Android: Creating custom class of resources
- by Sebastian
Hi,
R class on android has it's limitations. You can't use the resources dynamically for loading audio, pictures or whatever. If you wan't for example, load a set of audio files for a choosen object you can't do something like:
R.raw."string-upon-choosen-object"
I'm new to android and at least I didn't find how you could do that, depending on what objects are choosen or something more dynamic than that. So, I thought about making it dynamic with a little of memory overhead. But, I'm in doubt if it's worth it or just working different with external resources.
The idea is this:
Modify the ant build xml to execute my own task. This task, is a java program that parses the R.java file building a set of HashMaps with it's pair (key, value). I have done this manually and It's working good. So I need some experts voice about it.
This is how I will manage the whole thing:
Generate a base Application class, e.g. MainApplicationResources that builds up all the require methods and attributes. Then, you can access those methods invoking getApplication() and then the desired method.
Something like this:
package [packageName]
import android.app.Application;
import java.util.HashMap;
public class MainActivityResources extends Application {
private HashMap<String,Integer> [resNameObj1];
private HashMap<String,Integer> [resNameObj2];
...
private HashMap<String,Integer> [resNameObjN];
public MainActivityResources() {
super();
[resNameObj1] = new HashMap<String,Integer>();
[resNameObj1].put("[resNameObj1_Key1]", new Integer([resNameObj1_Value1]));
[resNameObj1].put("[resNameObj1_Key2]", new Integer([resNameObj1_Value2]));
[resNameObj2] = new HashMap<String,Integer>();
[resNameObj2].put("[resNameObj2_Key1]", new Integer([resNameObj2_Value1]));
[resNameObj2].put("[resNameObj2_Key2]", new Integer([resNameObj2_Value2]));
...
[resNameObjN] = new HashMap<String,Integer>();
[resNameObjN].put("[resNameObjN_Key1]", new Integer([resNameObjN_Value1]));
[resNameObjN].put("[resNameObjN_Key2]", new Integer([resNameObjN_Value2]));
}
public int get[ResNameObj1](String resourceName) {
return [resNameObj1].get(resourceName).intValue();
}
public int get[ResNameObj2](String resourceName) {
return [resNameObj2].get(resourceName).intValue();
}
...
public int get[ResNameObjN](String resourceName) {
return [resNameObjN].get(resourceName).intValue();
}
}
The question is:
Will I add too much memory use of the device? Is it worth it?
Regards,
