Android-components: [Spike] Upgrade to Java 11

[mcarare]

This issue was raised on upgrading to SDK 30 here: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/pull/9568.

In order to run robolectric with SDK 30 we need to update the robolectric version but also to use Java 9. This will imply that all devs (and contributors) should download/ install Java 9 or higher because the embedded Java version in Android Studio(1.8) is not suitable.

The other option is to continue to use SDK 28 with robolectric and adjust the failing tests. I am not sure what other implications this would have.

Do we plan to upgrade to using Java 9 or is it too much trouble at the moment?

[Amejia481]

@pocmo if we update to Java 9, do have update the CI severs (images) ?

[pocmo]

Yeah, that is likely, we currently use Java 8 in the CI images:
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/blob/master/taskcluster/docker/base/Dockerfile#L35

I think I recall that something else will require Java 11+ soon? Was it the upcoming Gradle plugin version? May make sense to switch to 11+ immediately if possible.

[mcarare]

I think I recall that something else will require Java 11+ soon? Was it the upcoming Gradle plugin version? May make sense to switch to 11+ immediately if possible.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/12/announcing-android-gradle-plugin.html

[Amejia481]

Yeah, that is likely, we currently use Java 8 in the CI images:
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/blob/master/taskcluster/docker/base/Dockerfile#L35

I think I recall that something else will require Java 11+ soon? Was it the upcoming Gradle plugin version? May make sense to switch to 11+ immediately if possible.

Yes agree, many of our decencies are requiring Java 11

[mcarare]

Also, installing Java 11 will be easier as no oracle account is needed to download JDK (can be done using brew on macOS, for example.)
So, should I rename the topic to "upgrade to Java 11"? 😄