Short Version: As the title says, I'm looking for the bad sides of this type of project. By a maven-based project, I mean a project that have been imported from Eclipse ADT and it contains no gradle file at all.
Long version: I've been assigned to an android-only team that worked with Eclipse ADT using Maven (pom.xml with m2e plugin) for dependencies and Maven for the continuous integration (CI) on Bamboo. Since the release are made using Bamboo, maintaining the pom.xml file is crucial. I've read that support for Eclipse ADT will be dropped and that Android Studio is based primarely on Gradle so I thought that it was time to migrate. I've made some quick tryout of migration and one of them was to keep a "maven-based" project (no change to the structure). Everything compiled but I noticed some functionnalities like automatic signing on build weren't available since they are stored in the gradle file only. So, is this bad to use a maven-based project in Android Studio and if so, why (cons). I need to know to make the choice of staying with Eclipse ADT OR using a maven-based project on Android Studio OR switching completely to Android Studio with Gradle which will mean to change the setup on Bamboo completely and using Groovy plugins which cost 150$.
I know to know before I make my decision! Thanks!
Android Studio is specifically built around the assumption that you are using Gradle. What you are experiencing is the built in support for Maven based projects which is inherited from IntelliJ IDEA, the Java IDE which Android Studio is based on.
If you'd like to continue to use Maven, you'll have a better time using the IntelliJ Android support rather than Android Studio. Note that it too is not directly supported by the Android Tools team so all new tool features will most likely be limited to Gradle (as has been the case for some time).