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:

<project root>
├── 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:

<project root>
├── 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!

Answer 2

Now with Android Studio and Gradle, you can have multiple resource folders in your project. Allowing to organize not only your layout files but any kind of resources.

It's not exactly a sub-folder, but may separte parts of your application.

The configuration is like this:

sourceSets {
    main {
        res.srcDirs = ['src/main/res', 'src/main/res2']
    }
}

Check the documentation.