Gradle Unable to Load Google playServicesVersion

Question

I am attempting to compile my application and am receiving the below error:

I am not sure what is causing it, but I my intention is to have gradle-auto-update those dependencies my using the $playServicesVersion key.

Answer 1

The $ references project level variables. Since you're creating a new project, these variables aren't going to be available. They can be defined in either the root build.gradle or project level build.gradle though the point of having them is to be able to use them across sub-modules so you should put them in your root build.gradle.

In root build.gradle:

ext {
    playServicesVersion = "10.0.1"
}

Other SO post explaining more of this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/20436423/4548500.