1page.title=Support Library Setup 2 3@jd:body 4 5 6<div id="qv-wrapper"> 7 <div id="qv"> 8 9 <h2>In this document</h2> 10 <ol> 11 <li><a href="#download">Downloading the Support Library</a></li> 12 <li><a href="#choosing">Choosing Support Libraries</a></li> 13 <li><a href="#add-library">Adding Support Libraries</a></li> 14 <li><a href="#using-apis">Using Support Library APIs</a> 15 <ol> 16 <li><a href="#manifest">Manifest Declaration Changes</a></li> 17 </ol> 18 </li> 19 </ol> 20 21 <h2>See also</h2> 22 <ol> 23 <li><a href="{@docRoot}tools/support-library/index.html#revisions"> 24 Support Library Revisions</a></li> 25 <li><a href="{@docRoot}tools/support-library/features.html"> 26 Support Library Features</a></li> 27 </ol> 28 29 </div> 30</div> 31 32<p>How you setup the Android Support Libraries in your development project depends on what features 33 you want to use and what range of Android platform versions you want to support with your 34 application.</p> 35 36<p>This document guides you through downloading the Support Library package and adding libraries 37 to your development environment.</p> 38 39 40<h2 id="download">Downloading the Support Libraries</h2> 41 42<p>The Android Support Repository package is provided as a supplemental download 43 to the Android SDK and is available through the Android 44 <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/sdk-manager.html">SDK Manager</a>. Follow the 45 instructions below to obtain the Support Library files. 46</p> 47 48<p>To download the Support Library through the SDK Manager:</p> 49 50<ol> 51 <li>Start the Android <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/sdk-manager.html">SDK Manager</a>.</li> 52 <li>In the SDK Manager window, scroll to the end of the <em>Packages</em> list, 53 find the <em>Extras</em> folder and, if necessary, expand to show its contents.</li> 54 <li>Select the <strong>Android Support Repository</strong> item.</li> 55 <li>Click the <strong>Install packages...</strong> button.</li> 56</ol> 57 58<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/sdk-manager-support-libs.png" width="525" alt="" /> 59<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> The Android SDK Manager with 60Android Support Repository selected.</p> 61 62<p>After downloading, the tool installs the Support Library files to your existing Android SDK 63 directory. The library files are located in the following subdirectory of your SDK: 64 <code><sdk>/extras/android/m2repository/com/android/support/</code> 65 directory.</p> 66 67 68<h2 id="choosing">Choosing Support Libraries</h2> 69 70<p>Before adding a Support Library to your application, decide what features you want to include 71 and the lowest Android versions you want to support. For more information on the features 72 provided by the different libraries, see 73 <a href="{@docRoot}tools/support-library/features.html">Support Library Features</a>.</p> 74 75 76<h2 id="add-library">Adding Support Libraries</h2> 77 78<p>In order to use a Support Library, you must modify your application's project's 79 classpath dependencies within your development environment. You must perform this procedure for 80 each Support Library you want to use.</p> 81 82<p>To add a Support Library to your application project:</p> 83 84 <ol> 85 <li>Make sure you have downloaded the <strong>Android Support Repository</strong> 86 using the <a href="#download">SDK Manager</a>.</li> 87 <li>Open the {@code build.gradle} file for your application.</li> 88 <li>Add the support library to the {@code dependencies} section. For 89 example, to add the v4 core-utils library, add the following lines: 90<pre> 91dependencies { 92 ... 93 <b>compile "com.android.support:support-core-utils:24.2.0"</b> 94} 95</pre> 96 </li> 97 </ol> 98 99<p class="caution"> 100 <strong>Caution:</strong> Using dynamic dependencies (for example, 101 <code>palette-v7:23.0.+</code>) can cause unexpected version updates and 102 regression incompatibilities. We recommend that you explicitly specify a 103 library version (for example, <code>palette-v7:24.2.0</code>). 104</p> 105 106<h2 id="using-apis">Using Support Library APIs</h2> 107 108<p>Support Library classes that provide support for existing framework APIs typically have the 109 same name as framework class but are located in the <code>android.support</code> class packages, 110 or have a <code>*Compat</code> suffix.</p> 111 112<div class="caution"> 113 <p><strong>Caution:</strong> When using classes from the Support Library, be certain you import 114 the class from the appropriate package. For example, when applying the {@code ActionBar} 115 class:</p> 116 <ul> 117 <li>{@code android.support.v7.app.ActionBar} when using the Support Library.</li> 118 <li>{@code android.app.ActionBar} when developing only for API level 11 or higher.</li> 119 </ul> 120</div> 121 122<p class="note"> 123 <strong>Note:</strong> After including the Support Library in your application project, we 124 strongly recommend using the 125 <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/proguard.html">ProGuard</a> tool to prepare your application APK 126 for release. In addition to protecting your source code, the ProGuard tool also removes unused 127 classes from any libraries you include in your application, which keeps the download size of 128 your application as small as possible. For more information, see 129 <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/proguard.html">ProGuard</a>. 130</p> 131 132<p>Further guidance for using some Support Library features is provided in the Android developer 133 <a href="{@docRoot}training/index.html">training classes</a>, 134 <a href="{@docRoot}guide/components/index.html">guides</a> 135 and samples. For more information about the individual Support Library classes and methods, see 136 the {@link android.support.v4.app android.support} packages in the API reference. 137</p> 138 139 140<h3 id="manifest">Manifest Declaration Changes</h3> 141 142<p>If you are increasing the backward compatibility of your existing application to an earlier 143 version of the Android API with the Support Library, make sure to update your application's 144 manifest. Specifically, you should update the <code>android:minSdkVersion</code> 145 element of the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html"> 146 <code><uses-sdk></code></a> tag in the manifest to the new, lower version number, as 147 shown below:</p> 148 149<pre> 150 <uses-sdk 151 android:minSdkVersion="<b>14</b>" 152 android:targetSdkVersion="23" /> 153</pre> 154 155<p>The manifest setting tells Google Play that your application can be installed on devices with Android 156 4.0 (API level 14) and higher. </p> 157 158<p>If you are using Gradle build files, the <code>minSdkVersion</code> setting in the build file 159 overrides the manifest settings. </p> 160 161<pre> 162apply plugin: 'com.android.application' 163 164android { 165 ... 166 167 defaultConfig { 168 minSdkVersion 16 169 ... 170 } 171 ... 172} 173</pre> 174 175<p>In this case, the build file setting tells Google Play that the default build variant of your 176 application can be installed on devices with Android 4.1 (API level 16) and higher. For more 177 information about build variants, see 178 <a href="{@docRoot}studio/build/index.html">Build System Overview</a>. </p> 179 180<p class="note"> 181 <strong>Note:</strong> If you are including several support libraries, the 182 minimum SDK version must be the <em>highest</em> version required by any of 183 the specified libraries. For example, if your app includes both the <a href= 184 "features.html#v14-preference">v14 Preference Support library</a> and the 185 <a href="features.html#v17-leanback">v17 Leanback library</a>, your minimum 186 SDK version must be 17 or higher. 187</p> 188
