How to use appcompat-v7 with android API 19

Question

All is in the questioin

I have a module with this graddle :

apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
android {
    compileSdkVersion 21
    buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"
    compileOptions.encoding "ISO-8859-1"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 8
        targetSdkVersion 8
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.3'
}

When I change "compileSdkVersion" to 19 => I get 100+ errors about ressources not found :

Example :

    Error:(9, 21) No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Body1'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Body2'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Button'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Caption'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Display1'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Display2'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Display3'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Display4'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Headline'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Inverse'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Large'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Large.Inverse'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Widget.PopupMenu.Large'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Widget.PopupMenu.Small'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Medium'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Medium.Inverse'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Menu'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name '@android:TextAppearance.Material.SearchResult.Subtitle'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name '@android:TextAppearance.Material.SearchResult.Title'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Small'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Small.Inverse'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Subhead'.
Error:Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Title'.

Answer 1

of course you are getting these errors in API<21, because android:TextAppearance.Material and others (Material) were introduced in API 21. AppCompat is porting resources, but they are used without android: prefix (I can't check at this moment if these you are using also, but probably yes). If you compile your app with API 21 and run on lower API device crashes will occur also

android: prefix refer to built-in params, which should be in all versions of supported APIs (minSDK). Material isn't present in pre-API21 systems