I would like to use some xml files as mockups to preview different states of a layout, but I don't want to include it in the apk because thes xml files are only dedicated to preview purposes. I would like to tell gradle which files/directories to ignore for resources.
It would also be useful to easily reduce apk size for low memory devices by using products flavors, in a similar way as this excellent article explains.
Maybe proguard could help?
If you are using the android studio you can add resources by build flavors your want example you can add string resource for debug build only and different string resource for main release build. You just right click add a xml resource choose a resource type and specify the source set.
if you add a layout for debug flavor only and not in main release then everytime you sign an apk the those layout will not be included in apk. Hope it helps :)
We call it "Resource shrinking". All info about it is here.
Look at shrinkResources true. Build system will try to find unused resources files with this flag, and will remove them from the build. You can add it to your debug buildType, and on any build flavor.
android {
...
buildTypes {
release {
minifyEnabled true
shrinkResources true
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
}
}
}