Question

What naming conventions do you use for resource files and IDs and what benefits do they bring?

It’s very easy for example to end up with a view ID like “activity_settings_location_text_label” but quickly becomes unmanageable and messy. I’ve not seen any guidance from Google on this, did I miss it?

Resources can be “grouped” using hierarchical naming, but what structure works best for each resource type? String, color, dimens, layouts, includes, etc

My naming is currently fairly ad-hoc, and it’s clear I need better structure (particularly so I can find IDs more easily using the IDE’s code-completion).

Answer 1

The most important thing to remember, I think, is that it’s perfectly fine to use the same ID across multiple layouts. For example, @id/title_bar is clean and generic and works, and so much simpler than @id/settings_title_bar, @id/home_screen_title_bar, @id/search_title_bar and so on.

I also like to name layouts destinated for activities as @layout/activity_home and @layout/activity_search etc. Drawables and icons should adopt the same standards as Android uses, i.e. @drawable/ic_btn_explode and @drawable/ic_dialog_exploded.

Includes can be tricky, but simpler ones which consist of only a few elements and serve a single, precise purpose tend to end up as @layout/loading or @layout/error_message.

I’m still working on naming strings sensibly, but again short, concise names make the whole process a lot easier.