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 heavy projects, then there should be a hierarchy and sub-folders needed inside the layout folder.

for e.g.

layout
-- layout_personal
   -- personal_detail.xml
   -- personal_other.xml
--layout_address
  -- address1.xml
  -- address2.xml

Like the same way, we would like to have sub-folders for the large application, so is there any way to do so inside the android project?

I am able to create layout-personal and layout_address sub-folders inside the layout folder, but when the time comes to access the xml layout file using R.layout._______ , at that time there is no any xml layout pop-up inside the menu.

Answer 1

While all the proposals for multiple resource sets may work, the problem is that the current logic for the Android Studio Gradle plug-in will not update the resource files after they have changed for nested resource sets. The current implementation attempts to check the resource directories using startsWith(), so a directory structure that is nested (i.e. src/main/res/layout/layouts and src/main/res/layout/layouts_category2) will choose src/main/res/layout/layouts consistently and never actually update the changes. The end result is that you have to rebuild/clean the project each time.

I submitted a patch at https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/157971/ to try to help resolve things.

Answer 2

Not possible, but the layout folder is sorted by name. So, I prepend the layout file names with my package names. E.g. for the two packages "buying" and "playing":

buying_bought_tracks.xml
buying_buy_tracks.xml
playing_edit_playlist.xml
playing_play_playlist.xml
playing_show_playlists.xml

Answer 3

The answer is no.

I would like to draw your attention towards this book Pro Android 2 that states:

It is also worth noting a few constraints regarding resources. First, Android supports only a linear list of files within the predefined folders under res. For example, it does not support nested folders under the layout folder (or the other folders under res).

Second, there are some similarities between the assets folder and the raw folder under res. Both folders can contain raw files, but the files within raw are considered resources and the files within assets are not.

Note that because the contents of the assets folder are not considered resources, you can put an arbitrary hierarchy of folders and files within it.

Answer 4

• Step 1: Right click on layout - show in explorer
• Step 2: Open the layout folder and create the subfolders directly: layout_1, layout_2 ...
• Step 3: open layout_1 create folder layout (note: mandatory name is layout), open layout_2 folder create layout subdirectory (note: mandatory name is layout) ...
• Step 4: Copy the xml files into the layout subdirectories in layout_1 and layout_2
• Step 5: Run the code in buid.grade (module app) and hit sync now:

---

sourceSets {
    main {
        res.srcDirs =
            [
                'src / main / res / layout / layout_1'
                'src / main / res / layout / layout_2',
                'src / main / res'
            ]
    }
}

• Step 6: Summary: All the steps above will only help clustering folders and display in 'project' mode, while 'android' mode will display as normal.
• So I draw that maybe naming prefixes is as effective as clustering folders.

Answer 5

I think the most elegant solution to this problem (given that subfolders are not allowed) is to prepend the file names with the name of the folder you would have placed it inside of. For example, if you have a bunch of layouts for an Activity, Fragment, or just general view called "places" then you should just prepend it with places_my_layout_name. At least this solves the problem of organizing them in a way that they are easier to find within the IDE. It's not the most awesome solution, but it's better than nothing.

Answer 6

Check Bash Flatten Folder script that converts folder hierarchy to a single folder