Step #2: Adding the Plugin Dependency

In that same buildscript closure, you will see a list of dependencies:

  dependencies {
    classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.0.2"
    classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.5.21"
  }

These represent sources of Gradle plugins, for helping us do more interesting things when we build our app.

Part of the Navigation component is a plugin, so we need to add another dependency to the buildscript roster. So, add this line to that dependencies closure:

    classpath "androidx.navigation:navigation-safe-args-gradle-plugin:$nav_version"

This pulls in the androidx.navigation:navigation-safe-args-gradle-plugin artifact, for the version number that we specified. We use string interpolation to add our nav_version value into the dependency, which is why this string uses double-quotes; in Gradle (and the Groovy language it is built upon), a single-quoted string cannot use string interpolation.

The banner should still be there, asking you to “Sync Now”. Continue to hold off, as we need to make changes to another Gradle file.