuration: Android Endpoints and Configuration: Endpoints in the build.gradle file in Android Studio?

Question

In my application module (which depends on my backend endpoint module) I have the following

dependencies { compile project(path: ':backend', configuration: 'android-endpoints') } 

But the following also works.

 dependencies { compile project(path: ':backend', configuration: 'endpoints') } 

I see that the generated .jar file dependency has "android" added to its name in the first case. However, I suspect that there is a more fundamental difference between the two. Somebody knows?

I found the following cryptic link here: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gradle-appengine-plugin search "How to use the compilation dependency on the client libraries of my endpoints from another project?" in the FAQ section.

Thanks for your help and I hope this is not a dumb question.

Answer 1

android-endpoints adds a few additional transitive dependencies to the artifact, which are necessary for using endpoints with android, also removes some that are already included in android.

included: "google-api-client-android"
excluded: "org.apache.httpcomponents: httpclient"

endpoints only adds “google-api-client” and doesn’t exclude anything.