Question

I have noticed that the setBackground method for the RelativeLayout object is targeted for API 16 (Android 4.1) and higher, but my application has the target API 8 and I cannot use it.

Is there any alternative solution for this problem (besides marking the class/method with TargetApi(16) or changing the target API in the manifest)?
Thank you!

Edit: Eclipse was buggy and it showed me the same error for setBackgroundDrawable but now it seems to work. Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Use one of:

• .setBackgroundColor(int) (if you’re setting it to a color)
• .setBackgroundDrawable(Drawable) (if you’re setting it to a Drawable type; this is deprecated, and was replaced by .setBackground(Drawable))
• .setBackgroundResource(int) (for setting a resource from R.java)

If you use the second one, make sure to do a conditional check on your API version:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 16)
    view.setBackground(...);
else
    view.setBackgroundDrawable(...);

… and mark it with @TargetApi(16) and @SuppressWarnings("deprecation").