Can the Android layout folder contain subfolders?

Question

Right now, I\'m storing every XML layout file inside the \'res/layout\' folder, so it is feasible and simple to manage small projects, but when there is a case of large and

Answer 1

Small Problem

I am able to achieve subfolders by following the top answer to this question.

However, as the project grows bigger, you will have many sub-folders:

sourceSets {
    main {
        res.srcDirs =
            [
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingA',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingB',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingC',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingD',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingE',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingF',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingG',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingH',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/...many more',
                    'src/main/res'
            ]
    }
}

Not a big problem, but:

• it's not pretty as the list become very long.
• you have to change your app/build.gradle everytime you add a new folder.

---

Improvement

So I wrote a simple Groovy method to grab all nested folders:

def getLayoutList(path) {
    File file = new File(path)
    def throwAway = file.path.split("/")[0]
    def newPath = file.path.substring(throwAway.length() + 1)
    def array = file.list().collect {
        "${newPath}/${it}"
    }
    array.push("src/main/res");
    return array
}

Paste this method outside of the android {...} block in your app/build.gradle.

---

How to use

For a structure like this:

├── app <---------- TAKE NOTE
├── build
├── build.gradle
├── gradle
├── gradle.properties
├── gradlew
├── gradlew.bat
├── local.properties
└── settings.gradle

Use it like this:

android {
    sourceSets {
        main {
            res.srcDirs = getLayoutList("app/src/main/res/layouts/")
        }
    }
}

If you have a structure like this:

├── my_special_app_name <---------- TAKE NOTE
├── build
├── build.gradle
├── gradle
├── gradle.properties
├── gradlew
├── gradlew.bat
├── local.properties
└── settings.gradle

You will use it like this:

android {
    sourceSets {
        main {
            res.srcDirs = getLayoutList("my_special_app_name/src/main/res/layouts/")
        }
    }
}

---

Explanation

getLayoutList() takes a relative path as an argument. The relative path is relative to the root of the project. So when we input "app/src/main/res/layouts/", it will return all the subfolders' name as an array, which will be exactly the same as:

            [
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingA',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingB',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingC',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingD',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingE',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingF',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingG',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/somethingH',
                    'src/main/res/layouts/...many more',
                    'src/main/res'
            ]

Here's the script with comments for understanding:

def getLayoutList(path) {
    // let's say path = "app/src/main/res/layouts/
    File file = new File(path)

    def throwAway = file.path.split("/")[0]
    // throwAway = 'app'

    def newPath = file.path.substring(throwAway.length() + 1) // +1 is for '/'
    // newPath = src/main/res/layouts/

    def array = file.list().collect {
        // println "filename: ${it}" // uncomment for debugging
        "${newPath}/${it}"
    }

    array.push("src/main/res");
    // println "result: ${array}" // uncomment for debugging

    return array
}

---

Hope it helps!