B4A Library AppCompat - Make Material Design apps compatible with older Android versions

corwin42 said:

This library is a wrapper for the Google AppCompat v7 support library.

B4A V6.0 or later is required!

The main reason for this library is to make your apps compatible with older Android versions and to use features in old Android versions which were implemented in newer Android releases. One big advantage of this library is that you can bring Material Design to pre Lollipop Android devices.

Setting up the library


The library uses the Android Support Repository. Please install it from the Extras Section of the Android SDK Manager. If you upgrade from an earlier release you can deinstall the "Android Support Library" since it is outdated and marked as obsolete in the Android SDK.

1. First copy the AppCompat.jar, AppCompat.aar and AppCompat.xml files to your additional libraries folder.
2. Start the Android SDK-Manager and download/update the latest Extras->Android Support Repository. Use at least support repository 33!
3. In Android SDK-Manager be sure that the "Android SDK Build-tools" 23.0.3 is installed! Deinstall all other versions so 23.0.3 is the only one installed! If you leave older versions of build tools installed your compiled app may work on Android 5.0 and above but it will fail on older Android versions like KitKat.
4. In the B4A IDE in your projects check the AppCompat library on the libraries tab.
5. Make sure that you reference the latest android.jar in the IDE under the "Tools/Configure Paths" menu. Don't worry. The android.jar is only used for compilation. It does not mean that you can't run your app on lower Android Versions.
6. If you are updating from a version older than v3.20 then remove the b4a_appcompat resource folder delivered with older versions of this library.

To use the AppCompat library your activities MUST extend android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity (extending the old android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity still works.)

B4X:

 #Extends: android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity

Additionally you MUST use one of the AppCompat themes like Theme.AppCompat. You can set it directly in the manifest editor or create your own theme that has an AppCompat theme as its parent. The easiest way is to set the AppCompat theme in the manifest:

B4X:

SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@style/Theme.AppCompat")

If you have upgraded this library from an older version than 3.20 then you have to remove the #AdditionalRes: attribute related to the AppCompat library from your projects. They are not needed anymore.

Some Tutorials for this library
Material Design 2 - Using the AppCompat library
Material Design 3 - Using a ToolBar as ActionBar
Material Design 4 - Modifyable and advanced Menu

Troubleshooting Guide
Because it is not so easy to setup this library I will try to give a troubleshooting guide here for the most common problems.

1. Compile always with the newest android.jar file. This can be configured in the IDE under "Tools/Configure Paths". Download the latest platform version with the SDK Manager and configure it with the IDE. Don't worry, your app will still run on older platform versions. AppCompat support library needs this only at compile time.

2. Be sure you have a correct theme file for your project. If the app seems to crash immediately without a stack trace it is most probably a problem with the theme file.

3. If you post your issue in the forum please provide the stack trace of the error! And before you post, please do a forum seach. Most probably the same error was previously reported by another user. If you don't see a stack trace in the log window, please try the unfiltered logs. Unfortunately most errors only show when you have your device connected via USB in the unfiltered logs.

4. If you post your issue in the forum please provide as many information as possible. The error you receive, screenshots if possible and most important: the stack trace.



Version History

V1.00

• Object AppCompat - Utilities which are useful for working with AppCompat
• Object ACActionBar - Like StdActionBar or StdActionBarHelper to control some features of the ActionBar.
• Object ACEditText - Replacement for EditText with Material Design colors.
• Object ACCheckBox - Replacement for CheckBox with Material Design colors.
• Object ACRadioButton - Replacement for RadioButton with Material Design colors.
• Object ACSwitch - Wrapper for a Switch.
• Object ACFlatButton - Borderless Button for Dialogs etc.

V1.10

• New object ACToolBarLight - Toolbar for light themes
• New object ACToolBarDark - Toolbar for dark themes
• New object ACActionMenu - Create action menus (action items and/or overflow menu everywhere in your layout. (The view needs to have a minimum width of 56dip to work properly. This seems to be a bug and hopefully will change in later versions of the AppCompat library)
• New object ACActionModeWrapper - Change ActionBar/Toolbar to an ActionMode ActionBar. Mostly used for multiselect lists.
• New object ACMenu - Access and modify the ActionMode, ActionMenu or Toolbar menus.
• New object ACMenuItem - Access and modify the ActionMode, ActionMenu or Toolbar menu items.
• New object ACPopupMenu - Implements a popup menu.
• New object ACSearchView - Add a search view to your ActionBar/Toolbar
• Add: AppCompat object has new methods for getting height of system components like StatusBar, ActionBar and NavigationBar.
• Add: AppCompat object has a new method for setting the elevation of every view. With this all views (like Panels) can cast shadows. Unfortunately the shadow is only visible on Android 5.0 or above.

V2.00

• #Extends: android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity should now be used (ActionBarActivity still works)
  
• New object ACSpinner - AppCompat Spinner with additional support to show an icon in front of the text.
• New object ACSubMenu - Adding Submenus to menus.
• New Event ACSearchView_QueryChanged
• Some internal changes (xml files for Views are not needed anymore)
• Support for tinting Drawables.
• Possibility to set a click effect to any view - This is experimental. It should add a ripple effect in Lollipop and above and a color change in previous versions.
• To update from V1.xx to V2.00 delete the b4a_appcompat resource folder and copy the new one from the archive. The old xml files for buttons, edittext etc. are not needed anymore. Now there is only one xml for the spinner needed.

V3.00

• Requires B4A 6.0 or above
• References AppCompat from Maven repository
• Full designer custom properties support for all views
  
• Fix: ACRadioButton now supports grouping in a panel
  
• Desupport of the Activity Entry animation.
  
