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

corwin42 · Dec 19, 2014

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

B4A V6.0 or newer is required!
From V3.52 on B4A V6.80 or newer is required! If you still use B4A < V6.80, use V3.51 of this library.

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

Note: Please, Please read these instructions carefully. AppCompat depends on many things like a special theme with special features. Even special versions of build tools are required and last but not least there are often bugs in the Google support libraries.

I created this instructions to help you getting things ready for using AppCompat. So please follow these instructions carefully and all should work as expected and you don't have to ask in the forum.

Thanks.

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 If you upgrade from an earlier release you can deinstall the "Android Support Library" since it is outdated and marked as obsolete in the Android SDK.

First copy the AppCompat.jar, AppCompat.aar and AppCompat.xml files to your additional libraries folder.
Start the Android SDK-Manager and download/update the latest Extras->Android Support Repository. Use at least support repository 36!
In Android SDK-Manager be sure that the "Android SDK Build-tools" 25.x.x is installed! Deinstall all versions prior to version 25! If you leave older versions than 23.0.3 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.
In the B4A IDE in your projects check the AppCompat library on the libraries tab.
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. The Support libraries require to compile against the same API version as the library itself. So for Support library 25.xx which is the current now you should compile with API25 android.jar.
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.

Your support:
Creating libraries and wrappers for existing library projects is a lot of work. The use of this library is totally free and you even don't need to mention in your app that you use it.
But if you use this library in your projects and you think it is useful to you please consider to make a donation:

Thanks very much for your support.

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.

V3.30

Fix: Remove log output from ACSpinner
Fix: Hopefully fixed crashes with missing designer properties
Fix: Mixed case Eventnames in Toolbars now working
New: Support for ActionViews in MenuItems (Needed for CustomViews in NavigationView of DesignSupport library)
Change: Minimum Support Repository 36

V3.41:

Fix: Change packagename to anywheresoftware.b4a.orbjects to reduce resouce fields

V3.42:

Fix: ToolBars should raise their events correctly again.

V3.50:

New: Support for CharSequences wherever possible.

V3.51

Fix: Getters return String instead of CharSequence again to avoid problems.

V3.52

Fix: Compiled against B4A 6.80 Core library to avoid some problems with CharSequences.

V4.00

Change: Compiled against 28.0.0 Support library
New: Styles for most Views

b4auser1 · Mar 30, 2016

I see two threads relating to AppCompat, so I put my question in both of them
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...he-appcompat-library.48424/page-4#post-413094

acorrias · Apr 2, 2016

Hi.
I have two questions:
a) how can I downgrade support library from 32.2.1 to a working version
b) how do I have to configure style resources. My app stops on my smartphone without any evidence of error, and I read abot style problems. I am not sure about the name to give to the folder containing style.xml. Should I call i values o values-X according to the version of API? I cannot find any information about this aspect.

my file is

B4X:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyAppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
      <item name="colorPrimary">#FF9800</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">#F57C00</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">#FFA726</item>
        <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
    </style>
</resources>

and I'm using support lib 23.2.1 and sdk 23 . But if someone suggest me how to downgrade I could go on test appcompat lib

thanks in advance
alex

b4auser1 · Apr 2, 2016

Can I initialize ACEditText variable, asign it to EditText and then use TextText variable (see. below) ? The same question about other AC replacemnts for regular Views.

B4X:

Dim acedtText As ACEditText
acedtText.Initilaize ...
Dim edtText As EditText = acedtText
edtText.Text = "111"
edtText.Gravity = ...
...

corwin42 · Apr 2, 2016

xor83 said:
RemoveMenuItem of ACPopupMenu give me error:

Can you post the error you get?

acorrias said:
I have two questions:
a) how can I downgrade support library from 32.2.1 to a working version

It should not be necessary to downgrade currently. Support library 32.2.1 should be fine.

acorrias said:
b) how do I have to configure style resources. My app stops on my smartphone without any evidence of error, and I read abot style problems. I am not sure about the name to give to the folder containing style.xml. Should I call i values o values-X according to the version of API? I cannot find any information about this aspect.

The style file you posted looks good, if you want to use a ToolBar as Actionbar.

App crashes can be caused by hundreds of different problems. You will have to try to get a stack trace.

- Connect your device via USB.
- Watch the unfiltered logs in B4A
- Start your app in release mode on the device.

this should give you a java stack trace if the app crashes.

b4auser1 said:
Can I initialize ACEditText variable, asign it to EditText and then use TextText variable (see. below) ? The same question about other AC replacemnts for regular Views.

I don't know whats the usecase for this but yes, it should be possible to do this. The ACXXX Views differ mainly in the initialization of the views.

itgirl · Apr 4, 2016

Hello , and thank you for this great one , just one question is there anyway we can detect the click on the searchview and the close search click ?

in the events i can see <event>Closed as Boolean</event> !!

konradwalsh · Apr 11, 2016

B4X:

