r-resources

A Rust library inspired by Android/Kotlin's R system for managing resources at build time.

Stop scattering magic numbers across 12 files! Centralize all your constants, strings, colors, and configuration in one place. Modify them quickly without hunting through your codebase.

Features

• Build Time: Resources are compiled directly into your binary
• Type-safe: Strongly typed constants
• Zero-cost: No runtime overhead
• Thread-safe: All resources are const - safe to use in multi-threaded contexts
• Async-safe: Works perfectly with tokio, async-std, and other async runtimes
• Simple: Clear and elegant syntax
• Centralized: All constants in one place - modify quickly without searching 12 files
• Framework-agnostic: Works great with Leptos, egui, or any Rust UI framework

Why r-resources?

The Problem

// Magic numbers scattered everywhere 😞
const MAX_RETRIES: i64 = 3;  // main.rs
const TIMEOUT: i64 = 5000;   // api.rs
const RATE: f64 = 0.75;      // billing.rs
// ... 12 more files to update when changing a value

The Solution

<!-- res/values.xml - One place to rule them all! -->
<int name="max_retries">3</int>
<int name="timeout_ms">5000</int>
<float name="rate">0.75</float>

// Access anywhere, type-safe, zero-cost
use r_resources::r;
let retries = r::MAX_RETRIES;
let timeout = r::TIMEOUT_MS;

Supported Types

• string: String values
• int: Integer values (i64)
• float: Floating-point values (f64)
• bool: Boolean values
• color: Color hex strings
• url: URL strings
• dimension: Dimension values with units (e.g., "16dp", "24px")
• string-array: String arrays
• int-array: Integer arrays
• float-array: Float arrays

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[build-dependencies]
r-resources = "0.7.6"

Note: r-resources is a build dependency, not a runtime dependency. It generates code at compile time. All XML files in the res/ directory are automatically loaded and merged.

Quick Start

1. Create your resources

Create res/values.xml at the root of your project:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">My Awesome App</string>
    <int name="max_retries">3</int>
    <float name="tax_rate">0.20</float>
    <bool name="debug_mode">true</bool>
</resources>

2. Use your resources

use r_resources::r;

fn main() {
    println!("App: {}", r::APP_NAME);
    println!("Max retries: {}", r::MAX_RETRIES);
    println!("Tax rate: {}%", r::TAX_RATE * 100.0);
}

Advanced Features

Namespaces (v0.5.0+)

Organize resources hierarchically:

<resources>
    <ns name="auth">
        <string name="title">Login</string>
        <ns name="errors">
            <string name="invalid_credentials">Invalid credentials</string>
        </ns>
    </ns>
    
    <ns name="ui">
        <ns name="colors">
            <color name="primary">#3366FF</color>
        </ns>
    </ns>
</resources>

Access via type-organized modules:

use r_resources::string;
string::auth::TITLE
string::auth::errors::INVALID_CREDENTIALS

Access via Kotlin-style r:: module:

use r_resources::r;
r::auth::TITLE
r::auth::errors::INVALID_CREDENTIALS
r::ui::colors::PRIMARY

String Interpolation (v0.6.0+)

Resolve references at build-time:

<string name="base_url">https://api.example.com</string>
<string name="api_version">v2</string>
<string name="welcome_title">Welcome to @string/app_name!</string>
<string name="api_url_with_version">@string/base_url/@string/api_version</string>

Generated:

string::WELCOME_TITLE  // "Welcome to My Awesome App!"
string::API_URL_WITH_VERSION  // "https://api.example.com/v2"

All references are resolved at compile-time - no runtime concatenation!

Template Functions (v0.6.0+)

Generate reusable functions with typed parameters:

<string name="greeting" template="Hello {name}, you have {count} messages!">
    <param name="name" type="string"/>
    <param name="count" type="int"/>
</string>

Generated:

string::greeting("Alice", 5)  // "Hello Alice, you have 5 messages!"

Supports string, int, float, and bool parameter types.

Multiple Resource Files

Support for multiple XML files in the res/ directory:

res/
  ├── values.xml      # Main resources
  ├── config.xml      # Configuration
  └── theme.xml       # Theme-specific resources

All XML files in res/ are automatically loaded and merged at build time.

Simulating Locales

Use namespaces to organize by language - no need for locale-specific files:

<ns name="fr">
    <string name="welcome">Bienvenue!</string>
</ns>
<ns name="en">
    <string name="welcome">Welcome!</string>
</ns>

// Switch based on user locale
let welcome = if locale == "fr" {
    r::fr::WELCOME
} else {
    r::en::WELCOME
};

Access Patterns

Kotlin-style Flat Access (Recommended)

use r_resources::r;

// Root level resources
r::APP_NAME
r::MAX_RETRIES

// Namespaced resources
r::auth::TITLE
r::auth::errors::INVALID_CREDENTIALS
r::ui::colors::PRIMARY

Type-Organized Access

use r_resources::*;

// Explicit type organization
string::APP_NAME
int::MAX_RETRIES
string::auth::TITLE
color::ui::colors::PRIMARY

Both patterns are equally performant - choose what fits your style!

Thread Safety

All resources are const values, making them completely thread-safe:

use std::thread;
use r_resources::r;

// Safe to access from multiple threads
let handles: Vec<_> = (0..10)
    .map(|_| {
        thread::spawn(|| {
            println!("App: {}", r::APP_NAME);
        })
    })
    .collect();

Performance

• Compilation: Resources parsed once at build time
• Runtime: Zero overhead - direct constant access
• Memory: Resources live in binary's data segment
• Concurrency: No locks, no synchronization needed

Examples

Run the examples to see r-resources in action:

# Basic usage
cargo run --example basic_usage

# New resource types
cargo run --example v02_new_types

# Resource references
cargo run --example v03_references

# Namespaces
cargo run --example v05_ns

# String interpolation and templates
cargo run --example v06_concat

Philosophy

Centralize. Type-safe. Zero-cost.

• Centralize: All constants in res/ - modify quickly without searching your codebase
• Type-safe: Compile-time errors catch typos and mismatches
• Zero-cost: Direct constant access - no runtime overhead
• Simple: Familiar XML syntax, elegant Rust API

Perfect for projects where you need to:

• Avoid magic numbers scattered across 12 different files
• Quickly and simply modify constants without hunting through your codebase
• Share constants across multiple modules
• Build type-safe UI applications with Leptos, egui, or any Rust framework
• Centralize all configuration in one place for easy maintenance

Development

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/Glubus/r-resources.git
cd r-resources
cargo build
cargo test

Code quality

cargo fmt       # Format code
cargo clippy    # Lint code
cargo test      # Run all tests

License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.