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androidgradleandroid-gradle-pluginbuild.gradle

How do I copy assets from external library using gradle on Android


I have an external library dependency in my Android project. Like this -

dependencies {
    // Example: external library
    implementation 'com.example:my-external-library:1.0.0'
    
}

This library has assets directory in it. As a part of build process I want to copy these assets to some other directory in the project. How do I do this? I have tried something as follows but it doesn't work. I get error like Resolving dependency configuration ‘implementation’ is not allowed as it is defined as ‘canBeResolved=false’. Instead, a resolvable (‘canBeResolved=true’) dependency configuration that extends ‘implementation’ should be resolved

If I try configurations.runtimeClasspath that also doesn’t work. Could not get unknown property ‘runtimeClasspath’ for configuration container of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.configurations.DefaultConfigurationContainer.

// Define the destination directory for the copied files
def destinationDir = file("$buildDir/copied-library-files")

// Create a task to copy files from the external library
task copyLibraryFiles(type: Copy) {
    // Ensure this task runs after dependencies are resolved
    dependsOn 'resolveDependencies'

    // Get the configuration for the external library
    def libraryConfiguration = configurations.implementation

    // Find the JAR/AAR file for the specific library
    def libraryFile = libraryConfiguration.resolvedConfiguration.resolvedArtifacts.find {
        it.moduleVersion.id.group == 'com.example' && it.moduleVersion.id.name == 'my-external-library'
    }?.file

    // Check if the library file was found
    if (libraryFile != null) {
        // Copy files from the library to the destination directory
        from zipTree(libraryFile) {
            // Specify which files/folders to include (e.g., "assets/", "config.txt")
            include 'assets/**', 'config.txt'
        }
        into destinationDir
    } else {
        println "Library file not found: com.example:my-external-library"
    }
}

// Make sure the copy task runs before the build process
preBuild.dependsOn copyLibraryFiles

Solution

  • You can change the properties of those configurations but it's more logical to just create your own Configuration:

    configurations {
        assetsLibrary
    }
    

    Then add your library to it:

    dependencies {
        assetsLibrary 'com.example:my-external-library:1.0.0'
    }
    

    Then you can access the files you want using configurations.assetsLibrary.