Cordova Android doesn't work with resource references

[geoidesic]

Bug Report

Problem

The documentation is unclear. And I tried ChatGPT too. I have this config.xml in the cordova project root.

    <platform name="android">
        <allow-intent href="market:*" />
        <plugin name="@havesource/cordova-plugin-push" spec="3.0.0">
            <variable name="SENDER_ID" value="<redacted>" />
        </plugin>
        <preference name="AndroidInsecureFileModeEnabled" value="true" />
        <preference name="EnableWebViewDebugging" value="true" />
       
        <icon src="res/screen/android/logo.xml" density="anydpi" />

        <!-- New Splash Screen Preferences -->
        <preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="true" />
        <preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenBackground" value="#000" />
        <preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon" value="ic_cdv_splashscreen.xml" />
        <preference name="SplashScreen" value="screen" />
        <preference name="ShowSplashScreenSpinner" value="false" />
        <preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="0" />
        <preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="300" />
        <preference name="SplashMaintainAspectRatio" value="true" />

        <!-- Adaptive App Icons -->
        <!-- Copy colors.xml -->
        <resource-file src="res/values/colors.xml" target="app/src/main/res/values/colors.xml" />

        <!-- Copy foreground SVG -->
        <resource-file src="res/icon/android/ic_launcher_foreground.xml" target="app/src/main/res/drawable/ic_launcher_foreground.xml" />
        
        <!-- Copy monochrome SVG -->
        <resource-file src="res/icon/android/ic_launcher_monochrome.xml" target="app/src/main/res/drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome.xml" />

        <!-- Define adaptive icons -->
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="ldpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="mdpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="hdpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="xhdpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="xxhdpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
        <icon 
            foreground="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" 
            background="@color/background" 
            density="xxxhdpi" 
            monochrome="@drawable/ic_launcher_monochrome" />

        <preference name="android-targetSdkVersion" value="34" />
        <resource-file src="google-services.json" target="/app/google-services.json" />
        <resource-file src="firebase-service-account-pvt-key.json" target="app/src/main/assets/firebase-service-account-pvt-key.json" />
    </platform>

In the project root I have the res folder:

Which contains the assets that match the resource-file elements in the config.xml but they are not copied into the target folders.

What is expected to happen?

I want to define: colors.xml, splash.xml, foreground.xml and monochrome.xml in my project root res folder and then have those copied across into the android platform as appropriate.

What does actually happen?

causes an error:

Android project created with cordova-android@13.0.0
Source path does not exist: @drawable/ic_launcher_foreground

Information

Command or Code

cordova platform remove android; cordova platform add android;

Environment, Platform, Device

I'm running cordova on Mac OS X and trying to build it for Android API v13 for emulator.

Version information

Cordova: 12.0.0 (cordova-lib@12.0.1)
cordova-android@13.0.0
Mac OS X: 14.5 (23F79)
Android Studio Koala | 2024.1.1 Patch 1
Node: v20.15.1

Checklist

• I searched for existing GitHub issues
• I updated all Cordova tooling to most recent version
• I included all the necessary information above

[breautek]

The <icon> foreground, background, and monochrome expects a file resource, not a resource reference, but will accept a color reference.

So it needs to point to a PNG file or an AVD on disk, or a @color/... value.

An example based on your provided config will look something like:

<!-- Cordova already defines colors.xml, so I'm using a new name despite the Cordova Docs guide -->
<resource-file src="res/values/colors.xml" target="app/src/main/res/values/myColors.xml" />
<icon
  foreground="res/icon/android/ic_launcher_foreground.xml" 
  background="@color/background" 
  density="mdpi" 
  monochrome="res/icon/android/ic_launcher_monochrome.xml" />

Don't create a <resource-file> for your foreground and monochrome, the Cordova CLI will do this behind the scenes.

Note that despite that vectors can be used on any DPI, the <icon> directive still requires the density declared. So you'll need to replicate the <icon> directive for each dpi, mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi, and xxxhpdi. There is no device on market that Cordova supports that uses ldpi` so it can safely be omitted.

With that being said, I think expanding support to allow more (or all) resource references would be desirable so I'll keep this ticket open.