title: Android App External Configuration
body: <p>The scenario I am going for is as follows:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Android application (apk) that is "generic", i.e. I do not want to recompile with different resources</li>
  <li>APK will be "pre-installed" on devices and so will not be a "market" app</li>
  <li>The application needs a custom configuration file that customizes it with text, etc. that can be different for each installation. (config file needs to be in same location with same name)</li>
  <li>On app start-up the config file gets read and configures app according to the data in the config file</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>In essence, this would be a way to provision the application so that it takes on a specific look and feel based on the config file without having to recompile. Be able to load custom image files, text data, etc.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that the config file needs to be easily updated and "copied" to a non-rooted device without a SD card. So I need access to the a non-app specific location that is easily accessible via a USB connection and that the APK has access to at run-time. It seems that SharedPreferences and Android file IO is limited to the private app directory under /data/data/pkg/... or external storage. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.</p>