Question

I’m developing an app that has multilanguage support (using the /res/values-** way) with success. Then I want to use Holo and falling legacy devices (2.3.* for example) to use the default one (using the /res/values-v11 way).

So, I end up with a structure similar to this one (the one without language is EN, as default):

• /res/values
• /res/values-v11
• /res/values-de
• /res/values-de-v11
• /res/values-es
• /res/values-es-v11

… where in each one I have the following:

• strings.xml
• themes.xml

… where strings.xml is where the localised text are defined, and themes.xml has:

For non-v11 directories (legacy devices)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme">
        <!-- Any customizations for your app running on pre-3.0 devices here -->
    </style>
</resources>

For -v11 directories (+3.0 devices)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
        <!-- Any customizations for your app running on devices with Theme.Holo here -->
    </style>
</resources>

Remembering to add this attribute into the application tag on AndroidManifest.xml

android:theme   ="@style/MyTheme"

This is working in all languages and all devices, current and legacy, with correct theme picking and everything. Tested in several physical devices.

So, the question:

Don’t you think that this is heavily maintainable? I mean, then we have 2 string.xml files for every language which are exactly identical, but for every new text we have to fill it twice, increasing the risk of typos. The same happens if you have analytics.xml, styles.xml, … inside

Having the language handling so nice in Android using strings.xml, is there any other workaround to have this working multitheme and multilanguage in a nicer way?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I’m not sure why do you need something like

values-de-v11

I would just use something like this:

values
values-de
values-fr
values-es
values-cat
...

And put inside every strings.xml file with the translation.
On the other hand you can also add the folders:

values
values-v11

And inside you can add your themes.

The folder values should have both the strings.xml for the default language (usually english) and the fallback theme file for devices without holo.

You can check all the possibilites in the documentation:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html#AlternativeResources