CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++android-studio
Alin Ionut Lipan
Alin Ionut Lipan

Reputation: 81

External C++ source files in android studio?

Here is the drill. I have a cross-platform project written mostly in C++ (more on this later) that runs on windows, android and ios.

Is there any way in which android studio can be configured to have a custom directory that contains all the native C++ code ? By custom, I mean external to the main folder in which the android studio project resides in.

I'm guessing you can see where I'm getting at... I have a cross-platform project that can be opened from 3 different IDE's... visual studio, android studio and xcode and I want to be able to write / edit / compile the code from all of them.

Let's say I have the following main hierarchy:

projectDir
    src     (C++ source files .cpp)
    include (C++ headers .h)
    _visualStudio (visual studio project)
    _xcode (xcode project)
    _androidStudio (android studio project)
    assets (resources .png etc)
    others...

This is what I want to achieve, but I am unable to figure out how can I configure an android studio project to be able to accept external source files, but most importantly to be able to see and edit them from the android studio IDE. Basically I want to tell android studio... "Look, this is the path for the native files, treat them as if they belong to the project".

I know this is possible from visual studio and from xcode because I already did that, but up until now I used my own build system for android and I had no need for android studio. Is there any way to achieve this ? Perhaps some kind of symbolic folder links ?

The thing is I want to keep only a single copy of my shared resources (src, include and assets should only be in one place, but should be available for android studio as well).

So far the only solution is to keep them inside android studio project directory, and change visual studio paths to look for them there, but I find this very nonprofessional.

EDIT: Is there any addFileToProject (as in visual studio) in android studio in which the file can be outside the project ?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1746

Answers (1)

Alin Ionut Lipan
Alin Ionut Lipan

Reputation: 81

After a bit of more digging I found that it is actually possible.

You just have to create a directory junction like this (inside app/src/main/cpp where the files would normally be).

mklink \J linkName linkDestination(can be outside the project)

Android studio will be able to see the containing folder as it's own (it sees it as a link, but you can double click it to expand the contents). You can also edit source files inside it with the only mention that you have to add these files within CMakeLists.txt or whatever build file you are using in order to have intellisense (you get a sync warning from android studio if the files aren't referenced anywhere in the build files).

Later edit... if you are using junctions for Java / Kotlin files in an android studio project, make sure to set the source sets through the junctions as well... in order to avoid visual errors like 'duplicated class'.

Upvotes: 4

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