Develop Reference

Android/Cordova: Where to add files?

I have successfully created a project with the cordova command line tool and I am able to import this project in the Android Development Toolkit as well as run it in the emulator.
Now, I see the example files in the folder "/www". When I change these files, build the project (using CIT) and run it in the emulator, I do not see the changes I made. I assume that I need to change other files or put them in another folder. The assets folder is empty besides a file that says that I need to delete the exclusion filters to see the files. Do I need to change the files in there?
???
Thanks for any hint!

Once a cordova project has been created. It has a root /www folder where all resources are eligible to be shared on the added platforms (which you intends to add)
You should modify here. though its possible to modify resources per platform. (read more API)
Once any shared resource i.e. inside the main www folder are modified then you have to issue cordova build in order to reflect the changes in the corresponding platforms (which you have added)
You are unable to see the assets folder resources. Because by default it is hidden. Just select the project and go in properties and then remove the checks.
Import existing Android project --> select project --> right click select properties --> Resource --> Resource filters.
From the Exclude All , remove both items. This will show you resources inside assets folder.

How to have ant, ignore (some) drawables directory

I have the following scenario: On my build tree I have, under res/ some drawables directories for higher definition devices that I don't always want to pack when I build my app for lower res devices. It seems that ant will put on the apk all that it finds under res.
Is there a way that I can selectively tell ant 'ignore my xhdpi resources' ?

The answer from #user1236327 consisting of using ant is just fine.
I'd like to suggest another approach using Android libraries.
Use several Android libraries, one per resolution.
So your projects could be structured the following way:
1: Android library for highres drawables
2: Android library for lowres drawables
3: Android library for main source code and default drawables
4: Android project for highres phones
Includes libraries 1 and 3
5: Android project for lowres phones
Includes libraries 2 and 3
Of course, note that it is generally recommended to have one single build containing all resolutions drawables.

I have almost the same problem except I copy different images into the res folder depending on which build I am doing. In my build.xml I just copy the images over from a separate directory into the resource out folder:
<target name="banner_copy">
<copy file="${my_source_banner_dir}/my_banner_file.png" tofile="${out.res.absolute.dir}/drawable-land-hdpi/my_banner_file.png" overwrite="true"></copy>
</target>
You can use the copy ant task to adjust what you need. You can just copy in the files when you are doing your high resolution builds into your hdpi or whatever res folder you are using for higher resolution images. One thing you will have to be aware of is to make sure there is a file in one of your res folders to make sure when you are developing eclipse can find the R.drawable. file and creates the generated ID in R.java. Otherwise it will complain.

How to create an android library project with no resources

I want to create a library project with just java/Android classes - but no resources. Basically it will contain helpers for IO etc. I have manually deleted the resources etc - the project is here - but I wonder if this can be done out of the box - or is my way not proper
NB: I need Android classes - so creating a regular java project is not an option (?)
Edit : if there is no out of the box way is there any catch in deleting the (edit: contents of the) res/ folder and the support library ? I would appreciate a 1-2-3 procedure

You need to keep project structure, incl. having res/ foder with drawable/ etc, but these folders can be empty. There's no requirement for your library to reference any drawable.
Others suggest it's mandatory for "app icon" but your library does not need any <application> entry in manifest, so it does not need any icon. The same applies to values/ and layout/ folders. Your library project have to have these folders (as required by build process), but having no file in them (so basically keeping them empty) is perfectly fine and valid and meets your requirements.

I believe you should keep all the required folders (including res) but you can leave them empty. Here is a guide for it.
http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-eclipse.html#SettingUpLibraryProject

I believe you cannot delete the res folder completely since the app icon is contained in it. However you can delete the default layout if you do not need it and any other content that is required for the app to work.
If you would like to access the Android classes you will have to create an Android project.
I hope this helps.

I have created a git repository to illustrate - I created a vanilla eclipse android library project (screens) added a git ignore (bin/) and then proceeded to delete unneeded resources (all the contents of the res/ folder) along with libs/ and assets/ and edit the manifest. The changes are in this commit for reference. Cleaning the project removed R.java along.
Will be adding more (.gitattributes and eclipse settings for android) but this is for now.

how to reference an asset in a library project

In a class belonging to a Library project I call:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/info.html", null);
Unfortunately, this only works if I duplicate the file info.html into the Application's project asset folder as well.
Is there a way to tell an Android library code: "look for this file in the library's assets folder, not in the application's assets folder" ?

This answer is out of date, the gradle build system and AAR files support assets.
From the Android Docs:
Library projects cannot include raw assets
The tools do not support the use of raw asset files (saved in the assets/ directory) in a library project. Any asset resources used by an application must be stored in the assets/ directory of the application project itself. However, resource files saved in the res/ directory are supported.
If you want to include files from a Library project, you'll need to put it in the resources instead of the assets. If you're trying to load HTML files from your library project into a WebView, this means that you'll have to go a more roundabout method than the usual asset URL. Instead you'll have to read the resource data and use something like loadData.

