migrate-android-res

A gradle plugin to migrate Android resources at build time

Usage

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.github.kxfeng:migrate-android-res:1.1.1'
    }
}
apply plugin: 'com.github.kxfeng.migrate-android-res'
migrateAndroidRes {
    // this plugin will make some changes (modify and delete files) to your working directory, so you'd
    // better enable this after you have saved your working files.
    enable = true
    // task name (any name you like) 
    layout_zh_task {
        from "layout-zh"                     // one source folder 
        to "layout-zh-rCN", "layout-zh-rTW"  // multiple destination folders
    }
    values_zh_task {
        from "values-zh"
        to "values-zh-rCN", "values-zh-rTW"
    }
}

Description

From Android 7.0, the strategy of resolving language resources has changed (document). But for Chinese resources, the strategy is not as described as the document. For Android 7.0+, there are two seperated language define:

Language	Resource qualifier
Simplified Chinese (Hans)	zh zh_CN zh_SG
Traditional Chinese (Hant)	zh-TW zh-HK zh-MO

Android 7.0+ test result:

User Settings	App Resources	Resource Resolution
zhCN#Hans	default (en) zh zh_TW	Try zh_CN => Fail Try children of Hans => zh Use zh
zhHK#Hans	default (en) zh zh_TW zh_HK	Try children of Hans => zh Use zh
zhHK#Hant	default (en) zh zh_TW	Try zh_HK => Fail Try children of Hant => zh_TW Use zh_TW
zhHK#Hant	default (en) zh	Try zh_HK => Fail Try children of Hant => Fail Use default
zhTW#Hant	default (en) zh	Try zh_TW => Fail Try children of Hant => Fail Use default

Android 6.0 test result:

User Settings	App Resources	Resource Resolution
zh_CN	default (en) zh zh_TW	Try zh_CN => Fail Try zh => zh Use zh
zh_TW	default (en) zh zh_CN	Try zh_TW => Fail Try zh => zh Use zh

So, to support Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese in all devices, I suggeste to provide two resources: zh-CN for Hans and zh-TW for Hant.

However, when you build an app, there maybe some resources which are same for both Hans and Hant. So you need to put these resource both in zh-CN and zh-TW folder. Everytime doing a copy job is bored and may lead to mistake.

This plugin is writen to resolve problem above. You can just put resources which are same for Hans and Hant in zh folder, such as values-zh, layout_zh, drawable-xhdpi-zh, when build the project, the plugin can help you migrate resources from zh to zh-CN and zh-TW. There will be no zh folder in the final apk, instead two copies of resources are in zh-CN and zh-TW folders separately.

This plugin can used to migrate any Android resource based on qualifier, not just chinese language qualifier.

License

Copyright 2019 kxfeng
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.