[dkhawk]

Overview

This PR modernizes the build configuration and dependencies for both the navigation-sample and map-sample projects on top of Navigation SDK 8.0.0, AGP 9.2.0, Gradle 9.4.1, and compileSdk / targetSdk 37. It migrates the Groovy build scripts to Kotlin DSL, introduces Gradle Version Catalogs (gradle/libs.versions.toml), applies weekly dependency updates (superseding #29), integrates android-maps-utils 6.1.0, and migrates navigation-sample to Places SDK 6.0.2.

Changes Included

• Kotlin DSL & Version Catalogs: Replaced all build.gradle and settings.gradle files with .gradle.kts scripts and centralized dependencies in gradle/libs.versions.toml across both map-sample and navigation-sample.
• Java 17: Updated compile and Kotlin JVM targets to Java 17.
• Dependency Updates (Superseding chore(deps): weekly minor and patch dependency updates #29):
  • com.google.android.libraries.navigation:navigation: 8.0.0
  • com.google.android.libraries.places:places: 4.0.0 → 6.0.2
  • com.google.maps.android:android-maps-utils: 6.1.0 (with com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps excluded to prevent duplicate class conflicts with Navigation SDK)
  • androidx.appcompat:appcompat: 1.7.1 → 1.8.0
  • androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout: 2.2.1 → 2.2.2
  • androidx.transition:transition: 1.7.0 → 1.7.2
  • com.google.auto.value:auto-value: 1.6.2 → 1.11.1
  • com.google.errorprone:error_prone_annotations: 2.11.0 → 2.51.0
  • joda-time:joda-time: 2.10.14 → 2.15.0
  • com.github.bumptech.glide:glide: 4.13.2 → 5.0.9
  • com.google.guava:guava: 31.0.1-android → 33.5.0-android
• Places SDK v6.0.2 Migration:
  • Extracted Places SDK initialization into NavigationSampleApplication using Places.initializeWithNewPlacesApiEnabled(...).
  • Migrated PlacePickerActivity from the removed AutocompleteSupportFragment to PlaceAutocomplete.IntentBuilder() with ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult() and FetchPlaceRequest (forwarding the session token and requesting ID, DISPLAY_NAME, LOCATION, and TYPES).
  • Updated NavFragmentActivity, NavViewActivity, and SwappingMapAndNavActivity from place.latLng to place.location.
• Developer Experience & Docs: Added :app:installAndLaunch Gradle tasks and updated both README.md files to document secrets.properties API key configuration and Version Catalog usage.

[LoyalAbbas]

Hi @dkhawk Nice cleanup overall! A few small things before merging:
let's remove BOB_DATA/ from .gitignore and drop Places API (New) from map-sample/README.md since map-sample doesn't use Places.
In NavigationSampleApplication and PlacePickerActivity, could we guard against a blank/missing MAPS_API_KEY to avoid a cold-start crash, log fetchPlace failures instead of failing silently, and switch getParcelableExtra to IntentCompat.getParcelableExtra (plus remove the leftover imports in SplashScreenActivity)?
Lastly, since AGP 9.2 has built-in Kotlin support, we can drop the unused kotlin-android plugin declaration and the no-op annotationProcessor entries in the Kotlin-only navigation-sample.

[dkhawk]

Thanks for the review @LoyalAbbas! Addressed all of your feedback in 0f8f1a6 and d0f1d52:

• Removed BOB_DATA/ from .gitignore
• Dropped Places API (New) from map-sample/README.md Prerequisites
• Guarded against a missing/blank/placeholder MAPS_API_KEY in NavigationSampleApplication and PlacePickerActivity (!Places.isInitialized()) to avoid cold-start crashes
• Logged fetchPlace and PlaceAutocompleteActivity.RESULT_ERROR failures in PlacePickerActivity
• Switched getParcelableExtra to IntentCompat.getParcelableExtra in PlacePickerActivity and removed the leftover imports in SplashScreenActivity
• Removed the unused kotlin-android plugin declaration in map-sample and the no-op annotationProcessor entries in navigation-sample (note: kept alias(libs.plugins.kotlin.android) apply false 2.3.0 on the root navigation-sample/build.gradle.kts classpath so AGP 9.2.0's built-in Kotlin compiler uses kotlin-gradle-plugin:2.3.0 instead of AGP's bundled 2.2.10, which is needed to read the Kotlin 2.4.0 metadata in places:6.0.2 and android-maps-utils:6.1.0)