cronet_http: depend on org.chromium.net:cronet-api instead

[kmod-midori]

The current implementation depends on com.google.android.gms:play-services-cronet, which pulls in the Google Play services. This might be undesirable for apps that do not want to have GMS code in them (and those who mainly target Chinese users and do not have GMS available).

We should depend on Chromium's API package, which will find the relevant dependencies automatically if they are declared. Additional documentations should be provided to the users on how to choose a Cronet provider (similar to https://exoplayer.dev/network-stacks.html#cronet).

[brianquinlan]

Hey @chengyuhui ,

So the idea is that:

1. cronet_http would depend on com.google.android.gms:play-services-cronet
2. the user would then have to depend on either com.google.android.gms:play-services-cronet or org.chromium.net:cronet-embedded.
3. the user would then create the appropriate CronetEngine

?

That seems like a lot of user complexity. I wonder if there is a way that we can use this one repo to release two packages: one with cronet embedded and one using play services?

[kmod-midori]

That's another valid idea, but might be difficult unless we are copying code around...

[brianquinlan]

Ideally, someone interested could create a fork of cronet_http and configure it to use org.chromium.net:cronet-embedded. That way users could pick the implementation that they want without having to deal with any complex configuration.

[AlexV525]

If the only difference in the implementation is importing and the implementation definition, it can be ideally done with different branches and setup a proper continue integration.