** Activity (main) Create, isFirst = true **
main_activity_create (java line: 326)
java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: No static field abc_ic_ab_back_material of type I in class Landroid/support/v7/appcompat/R$drawable; or its superclasses (declaration of 'android.support.v7.appcompat.R$drawable' appears in /data/app/de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample-2/base.apk)
    at android.support.v7.widget.ToolbarWidgetWrapper.<init>(ToolbarWidgetWrapper.java:91)
    at android.support.v7.app.ToolbarActionBar.<init>(ToolbarActionBar.java:74)
    at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.setSupportActionBar(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:210)
    at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.setSupportActionBar(AppCompatActivity.java:119)
    at de.amberhome.objects.appcompat.ACToolBarWrapper.SetAsActionBar(ACToolBarWrapper.java:244)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main._activity_create(main.java:326)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
    at anywheresoftware.b4a.BA.raiseEvent2(BA.java:169)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main.afterFirstLayout(main.java:102)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main.access$000(main.java:17)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main$WaitForLayout.run(main.java:80)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:135)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5254)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:903)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:698)
main_activity_create (java line: 326)
java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: No static field abc_ic_ab_back_material of type I in class Landroid/support/v7/appcompat/R$drawable; or its superclasses (declaration of 'android.support.v7.appcompat.R$drawable' appears in /data/app/de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample-2/base.apk)
    at android.support.v7.widget.ToolbarWidgetWrapper.<init>(ToolbarWidgetWrapper.java:91)
    at android.support.v7.app.ToolbarActionBar.<init>(ToolbarActionBar.java:74)
    at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.setSupportActionBar(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:210)
    at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.setSupportActionBar(AppCompatActivity.java:119)
    at de.amberhome.objects.appcompat.ACToolBarWrapper.SetAsActionBar(ACToolBarWrapper.java:244)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main._activity_create(main.java:326)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
    at anywheresoftware.b4a.BA.raiseEvent2(BA.java:169)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main.afterFirstLayout(main.java:102)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main.access$000(main.java:17)
    at de.amberhome.appcompat.serachviewexample.main$WaitForLayout.run(main.java:80)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:135)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5254)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:903)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:698)

I have copied over the latest v4 Jar file...
I get this from running the sample
I have updated SDK to latest everything..

Any ideas

DonManfred · Apr 11, 2016

konradwalsh said:
I have copied over the latest v4 Jar file...

did you copy the new res-folder too??????

konradwalsh · Apr 11, 2016

DonManfred said:
did you copy the new res-folder too??????

No.. I didnt!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for wasting your time...
thanks!

lomosami · Apr 12, 2016

Hello,
I have 2 question:

1)Can ACActionMenu object display an icon near the menu title? I tried but nothing appear.
example:
Private ACMen As ACActionMenu
Dim xml As XmlLayoutBuilder
Dim bd As BitmapDrawable
bd = xml.GetDrawable("ic_plus_one_black_24dp")

ACMen.Menu.Add(1,1,"refresh",bd.Bitmap) ---> icon doens't appear on the menu

2) How can I use the AddSubMenu object to create other submenu? I tried but I can't have a submenu.
Thanks

acorrias · Apr 22, 2016

corwin42 said:
Can you post the error you get?

App crashes can be caused by hundreds of different problems. You will have to try to get a stack trace.
- Connect your device via USB.
- Watch the unfiltered logs in B4A
- Start your app in release mode on the device.
this should give you a java stack trace if the app crashes.

Hi before your advice I was not able to do a java stack trace. my problem is that my smarthphone sends a lot of messagges trought usb cable even stopping the error app, so I cannot manage such quantity of log msgs. Is there a way to resctrict the analysis? I set the smartphone to debug mode in order to see msgs in the log

thanks in advance
alex

corwin42 · Apr 28, 2016

lomosami said:
Hello,
I have 2 question:

1)Can ACActionMenu object display an icon near the menu title? I tried but nothing appear.
example:
Private ACMen As ACActionMenu
Dim xml As XmlLayoutBuilder
Dim bd As BitmapDrawable
bd = xml.GetDrawable("ic_plus_one_black_24dp")

ACMen.Menu.Add(1,1,"refresh",bd.Bitmap) ---> icon doens't appear on the menu

Icons are not supported in the overflow menu.

They only show if the item is displayed as an ActionItem in the ToolBar/ActionBar.

2) How can I use the AddSubMenu object to create other submenu? I tried but I can't have a submenu.
Thanks

I'm not sure if this works in the overflow menu. Submenus are not very nicely supported by Android but it should work.
I will test it again if I have some time.

prajinpraveen · May 6, 2016

Hi, is it possible to capture ACSearchView's Cancel or closed event?
I see that there is a ACSearchView_Closed event, but it doesnt fire

Chris Lee · Jun 3, 2016

Hi, I'm trying to get access to an ACCheckbox via Panel.Getview eg
Dim Mychk as ACCheckbox = MyPanel.GetView(1)

I can tell from the tag I have the right object, but the type is coming back as BALayout and I'm getting

BALayout cannot be cast to Android.widget.Checkbox

Quite new to all this so I'm not sure how to access it?

DonManfred · Jun 3, 2016

Add your check for the Tag into it....

B4X:

    For Each v In Panel1.GetAllViewsRecursive
        If v Is ACCheckBox Then
            Dim Mychk As ACCheckBox = v
            ' do something with Mychk
        End If
    Next

Chris Lee · Jun 3, 2016

DonManfred said:

Add your check for the Tag into it....

B4X:

    For Each v In Panel1.GetAllViewsRecursive
        If v Is ACCheckBox Then
            Dim Mychk As ACCheckBox = v
            ' do something with Mychk
        End If
    Next

Works great thanks, speed of response was amazing.

trueboss323 · Jun 8, 2016

This does not work for MessageBoxes, it's still showing me the Holo theme

corwin42 · Jun 8, 2016

trueboss323 said:
This does not work for MessageBoxes, it's still showing me the Holo theme

Yes, that is true. Dialogs are currently not supported by the AppCompat library.

You may try this library (see post #44 for latest version): https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/afollestad-material-dialogs.53108/

trueboss323 · Jun 9, 2016

Thank you, I will check it out!

Btw, any chance of having a ACProgressbar object?

corwin42 · Jun 21, 2016

Updated the library to version 3.0 in the first post.

This version supports the new library system of B4A 6.0 and adds full designer custom property support for all views.

LucaMs · Jun 21, 2016

Hi @corwin42,

can you (we) easily import and use the original library in environments like Eclipse or Android Studio?

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

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