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

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

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 If you upgrade from an earlier release you can deinstall the "Android Support Library" since it is outdated and marked as obsolete in the Android SDK.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 36!
  3. 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.
  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. 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.
  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.
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
 

Attachments

  • AppCompatBaseExample3_20.zip
    10.9 KB · Views: 4,741
  • AppCompatLib3_51.zip
    87.2 KB · Views: 2,504
  • AppCompatLib3_52.zip
    87.3 KB · Views: 4,425
  • AppCompatLib4_00.zip
    181.8 KB · Views: 4,605
Last edited by a moderator:
Click to expand...

ggpanta

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corwin42 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Using this version we loose the ability to run on anything before SDK 21, is this expected behaviour? If it is would it be possible to release v2 as a differently named lib so that at least we can make an APK for earlier devices?

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:

corwin42

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LucaMs said:
can you (we) easily import and use the original library in environments like Eclipse or Android Studio?
Click to expand...

Sorry I don't understand your question. Of course you can use AppCompat in Eclipse or Android Studio projects but thats not related to this library.

ggpanta said:
Using this version we loose the ability to run on anything before SDK 21, is this expected behaviour?
Click to expand...
No. Why do you think that AppCompat 3.0 wrapper does not support SDK versions below 21? The minimum SDK version should still be 7 but I recommend to use at least a minSDKVersion of 14 (Android 4.0)
 

LucaMs

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corwin42 said:
Sorry I don't understand your question. Of course you can use AppCompat in Eclipse or Android Studio projects but thats not related to this library.
Click to expand...

My question is: given that you are able to develop using those tools, for sure, do you think it is easy to import the original library and use it (with Android Studio)?
Anyway, an answer is optional, of course

I will find the time to experiment by myself.
 

corwin42

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1. Eclipse is not recommended for Android development anymore. Android Studio is the prefered IDE if you want to develop Java Android apps.
2. If you create a simple project in Android Studio from a Template, AppCompat is included automatically since there are so many features in it that most projects use it.
3. This discussion is not related to the Wrapper library so if you want to discuss it further then start a new thread.
 

ggpanta

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corwin42 said:
No. Why do you think that AppCompat 3.0 wrapper does not support SDK versions below 21? The minimum SDK version should still be 7 but I recommend to use at least a minSDKVersion of 14 (Android 4.0)
Click to expand...

The moment I moved to version 3 the compiled apps fail immediately on anything below 21, no other change other than moving to version 3.

Actually just using your example app I am having the same issue, on anything before SDK21 the apps will forceclose.
 

corwin42

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Do you have a stack trace?
 

ggpanta

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corwin42 said:
Do you have a stack trace?
Click to expand...

It fails here:
android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: File res/drawable-v19/abc_ic_ab_back_material.xml from drawable resource ID #0x7f020013

threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0xa4d4db20)
FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: de.amberhome.appcompat.basicexample, PID: 2092
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{de.amberhome.appcompat.basicexample/de.amberhome.appcompat.basicexample.main}: android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: File res/drawable-v19/abc_ic_ab_back_material.xml from drawable resource ID #0x7f020013
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2195)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2245)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$800(ActivityThread.java:135)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1196)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5017)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:779)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:595)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: File res/drawable-v19/abc_ic_ab_back_material.xml from drawable resource ID #0x7f020013
at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:2101)
at android.content.res.Resources.getDrawable(Resources.java:700)
at android.support.v4.content.ContextCompat.getDrawable(ContextCompat.java:354)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatDrawableManager.getDrawable(AppCompatDrawableManager.java:193)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatDrawableManager.getDrawable(AppCompatDrawableManager.java:181)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatDrawableManager.checkVectorDrawableSetup(AppCompatDrawableManager.java:689)
at android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatDrawableManager.getDrawable(AppCompatDrawableManager.java:186)
at android.support.v7.widget.TintTypedArray.getDrawableIfKnown(TintTypedArray.java:77)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplBase.<init>(AppCompatDelegateImplBase.java:83)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.<init>(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:146)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV11.<init>(AppCompatDelegateImplV11.java:28)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV14.<init>(AppCompatDelegateImplV14.java:41)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegate.create(AppCompatDelegate.java:193)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegate.create(AppCompatDelegate.java:173)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.getDelegate(AppCompatActivity.java:511)
at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.onCreate(AppCompatActivity.java:71)
at de.amberhome.appcompat.basicexample.main.onCreate(main.java:33)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5231)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1087)
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2159)
... 11 more
Caused by: org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException: Binary XML file line #17: invalid drawable tag vector
at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromXmlInner(Drawable.java:933)
at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromXml(Drawable.java:877)
at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:2097)
... 30 more
Force finishing activity de.amberhome.appcompat.basicexample/.main
 

corwin42

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Ah, I see. Thats a problem with vector drawables not available on devices below API 21. The bad thing is that Erel will have to add a parameter for the aapt command to make it work again. The problem is explained here.
 

corwin42

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I currently can't test the issue here because I don't have an older device here. Will have a try tonight or tomorrow morning with some emulators.
 

corwin42

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ggpanta said:
It fails here:
android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: File res/drawable-v19/abc_ic_ab_back_material.xml from drawable resource ID #0x7f020013
Click to expand...

I just tested your issue in some Genymotion emulators.
I tested with API 16 (Android 4.1.1), API 17 (Android 4.2.2), API 19 (Android 4.4.4), API 21 (Android 5.0)
They all worked without problem.

There is currently a problem with API 10 (Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread). In this release the SearchView does not work. I will check if this can be fixed.

I think I have to repeat Erels question: Are you using the latest version of the Android Support Repository?
 

corwin42

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corwin42 said:
There is currently a problem with API 10 (Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread). In this release the SearchView does not work. I will check if this can be fixed.
Click to expand...
Found it. The workaround for the "close" event uses a method that is available since API 12 so it crashes on API 11 and below. I will add a fix for this but the result will be that the event will not work on API 11 and below.
 

corwin42

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ggpanta said:
Of course I updated the day you released it since I wanted the aar support.
Click to expand...

I'm getting out of ideas.

It seems that an old AppCompat library is used.

If you still have some android-support-*.jar files in your additional libraries folder, please delete them. They are not needed anymore.
Additionally please check, if you have a 24.0.0 folder in the path XXXX\android-sdk\extras\android\m2repository\com\android\support\appcompat-v7\
And the 24.0.0 version should be in maven-metadata.xml
 

ggpanta

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Thats the thing, the first thing I thought off was the android-support libs, I made sure I dont have any of them in my B4A paths, I even thought that maybe B4A was looking for them in the extras folder so I moved them completely from there.

I do have 24.0.0 and all the alphas and betas, why would that be a problem though ? I dont get it. Should I move them out of the path?

---- EDIT ----
Ok I think I found the issue, almost all the .aar libs in my SDK have a file length of 352bytes, I dont know how this is possible, SDK manager shows they are fine and updated, I am removing the support repo and readding it. Will updated if this was the issue.
 

ggpanta

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Unfortunately that didn't work for me, I am going to setup a new VM at some point and do a clean install of everything and see if that resolves it, but that has to wait for some vacation time.
Thanks for your help
 
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