Using Maven to save the build time in a properties file

Create a folder called build in the root directory of the project, and a file build.properties with the following content:

build.time=@buildtime@

Using the maven replacer plugin we can replace the token @buildtime@ within the build.properties file with the build timestamp value, and then let the Android application read that value and use it.

 
<plugins>
     <plugin>
         <groupId>com.google.code.maven-replacer-plugin</groupId>
         <artifactId>replacer</artifactId>
         <version>1.5.2</version>
         <executions>
            <execution>
               <phase>validate</phase>
               <goals>
                  <goal>replace</goal>
               </goals>
            </execution>
         </executions>
         <configuration>
            <file>build/build.properties</file>
               <outputFile>res/raw/build.properties</outputFile>
               <replacements>
                  <replacement>
                     <token>@buildtime@</token>
                     <value>${maven.build.timestamp}</value>
                  </replacement>
               </replacements>
        </configuration>
   </plugin>
</plugin>

Run this task with mvn validate command. This will do nothing but replace the tokens from build.properties file with the timestamp value, and output the result to a new file in res/raw.

From here on the file can be accessed as a raw resource and read as a regular properties file.

Reading the properties file:

InputStream rawResource = resources.openRawResource(R.raw.build);
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.load(rawResource);
String buildTime = properties.getProperty("build.time");