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How to develop legacy Android app (api>=10) with android studio?

I'm trying to develop an app for my (very) old Android phone with Gingerbread, api 10.

But with android studio as IDE the problems seem to go on forever:

  • in project wizard, only api>=14 is supported
  • so I choose 14 and want to change later on
  • I change minSdkVersion in build.gradle(:app) to 10 -> minSdkVersion 10 cannot be smaller than version 14 declared in library
  • so I change implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:26.1.0' to implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.1.0'
  • I get errors¹ that some generated gradle chache files "values-v14.xml" are missing ressources

…and that's the point I don't know how to go on

As I thought, it can't be true, a project throws that manny errors, and I did not create a single class and did not write a single line of code, I tried building from commandline.

It works, but I got used to IDE-features and don't like missing them. So my question is:

How to develop a legacy android app for api levels down to 10 with android studio?
Is there a guide to go on fitting the project to api 10?

Was I on the "right" path at all?

Is there maybe a skeleton-project for a api level 10 app, which I could import (as if I could choose api 10 in project wizard)?

I am aware of the reasons, Google doesn't support api<14 anymore.

Still I don't see why I shouldn't be able to use my perfectly healthy hardware.
And still would I like to be able to write a simple app for my old phone.

¹ error log:

Information:Gradle tasks [:app:assembleDebug]
/home/aik/.gradle/caches/transforms-1/files-1.1/appcompat-v7-25.1.0.aar/2ab2d76d88a035b2d8a733b1b9a020a8/res/values-v14/values-v14.xml
Error:(8, 5) error: style attribute 'android:attr/textAllCaps' not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Body1 not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Body2 not found.
/home/aik/test_api10/app/build/intermediates/incremental/mergeDebugResources/merged.dir/values-v14/values-v14.xml
Error:(5) style attribute 'android:attr/textAllCaps' not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Button not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Caption not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Display1 not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Display2 not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Display3 not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Display4 not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Headline not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Inverse not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Large not found.
/home/aik/test_api10/app/build/intermediates/incremental/mergeDebugResources/merged.dir/values-v11/values-v11.xml
Error:(6) error: resource android:attr/textColorHighlightInverse not found.
Error:(7) error: resource android:attr/textColorLinkInverse not found.
Error:(12) error: resource android:attr/textColorHighlightInverse not found.
Error:(13) error: resource android:attr/textColorLinkInverse not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Large.Inverse not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Widget.PopupMenu.Large not found.
Error:resource android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Widget.PopupMenu.Small not found.
Error:java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.android.tools.aapt2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details
Error:java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.android.tools.aapt2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details
Error:com.android.tools.aapt2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details
Error:Execution failed for task ':app:processDebugResources'.
> Failed to execute aapt
Information:BUILD FAILED in 10s
Information:25 errors
Information:0 warnings
Information:See complete output in console

EDIT I modified my gradle:app to match with the one from ישו אוהב אותך's skeleton-project. I did have to change compileSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion and androidTestImplementation in addition to my tries mentioned above. File looks like this now:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 25
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "dj.kai.test_api10"
        minSdkVersion 10
        targetSdkVersion 25
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.4.0'
    implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'

    // this is the last support test for api >= 9
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.0'
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.0'
}
Solution

  • You can create Android project for API >= 9, there is no technical limitation on making the project. The only problem is Google didn't support old phone below API < 14. Google support library starting from 26 didn't support api < 14. So, you need to use support library 25. You also need to use support test that allow API version 10.

    I've created a skeleton project for you. You can get it at https://github.com/isnotmenow/AndroidProjectForAPI9

    Read about support test library which support API 9: https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/testing-support-library/release-notes.html#espresso_300_runner_100_rules_100_androidtestorchestrator_100_2017-07-25_announcement