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Vector Drawables work out of the box on Android 4+

I use vector drawables on Android 4+ from XML and code without any issues.

Setup: Android Gradle Plugin 3.2.1, Android Studio 3.2.1, Gradle 4.10.1, android-x support library with Jetifier on.

Example usage:

  • app:srcCompat="@drawable/some_vector_drawable"
  • android:drawableLeft="@drawable/some_vector_drawable"
  • view.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.some_vector_drawable)

Many official or less official blogs or stack overflow posts mention usage of:

  • android.defaultConfig.vectorDrawables.useSupportLibrary = true in build.gradle

  • and/or: AppCompatDelegate.setCompatVectorFromResourcesEnabled(true) from code

but my vector drawables run everywhere fine without any of these.

Is there any official, final documentation on this? Are these flags necessary?

The only thing I notice is this warning in Android Studio, which I ignore:

to use vector drawable compat you need to set defaultConfig.vectorDrawables.useSupportLibrary = true

Solution

  • Without:

    android.defaultConfig.vectorDrawables.useSupportLibrary = true

    in build.gradle, PNGs are generated for each vector drawable and become part of resulting .apk file.

    With the above flag on, following is possible:

    • app:srcCompat="@drawable/some_vector_drawable" in layout xml
    • android:icon="@drawable/some_vector_drawable" in menu xml

    • imageView.setImageResource(R.drawable.some_vector_drawable) in code

      (but vector drawable needs to be a single vector (i.e.: start with <vector))

    • getting VectorDrawable from code:

      Drawable vectorDrawable = VectorDrawableCompat.create(resources, R.drawable.some_vector_drawable, null)

      This can then be used as regular drawable (e.g.: imageView.setImageDrawable(vectorDrawable))

    With both:

    android.defaultConfig.vectorDrawables.useSupportLibrary = true

    & AppCompatDelegate.setCompatVectorFromResourcesEnabled(true)

    together, VectorDrawables work pretty much as if they were native on Android 4+. However, Google warns that using AppCompatDelegate.setCompatVectorFromResourcesEnabled(true) may cause memory issues or issues with Configuration object (I have not experienced any).