Setting app label based on buildvariant

Issue

I have an Android with multiple productFlavors. I'd like the android:label for the debug build of, for example flavor1, to say Flavor1 Debug and the release build to say Flavor1.

Without productFlavors this is relatively simple, just create a different string resource in the debug and release source folders but with productFlavors, I don't want to be creating flavor1Debug, flavor2Debug, etc. folders for each flavor with just one string resource in there.

Is there a way to do this ? I'm guessing it requires merging resources somehow but am not sure how.

For extra points, it would be awesome if I could add an overlay to the app icon i.e. merge two images but I realize that might be taking it too far.

Solution

I worked out a solution for this. Basically, you use the following method that copies read the build file, modifies the property value, then rewrites the files.

def debugAppRename(variant, labelResource) {
  def flavor = variant.productFlavors.get(0)
  def buildtype = variant.buildType
  // Append buildType name to app label
  if(buildtype.debuggable) {
    variant.mergeResources << {
      def valuesFile = "$buildDir/res/all/${flavor.name}/${buildtype.name}/values/values.xml"
      def values = (new XmlParser()).parse(valuesFile)
      values.string.each { m->
        if (m.@name == labelResource) {
          m.value = m.text() + " " + buildtype.name.capitalize()
          new XmlNodePrinter(new PrintWriter(new FileWriter(valuesFile)))
                .print(values)
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The way to use it is:

applicationVariants.all { variant ->
    debugAppRename(variant, 'app_name') // where `app_name` is the string resource you use for the `app:label` property in your AndroidManifest.xml
}

The resulting app will have the buildType name appended to it if it is a debuggable buildType, for e.g. My App Debug, My App Staging, etc. The release build remains unaffected.

I also put it up on a gist.

You can apply it in your build.gradle using the apply from: directive with the raw gist URL or copy the above to your code (personally I find build scripts become too large so I prefer applying from).

Answered By - Saad Farooq