This is now possible using the Gradle build system.
Testing with Android Studio 0.5.0 and v0.9 of the Android Gradle plugin, I've found that files such as
MyLibProject/src/main/assets/test.html
are correctly packaged in the final application and can be accessed at runtime via the expected URL:
file:///android_asset/test.html

You can achieve this by creating a symbolic link in the project's asset folder that points to the directory in the library project.
Then you can access as below:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/folder_in_a_libary_project/info.html", null);

Okay. Ive been stressing out and losing sleep about this for a while. Im the type of person that loves API creation, and HATES complicated integration.
There arent many solutions around on the internet, so im quite proud of what Ive discovered with a bit of Eclipse Hackery.
It turns out that when you put a file in the Android Lib's /assets folder. The target apk will capture this and place it on the root of the APK archive. Thus, making general access fail.
This can be resolved by simply creating a Raw Java Library, and placing all assets in there, ie (JAVALIB)/assets/fileX.txt.
You can in turn then include this as a Java Build Path Folder Source in
Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Source > Link Source.
Link Source
Click on Variables. and Add New Variable, ie VAR_NAME_X. location : ../../(relative_path_to_assets_project)
Click Ok
Now, when you build and run your app, the assets folder in the APK will contain your (GLOBAL Library) files as you intended.
No need to reconfigure android internals or nothing. Its all capable within a few clicks of Eclipse.

I confirm that Daniel Grant's approach works for at least the following situation: target project does NOT have an asset folder (or the folder is empty, so you can safely delete it).
I did not setup any variable.
Simply setup a LinkSource as follows (just an example)
Linked folder location: /home/matthew/workspace_moonblink/assetsForAdvocacy/assets
Folder name : assets
The "assetsForAdvocacy" is a Java project, (created with New- Project - Java Project) with empty src folder, and a new folder named "assets", which now provides the entire assets folder for the target project.
This is a fairly straightforward way within Eclipse to provide assets re-use across many different projects IF they do not already have assets, good enough to get going with. I would probably want to enhance it to become a content provider in the long run, but that is a lot more development.
My project accesses the assets with the following code:
String advocacyFolderInAssets = "no_smoking/"; //a folder underneath assets/
String fn =advocacyFolderInAssets+imageFilename;
Bitmap pristineBitmapForAdvocacy = getBitmapFromAsset(context, fn);
I use Motodev Studio 3.1.0 on Ubuntu. It would not let me 'merge' a new assets folder in the new assets-only project onto an existing assets folder in the target project.

If you want to use a setup where multiple derivate products are created from one library you might consider using svn:externals or similar solution in your SCM system. This will also do the trick that static assets like online help may be versioned seperately from the android source code.

I found this older question, it might help you, too.
This is the official way Google uses to archive this (from the above post): Link

Is there any way to make ADT project directory layout more flexible?

I asked this question on the android-developers group but didn't get any response, so I thought I'd try here.
The ADT eclipse plugin seems to have a pretty rigid idea of how an Android project should be structured - per http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/eclipse-adt.html, it needs to have the AndroidManifest.xml file at the root level of the project, plus res, assets, gen and src folders at the top level, and so on.
I'm wondering if it's possible to get the plugin to be a little more flexible with the layout it recognizes. In particular, I've been using a build plugin for the (scala-based) simple-build-tool, which expects projects to be laid out in a more Maven-like fashion, like so:
src/
main/
AndroidManifest.xml
assets/
res/
scala/
java/
test/
resources
<files to include in test jar here>
scala/
<test Scala sources>
java/
<test Java sources>
(see the simple-build-tool docs).
This is a layout I'm used to from maven-based java development. When I load a project like it up in ADT, though, I get a lot of complaints about a missing AndroidManifest.xml, a missing res directory, and so on. These things are all present, they just aren't where ADT expects them to be.
I don't necessarily need to use ADT to build my project, but I'd like to use it (and Eclipse) for editing. Can anybody tell me whether it's possible to make it more flexible in the directories it uses to find various Android-related resources?
Also, can anyone tell me whether the ADT plugin is open-source? I can't seem to find a link to its source code anywhere.
(As a note, I've also been trying to wrangle sbt to just do things in a way that ADT likes, and it's probably possible to do but it seems very tedious.)

Here's is where you can find the ADT source for r3 0.94, couldn't find the latest though

I do not believe you can change the Android project structure and have ADT understand it. It would be "very tedious" to do that even with the Ant-based command-line builds -- you'd have to make your own copy of the various Android Ant tasks, modify them to suit (and hope the underlying build tools allow what you want), then maintain them forever in the face of Android SDK updates.
Your structure is actually fairly close to the Android expectation, if you consider main/ to be the Android project. If you can convince sbt to allow src/ instead of java/ there, and if sbt won't complain about the resulting bin/ and gen/ you will wind up with in main/ after a compile, you might get it to work.

As far as I can tell, ADT requires those folder names, but there is a workaround: you can create "linked folders" in Eclipse. These are similar to symbolic links in Unix, but are stored in the Eclipse .project file instead of the filesystem, so they are only visible to Eclipse.
You can create one by right clicking in Eclipse the root of the project, and then selecting "Create New Folder". Click on "Advanced" and select the option to create a linked folder. Then type in where you want it to link to. You can use PROJECT_LOC at the begining to specify the project directory, so for your example you would type PROJECT_LOC/src/main/res as the folder to link to, and use the automatically generated name of "res" for the created folder.