Sort out dependency resolution

[ataulm]

We want strict versioning so that this library will only work if the host project's version of MDC matches this one.

This is because MDC look-and-feel can differ drastically from version to version (even minor versions 🙄) so we want users to be explicit when they use this and feel confident that the version they've defined in their project is the one they're seeing here.

[ataulm]

So you want that library to use some (default) version that you define, but allow users to use a different version if they prefer that, right?

By default, Gradle picks the latest version of a dependency (since there can only be one in a project).

The dependency team at Gradle has added quite some goodies lately in that space.

You probably want to define a certain good range that you allow for your library to work, and then define a preferred one that is used if there is none defined elsewehere. I think that is possible already. Let me find the docs…

https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/declaring_dependencies.html#sub:declaring_dependency_rich_version

me: For the MDC dependency, we want the users’ version to work - though ideally, they’ll keep MDC + this library in sync. We want to avoid the library to upgrade the user without them knowing.
You’d probably define a prefer version than. That is only used when there is no other definition.
me: so if they have a lower version in their project, gradle will use the lower one?
Yes, it should. I haven’t tried it myself, let me know if it does not work as expected.
You can combine that with a strictly range if you want to limit that flexibility.

I think that functionality is based on the Gradle-metadata format, so you need to make sure that this is published with your library.
https://blog.gradle.org/gradle-metadata-1.0