Including resource files in your project

Android provides two options for including files in your project: the raw folder and the Assets folder. Which option you use depends on your requirements. To start, we'll give a brief overview of each option to help you decide when to use each option:

• Raw files

  • Included in the resource directory: /res/raw

  • As a resource, accessed through the raw identifier: R.raw.<resource>

  • A good place for storing media files such as MP3, MP4, and OOG files

• Asset files

  • Creates a filesystem compiled in your APK (does NOT provide a resource ID)

  • Access files using their file names, generally making them easier to use with dynamically created names

  • Some APIs do not support a Resource Identifier and therefore require including as an Asset

Generally, raw files are easier to work with since they are accessed through the resource identifier. As we'll demonstrate in this recipe, the main difference is how you access the file. In this example, we will load both a raw text...