load file from assets without AssetManager

Question

Is there a way to load an android asset without using the AssetManager?

I am using a separate java library (compiled into my application) to load some files. It requires a java URL. Is there anyway to specify in a URL an android Asset and have it load just like a file?

A webview can load the same asset using the following code. Is it parsing the path, determining it is an asset and loading it differently?

WebView wvHelp = (WebView)findViewById(R.id.wv_settings_help);
wvHelp.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/" + fileName);

Answer 1

After a lot of research and trying other mechanisms, I believe the answer here is no. You have to use the AssetManager to load from the android assets.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you could use this experience in your case, but I had worked on something similar recently. My customer have a server with data on it, different assets (images, sounds...). An XML file on the server is structured to link (as a db-like) to the different locations of the assets, but more, the tags are used for "image background", "image buttons", "page title", and so on. In my app, I retrieve the XML accessing to the server, I use a SAX parser class to read the tags, I got the different link to the different assets, I go onto the server suitably the link read and I charge my app with the assets, parsing them suitably the tag retrieved. As an example, for a tag "image button", I have the link of an image and I charge the image button variable with this asset, without issues.

I hope it is clear.