Question

This is my first time on here, so I’m bit nervous and please forgive me if I don’t seem entirely clear about what I’m asking.

The problem is, Im trying to read in a file from a subfolder in the assets folder, using a method that I’ve created in a separate class. I’ve researched this for a couple of days but I’m unable to find the solution anywhere, so I’ve come here as a last resort. I needed the file reading method to be separate as there are other views/activities that will be utilising exactly the same method and I don’t think it would be wise to keep copying and pasting the same code for each activity. Ok here’s what I’ve done so far:

public class ReadAssets extends Activity {


public void read(Context context, String filepath, int textviewid) {

    try {
        InputStream input = getAssets().open(filepath);

        int size = input.available();

        // Read the entire asset into a local byte buffer.
        byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
        input.read(buffer);
        input.close();

        // Convert the buffer into a string.
        String text = new String(buffer);

        // Finally insert the string into the text view.
        TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(textviewid);
        tv.setText(text);

    } catch (IOException e) {
        // Throws an exception if an error is found
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }


  }
}

The activity that I would like to place this method in:

public class GeneralSetupActivity extends Activity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.gettingstarted_layout);


    ReadAssets nA = new ReadAssets();
    nA.read(this,"gettingstarted/GettingStarted.txt", R.id.displayTextView);

//  try {
//  InputStream input =getAssets().open("gettingstarted/GettingStarted.txt");
//
//  int size = input.available();
//
//  // Read the entire asset into a local byte buffer.
//  byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
//  input.read(buffer);
//  input.close();
//
// // Convert the buffer into a string.
// String text = new String(buffer);
//
//          // Finally insert the string into the text view.
//          TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.displayTextView); 
//          tv.setText(text);
//          
//      } catch (IOException e) {
//          // Throws an exception if an error is found
//          throw new RuntimeException(e);
//      }
      }

}

I’d really appreciate it file someone could point me towards the right direction. And also I hope I’m not taking advantage but I’d like to know how I’d import and display a series of text files, one after another.

Cheers Guys,
Thanks 🙂

Answer 1

If you need this available to all different types of Activity, you should consider putting the method in a superclass so all the children can use it.

public class ExtraFunctionalActivity extends Activity
{
    public void read(...)
    {        
        //your code
    }
}

public class GeneralSetupUtility extends ExtraFunctionalActivity
{
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) 
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.gettingstarted_layout);

        read(this,"gettingstarted/GettingStarted.txt", R.id.displayTextView);

    }
}

Otherwise, if this method is needed by a bunch of unrelated classes, you could put it in a utility class;

public class FileUtil
{

    public static void read(...)
    {
        //your code
    }

}

then you can call it where needed with

FileUtil.read(args here);