I am trying to use the resConfig and resConfigs from the Android Build system.
I was having problem with these 2 options with my project so I started a new blank project with android studio. I attached my build.gradle where I only added resConfigs "en", "fr" under
android {
defaultConfig {
...
resConfigs "en", "fr"
...
}
}
And defined 2 basic flavors
productFlavors {
fr {
resConfig "fr"
}
en {
resConfig "en"
}
}
I then created a 2 strings.xml files and translated the hello_world default label
/src/main/res/values/strings.xml (default)
/src/main/res/values-en/strings.xml
/src/main/res/values-fr/strings.xml
With this, I would expect to see only 3 values folders in MyApplication/app/builds/intermediates/res/en/debug since I defined in the resConfigs to only use "en" and "fr" and filter anything else
/values/
/values-en/
/values-fr/
Although, all languages values folder are still in there so the resConfigs is not filtering anything apparently.
I would also expect to see the label hello_world from values-en when running enDebug flavor variant since I specified that the flavor en would use resConfig "en" although when I run the test app I see the label from /values-fr/strings.xml instead of /values-en/strings.xml since the language on the tablet is configured as French Canada
Am I misunderstanding the purpose behind resConfig? If so, how am I supposed to force a flavor to only run in only language and not be dependant on the OS locale setting? This solution must be compatible with flavorDimensions too since I use them in the real app I'm trying to configure.
NOTE: I also filed a bug since I think there really is a problem with this resConfig behavior https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=180694
Thanks
Well, after many hours, here's the solution to my problem for those ending up with the same problem.
Turns out that resConfig is not for what I though. The proper and only way I found to force the locale for a specific flavor is like this:
First, make sure all your activities extends a common activity which will be responsible to force the locale. (I had to create 2 since I have some activities extending FragmentActivity and some extending Activity. I also don't really like doing so in the Activities constructor but since I have to call applyOverrideConfiguration before any call is done on getResources, I need to call it before the activity's onStart).
public class LocaleMainActivity extends Activity {
public LocaleMainActivity() {
ActivityUtils.forceLocale(this);
}
}
public class LocaleMainFragmentActivity extends FragmentActivity {
public LocaleMainFragmentActivity() {
ActivityUtils.forceLocale(this);
}
}
//Method from ActivityUtils
public static void forceLocale(ContextThemeWrapper contextThemeWrapper) {
Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
Locale defaultLocale = new Locale(BuildConfig.LOCALE);
configuration.locale = defaultLocale;
contextThemeWrapper.applyOverrideConfiguration(configuration);
}
Next, you need to define the locale in your build.gradle flavors
productFlavors {
myFrenchFlavor {
buildConfigField "String", "LOCALE", "\"fr\""
}
myEnglishFlavor {
buildConfigField "String", "LOCALE", "\"en\""
}
}
I tested the solution on API 19+. Works when you change language while in the app too.
Alternate solution (won't work on Android M+ see android bug report)
This solution is wide spreaded on stackOverflow but I faced a wall while implementing this on Android M so keep this in mind.
In the onCreate() of your AndroidApplication you can call updateConfiguration with the locale set.
Locale myLocale = new Locale(BuildConfig.LOCALE);
Resources res = getResources();
Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration();
conf.locale = myLocale;
res.updateConfiguration(conf, res.getDisplayMetrics());
You will also need to reset it if you defined onConfigurationChanged()
@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
Configuration config = new Configuration(newConfig);
config.locale = new Locale(BuildConfig.LOCALE);
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
EDIT: Be aware that this applyOverrideConfiguration currently has a side effect which is explained here Chromium webview does not seems to work with Android applyOverrideConfiguration. The Chromium team are currently working on it!
Thanks.