primary dark color android under API 21

Question

i want to color the Statusbar, for a better look in Android 5.0. I want to set the three color primarydark,light and accent.

But my minimum API is 15. Is there any chance just to use this just under API lvl 21? Or do I have to create a seperate app with min. sdk 21?

EDIT: Now i get everything i needed but the statisbar color won't change.

This is my values-v21/styles.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material.Light">
            <!-- API 21 theme customizations can go here. -->
    <!-- Main theme colors -->
    <!--   your app branding color for the app bar -->
    <item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/primary</item>
    <!--   darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
    <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
    <!--   theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
    <item name="android:colorAccent">@color/accent</item>
        </style>
</resources>

And this the normal style.xml

<resources>

    <!--
        Base application theme, dependent on API level. This theme is replaced
        by AppBaseTheme from res/values-vXX/styles.xml on newer devices.
    -->
    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
        <!--
            Theme customizations available in newer API levels can go in
            res/values-vXX/styles.xml, while customizations related to
            backward-compatibility can go here.
        -->
    </style>

    <!-- Application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
        <!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
    </style>

    <!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
    <style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
        parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
    </style>

    <!-- ActionBar styles -->
    <style name="MyActionBar"
        parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
        <item name="android:background">@color/blue</item>
    </style>
</resources>

Any Ideas why this won't work?

Answer 1

You can have different styles for different API levels.

For API < 21, you would use a normal res/values/styles.xml, and then for API 21+, you would have res/values-v21/styles.xml.

If the device is running API 21 or higher, then it will use the file in the -v21 folder. If you just want to set <color> values, then just name the keys the same and do the same with colors.xml.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html#AlternativeResources

Example:

res/values/colors.xml:

<!-- Colours for API <21 -->
<color name="primaryDark">#800000</color>
<color name="light">#800080</color>
<color name="accent">#FF0000</color>

res/values-v21/colors.xml:

<!-- Colours for API 21+ -->
<color name="primaryDark">#000008</color>
<color name="light">#080008</color>
<color name="accent">#0000FF</color>