• New: ACSeekbar
  
• Fix: ACSearchview closed() event does not fire (AppCompat bug). Added workaround for this.
  
• Fix: Fixed several minor and major bugs
  
• New example App which shows main features

V3.01

• Fix: additionally depends on com.android.support:support-v4 which should make it work better if you mix old and new libraries.
• Fix: ACSearchview_Closed event will not crash on API < 12 but it will not fire on these devices. Sorry, there is no workaround for this.

V3.20

• Moved resource files to aar library file - see new setup instructions
• Fix: ACButton ButtonColor attribute now works on all Android versions.

The AppCompat_v2_00.zip is for developers still using a B4A version < 6.0. Be aware that the setup of this version is different because you need the old support library jars.

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'This code will be applied to the manifest file during compilation.
'You do not need to modify it in most cases.
'See this link for for more information: https://www.b4x.com/forum/showthread.php?p=78136
AddManifestText(
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="5" android:targetSdkVersion="19"/>
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true"
    android:normalScreens="true"
    android:smallScreens="true"
    android:anyDensity="true"/>)
SetApplicationAttribute(android:icon, "@drawable/icon")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:label, "$LABEL$")
'End of default text.
'SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@style/Theme.AppCompat")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@style/MyAppTheme")

koaunglay said:

Please

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DonManfred said:

Read the setup info for b4a 6. You are missing some things in sdk

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corwin42 said:

Erel said that B4A should prefer the v23 build tools (v24 is currently not compatible with B4A). But it seems that it uses an older version if it is installed.

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koaunglay said:

I really installed

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DonManfred said:

You DID NOT read my post carefully!!! I said you should read the B4A 6 Setup info. I did not tell about appcompat setup.

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alimanam3386 said:

Now it's work perfect! where was the problem ?!!!

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koaunglay said:

B4X:

LogCat connected to: 2008edd522bb
Unable to open log device '/dev/log/main': No such file or directoryUnable to open log device '/dev/log/main': No such file or directoryUnable to open log device '/dev/log/main': No such file or directory

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Reids said:

I
Is this lib compatible with msmaterial drawer?

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Reids said:

I got this error, app is run okay, but when I close and open back this warning showup
Android version 4.4.4 I run app compat with msmaterial drawer which share same xml

Error Log

B4X:

java.lang.NullPointerException: expected receiver of type android.app.ActionBar, but got null
[...]

My Manifest File

B4X:

'This code will be applied to the manifest file during compilation.
'You do not need to modify it in most cases.
'See this link for for more information: http://www.b4x.com/forum/showthread.php?p=78136
AddManifestText(
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" android:targetSdkVersion="14"/>
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true"
    android:normalScreens="true"
    android:smallScreens="true"
    android:anyDensity="true"/>)
SetApplicationAttribute(android:icon, "@drawable/icon")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:label, "$LABEL$")
'End of default text.

SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@style/MyAppTheme")

CreateResource(values, theme.xml,
<resources>
    <style name="MyAppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="colorPrimary">#0098FF</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">#007CF5</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">#AAAA00</item>
        <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
    </style>
</resources>
)
SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@style/MaterialDrawerTheme.Light")
AddPermission("android.permission.READ_CONTACTS")
AddPermission("android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS")

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Refer on error method at org.myapp.app.main.onCreateOptionsMenu(main.java:128)
my java code is same as example

B4X:

#If Java
    public boolean _onCreateOptionsMenu(android.view.Menu menu) {
        if (processBA.subExists("activity_createmenu")) {
            processBA.raiseEvent2(null, true, "activity_createmenu", false, new de.amberhome.objects.appcompat.ACMenuWrapper(menu));
            return true;
        }
        else
            return false;
    }
#End If

My project oncreate Activity code is
I comment it because if I enable this error show up more frequent

B4X:

Sub Activity_CreateMenu(Menu As ACMenu)
    'Menu.Clear
End Sub

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Is this lib compatible with msmaterial drawer?

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dragonguy said:

how can raise the menu item menu click event?

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dragonguy said:

one one more question about the ACEditText, how can i change the color of the line when it get focus?

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corwin42 said:

This may be not related to your error but setting the theme two times makes no sense.
If you create your own theme you should set "@style/MaterialDrawerTheme.Light" as the parent of your own theme.

If you don't use a Toolbar and don't use a customizable menu you should remove the Java code and the menu initialization.

Yes.

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Activity_ActionBarHomeClick

ABHelper.Initialize
ABHelper.ShowUpIndicator = True
ActionBar.InitMenuListener

Sub ActionBar_NavigationItemClick
   Activity.Finish
End Sub

Reids said:

Hi corwin I use a toolbar and I can confirm the problem is related to

B4X:

Activity_ActionBarHomeClick

it appear not a serious error just a warning message that say java.lang.NullPointerException: null receiver
Everytime I put that event, the warning message show up, I using actionbar with code not with designer, designer doesn't show any warning message, but adding actionbar by code the error will showup

I do some research either put appcompat actionbar with designer or with code is really big difference
I tried this when put appcompat actionbar in code the event won't triggered, but with designer the event is trigered

B4X:

ABHelper.Initialize
ABHelper.ShowUpIndicator = True
ActionBar.InitMenuListener

B4X:

Sub ActionBar_NavigationItemClick
   Activity.Finish
End Sub

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corwin42 said:

Do you have a small example project which shows this error?

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Reids said:

Here sir

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ActionBar.Initialize("actionbar")

corwin42 said:

The bug will be fixed for the next version but it will take some time for the release. I'm currently on vacation and have only a Netbook with me. Running Eclipse on it is not much fun.

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