Updating Raw Resources Without Updating APK on Android

Question

I have a set of raw resources that I ship with my APK on Google Play. Does anyone know if it is possible to update these raw resources without requiring an update to the entire APK?

I know this sounds like a weird request, but the general idea is that we would like to allow for these raw resources to be "dynamic". The resources are JSON files and these will change quite frequently. We feel that continuously updating the APK in Google Play will not only be burdensome for us, but also for our users :(

thanks! J

Answer 1

Does anyone know if it is possible to update these raw resources without requiring an update to the entire APK?

It is not possible.

You are welcome to implement your own look-aside cache, though. Your app can poll your servers looking for updates to the JSON files. Your app can download the JSON files when they are available. Your code using the raw resources can check to see if a downloaded copy exists, and if yes, use that, instead of using the ones in resources.