[Vertex AI] Cannot access class 'com.google.firebase.Firebase'. Check your module classpath for missing or conflicting dependencies.

[thatfiredev]

[REQUIRED] Step 2: Describe your environment

• Android Studio version: Koala.2
• Firebase Component: Vertex AI in Firebase
• Component version: 16.0.0-beta05

[REQUIRED] Step 3: Describe the problem

The latest version (16.0.0-beta05) of the Vertex AI in Firebase SDK is no longer exporting the Firebase object, resulting in the error below:

Unresolved reference 'Firebase'.
Cannot access class 'com.google.firebase.Firebase'. Check your module classpath for missing or conflicting dependencies.

I suspect this is because in #6186 we changed the firebase-common dependency from api() to implementation().

Note that this doesn't break for developers that are using the Vertex AI alongside other Firebase services (like auth, or functions, etc) since the other service will pull firebase-common. It only breaks for developers solely using Vertex AI.

Steps to reproduce:

• Create a new Android project
• Add the com.google.firebase:firebase-vertexai:16.0.0-beta05 dependency to the app's build.gradle file.
• Attempt to call Firebase.vertexAI.generativeModel(...)
• Notice that Firebase is highlighted in red by the compiler.

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I have opened #6272 to address this.

[thatfiredev]

Fixed in 16.0.0-beta06