setBackground vs setBackgroundDrawable (Android)

Question

I want to set background drawable of a view. There are two methods for this (as far as I see): setBackground and setBackgroundDrawable.

When I use setBackground, it says it has been added in API level 16 but my project's min SDK version is 7. I assume it's not going to work on anything below 16, am I right? But when I use setBackgroundDrawable, it says it's deprecated.

What am I supposed to use?

Answer 1

I also had this problem, but I made a workaround using a ImageView.

Try using a RelativeLayout and add a ImageView inside it (width and height: fill_parent, scaleType: center).

Also make sure the imageview is the first element inside the RelativeLayout, so it will act as background.

Answer 2

Using Android studio 1.5.1 i got the following warnings:

Call requires API level 16 (current min is 9): android.view.View#setBackground

and the complaints about deprecation

'setBackgroundDrawable(android.graphics.drawable.Drawable)' is deprecated

Using this format, i got rid of both:

    if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
        //noinspection deprecation
        layout.setBackgroundDrawable(drawable);
    } else {
        layout.setBackground(drawable);
    }

Answer 3

Use setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.xml/png)

Answer 4

You can use setBackgroundResource() instead which is in API level 1.

Answer 5

It's deprecated but it still works so you could just use it. But if you want to be completly correct, just for the completeness of it... You'd do something like following:

int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
    setBackgroundDrawable();
} else {
    setBackground();
}

For this to work you need to set buildTarget api 16 and min build to 7 or something similar.

Answer 6

You can also do this:

try {
     myView.getClass().getMethod(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 16 ? "setBackground" : "setBackgroundDrawable", Drawable.class).invoke(myView, myBackgroundDrawable);
} catch (Exception ex) {
     // do nothing
}

EDIT: Just as pointed out by @BlazejCzapp it is preferable to avoid using reflection if you can manage to solve the problem without it. I had a use case where I was unable to solve without reflection but that is not case above. For more information please take a look at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/index.html