Ant Resource Compiler

Aim

Since I have started programming for Android I ever wished to have a resource management system for Java like the Android one. This is my first attempt to create a similar approach using an ANT precompiler for Java.

How it works

For now the resources are limited to Strings and PNG Images. You can access them after resource compilation as follows:

JLabel myLabel = new JLabel()
myLabel.setText(R.string.MY_LABEL_TEXT.string());
Icon myIcon = new ImageIcon(R.drawable.MY_TEXT_ICON.url());
myLabel.setIcon(myIcon);

Usage

1.

Structure your Java Project like this

[Root]
./src (holds Java source files)
./res/drawable
./res/string
./res/resources

2.

Put the folder res into the classpath.

3.

Add PNG images to the drawable folder. Important: Those files need to have all lowercase names that could also represent a Java variable name, e.g. my_nice_icon.png.

4.

Add the strings into a string.properties file. Again you will need lowercase variables that are valid Java identifiers. Example my_string=Foo Bar In a feature version the resource compiler will give an error upon compilation if non-valid names are detected.

5.

Add the ant-resource-compiler.jar to the lib folder of your project (needs to be in the classpath as well!)

6.

Add the following to your build.xml

<path id="build.antlib">
	<fileset dir="./lib" includes="*.jar" />
</path>

<target name="rc" description="Compile resources">
	<taskdef name="resourceCompile" classname="com.mpdeimos.ant.resourcecompiler.ResourceCompilerTask" classpathref="build.antlib"/>
	<resourceCompile path="./res"/>
</target>

7.

Run ant rc to compile your resources.

Get the JAR

For now I do not provide a JAR download, so you need to create this one on your own by cloning this repository to your HD (or simply download the tarball) and invoke ant jar. After compilation the JAR is located at ./build/jars/ant-resource-compiler.jar

Final Notes

• I provide the script 'as-is'. So do not expect that it will work for your project.
• The current implementation is still raw, but does what it should do for my project.
• If you want to add some stuff, feel free to fork.
• An example of how this ant script is used can be found at http://code.launchpad.net/tensation