Need to clean project after changing layouts in Android Studio

Question

When I change small thing in XML layout files like maxLength of a TextInputEditText I need to clean project to let AS pickup change.

Structure of res folders is:

res
- layout
- drawables
- ...

No more subfolders. AS 3.1.1, Gradle 4.6. I tried to add this in gradle:

sourceSets {
    main.res.srcDirs =  [
                         'src/main/res/anim',
                         'src/main/res/color',
                         'src/main/res/drawable',
                         'src/main/res/drawable-hdpi',
                         'src/main/res/drawable-mdpi',
                         'src/main/res/drawable-xhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/drawable-xxhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/drawable-xxxhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/menu',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-dpi',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-hdpi',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-mdpi',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-xhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-xxhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/mipmap-xxxhdpi',
                         'src/main/res/raw',
                         'src/main/res/values',
                         'src/main/res/values-land',
                         'src/main/res/values-large',
                         'src/main/res/values-v21',
                         'src/main/res/valuesw820dp',
                         'src/main/res/xml',
                         'src/main/res/layout',
                         'src/main/res']
}

Is there a way to prevent cleaning the project every time for change to take effect?

So whenever I make a change to the XML files and run the app, I should see my change but I have to clean the project every time and its getting annoying.

Answer 1

First of all you need to create your additional resource folder beside res folder instead of creating inside it. Then try make XML like this example:

sourceSets{
     main  {
         manifest.srcFile 'src/main/AndroidManifest.xml'
         java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java', '.apt_generated']
         aidl.srcDirs = ['src/main/aidl', '.apt_generated']
         res.srcDirs = [
            'src/main/res',
            'src/main/test',
            'src/main/login',
            'src/main/main',
            'src/main/includes'
        ]
    }
}

Note: Your additional resource folder will change effect without cleaning the project.

Answer 2

First of all you need to create your additional resource folder beside res folder instead of creating inside it. Then try make XML like this example:

sourceSets{
     main  {
         manifest.srcFile 'src/main/AndroidManifest.xml'
         java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java', '.apt_generated']
         aidl.srcDirs = ['src/main/aidl', '.apt_generated']
         res.srcDirs = [
            'src/main/res',
            'src/main/test',
            'src/main/login',
            'src/main/main',
            'src/main/includes'
        ]
    }
}

Note: Your additional resource folder will change effect without cleaning the project.

Answer 3

Problem was with build flavors. One of them was named main and that causes problems with projects scanning. Changing name fixed issue. It is marked in newer versions of gradle plugin.