Android: Sharing Resources in Eclipse

The resources of an Android project are difficult to share between projects. In order to create a common library of widgets that reference resources is no simple task and yet is something quite desirable. Creating a “Save File” generic dialog and being able to share it amongst various Android projects not only as an Activity, but as a class ancestor that can be descended from and modified for various specialized cases is a highly desirable feature. I am used to having such a feature in the past with other languages (like Delphi’s Forms) and have been frustrated with Android projects in Eclipse. The various techniques available to potentially share resources all have their fatal flaws. Continue reading

Working with Android Libraries and shared code

One of the issues that has irked me for quite a while is the fact that there is no easy way to work with a set of shared code between apps in Eclipse that simultaneously gives me instant access to modifying the shared library and also the flexibility of including only the pieces of it that are needed while excluding the rest. Android Library Projects are a big step forward in helping to create a set of shared resources as well as code, but they still lack the flexibility of only including just what you need (not to mention Library Projects cannot use other Library Projects). Continue reading