Question

Thanks P.T. for what looks like the correct answer to question Building multi-SDK Android apps in Eclipse without losing compile-time checks. However, when I try to use the @TargetApi() annotation as recommended, it generates syntax errors.

@TargetApi(11)    // location 1
public class DisplayMessageActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    @TargetApi(11)    // location 2
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
            @TargetApi(11)    // location 3
            getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true); }

generates two syntax errors on the @TargetApi line when it is in the middle of the code as shown at location 3:

x Syntax error, insert "enum Identifier" to complete EnumHeaderName
x Syntax error, insert "enumBody" to complete BlockStatements

The errors exist whether I have the @TargetApi line before the if statement or after it as shown. Are there any prerequisites (imports) or other considerations not mentioned in the Lint API Check article http://tools.android.com/recent/lintapicheck to get @TargetApi() working correctly?

— Edit 9/3/2012 —

If I move the @TargetApi annotation to before the class definition (shown as location 1) or before the method definition (shown as location 2, either before or after the @Override annotation), I get different errors:

x TargetApi cannot be resolved to a type
x The attribute value is undefined for the annotation type TargetApi

— Edit 9/4/2012 —

Here is the full source code:

package com.example.my.first.app;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class DisplayMessageActivity extends Activity {

    @TargetApi(11)
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        // ActionBar introduced in Android 3.0 Honeycomb API 11
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
            getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true); }   // Up Navigation

        // Get the message from the intent
        Intent intent = getIntent();
        String message = intent.getStringExtra(MainActivity.EXTRA_MESSAGE);

        // Create the text view
        TextView textView = new TextView(this);
        textView.setTextSize(40);
        textView.setText(message);

        // Set the text view as the activity layout
        setContentView(textView);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_display_message, menu);
        return true;
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        switch (item.getItemId()) {
            case android.R.id.home:
                NavUtils.navigateUpFromSameTask(this);
                return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

}

Answer 1

FizzBuzz provided the answer to this in How do you version code in Android without compiler warnings?.

In addition to the @TargetApi(nn) annotation in the code, you also need to import the definition of that annotation:

import android.annotation.TargetApi;

For some unknown reason, an import is not required to use the @Override annotation. It would be helpful if the ADT documentation http://tools.android.com/recent/lintapicheck were fixed to eliminate the bogus code example and mention the required import.