[SOLVED] Build throws dataBinding error "Value is null" after upgrading Gradle from 7.5 to 8.5

Build throws dataBinding error "Value is null" after upgrading Gradle from 7.5 to 8.5

I'm maintaining an older Java project that uses data binding.

After updating Android Studio to Ladybug version, I upgraded Gradle from 7.5 to 8.5. However, after I've done that, I am no longer able to build the project. Build output is showing this error:

Build file '/home/users/.../AndroidStudioProjects/.../.../app/build.gradle' line: 62

A problem occurred evaluating project ':app'.
> Value is null

where line 62 points to dataBinding in buildFeatures. Here is a snippet from build.gradle file:

buildFeatures {
    dataBinding {
        enabled = true
    }
}

Solution

After some digging, I wasn't able to find a similar issue nor the solution. Only after checking the official data binding documentation, I saw that data binding was not configured in the same way so I tried replacing:

dataBinding {
    enabled = true
}

with

dataBinding true

That indeed resulted in the project being able to build again.

The syntax dataBinding { enabled = true } is outdated and it is not supported in newer versions of the Android Gradle Plugin. Starting from AGP 4.1, dataBinding true is the correct way to use data binding.