How to change default template layout files in Android Studio

Question

As you know every time you create new project with some activity, Android Studio generates a default activity_main.xml file with RelativeLayout as the root element and one T

Answer 1

in our course, we hacked the default activity. It worked as expected, still a side effect occured while upgrading from Android Studio 3 to 3.1. The installation wizard detected the default activity template was modified and we had to replace our hacked version with a stock one.

So I suggest creating your own templates in the way Android Studio expects it (ie, through the template options) for a smooth upgrade process.

Answer 2

You can do that by editing default template files, which are located in:

...\Android\Android Studio\plugins\android\lib\templates\activities

so for example, default layout file for template of EmptyActivity (note: this one is specific, the other ones have their own res folders) is located in:

...\Android\Android Studio\plugins\android\lib\templates\activities\common\root\res\layout\simple.xml.ftl

by simply replacing RelativeLayout with LinearLayout in your favourite text editor, you get what you want, but instead of that, I recommend you to make your own template, where you can define literally anything, according to your desires.

Edit: For the BlankActivity and a guide how to edit the other templates see this link: How to change a BlankActivity template default files and a guide how to do it for any others.