Adding conditional code into Gradle, this is a bit dirty since we can't explicitly test it but we'll just have to rely on jasmine

bin/templates/project/app/build.gradle

@@ -98,10 +98,12 @@ if (hasBuildExtras) {
 
 // Set property defaults after extension .gradle files.
 if (ext.cdvCompileSdkVersion == null) {
-    ext.cdvCompileSdkVersion = project.ext.defaultCompileSdkVersion
+    ext.cdvCompileSdkVersion = privateHelpers.getProjectTarget()
+    //ext.cdvCompileSdkVersion = project.ext.defaultCompileSdkVersion
 }
 if (ext.cdvBuildToolsVersion == null) {
-    ext.cdvBuildToolsVersion = project.ext.defaultBuildToolsVersion
+    ext.cdvBuildToolsVersion = privateHelpers.findLatestInstalledBuildTools()
+    //ext.cdvBuildToolsVersion = project.ext.defaultBuildToolsVersion
 }
 if (ext.cdvDebugSigningPropertiesFile == null && file('debug-signing.properties').exists()) {
     ext.cdvDebugSigningPropertiesFile = 'debug-signing.properties'

framework/cordova.gradle

@@ -29,7 +29,11 @@ String doEnsureValueExists(filePath, props, key) {
 
 String doGetProjectTarget() {
     def props = new Properties()
-    file('project.properties').withReader { reader ->
+    def propertiesFile = 'project.properties';
+    if(!(file(propertiesFile).exists())) {
+      propertiesFile = '../project.properties';
+    }
+    file(propertiesFile).withReader { reader ->
         props.load(reader)
     }
     return doEnsureValueExists('project.properties', props, 'target')