Does anyone know of a clever way, ideally using the Eclipse/ADT workflow, to apply specific resources to a project depending on whether it was a debug or release build (i.e. in Eclipse whether the application was Run or Exported)? The common use case we run into all the time for this is with API keys (like Maps). It would be great to set up a project to have a strings.xml file specifically for all the debug strings, and then a separate one for all the release strings.
Is there any way to do this without needing to move to the ANT or Maven style of building?
Although it’s not what you’ve asked for, I highly recommend automating the release build as you want that to be consistent and correct every time you build it.
For development you can keep using the Eclipse workflow in that case. For my own app, Rainy Days, I switch out the debug vs release map keys in the ant build. I’ve set the map key in a string resource and replace that string in the ant build. I then build the release using Jenkins and get the blessed apk from Jenkins if the build succeeds. The nice thing about that is that you can further automate the build with unit tests and device installation tests in an automated fashion.
IMHO you shouldn’t be detecting debug builds in your code, as it adds more code paths and makes your code more complex, and even introduces overhead at runtime in some cases.