Backward compatibility of materials

Question

From the examples presented on the Android Developer pages, I see that new views, such as RecyclerView , are backward compatible ( android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView ).

Are all the new things introduced in Material Design backward compatible (which version)?

Answer 1

Updating this answer in the form of Lollipop OS is officially released with support for libraries that you can use in your project to ensure compatibility with older versions.

Support Library: v7 appcompat library

This library adds support for the Action Bar user interface design pattern. This library includes support for the implementation of the user interface for material design.

If you are using Android Studio, you just need to include the dependency identifier below:

 com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.+ 

Answer 2

Material Design from Android 2.2 (API 8) to version 5.0 (API 21)

Here is what you need:

• Toolbar
• Library of materials for widgets (buttons, flags, etc.)

1. Toolbar

Just come up and you're ready to go.

 <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:id="@+id/toolbar" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:background="?attr/colorPrimaryDark"/> 

Installation Guide: http://antonioleiva.com/material-design-everywhere/

Source with an example: https://github.com/antoniolg/MaterialEverywhere

For < toolbar to work below API 11 , use Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar (instead, windowActionBar is set to false)

 <style name="NoActionBarTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar"> ... </style> 

2. Material library

Here is the Material Library> for cute buttons, etc.

Guide, code, example - https://github.com/navasmdc/MaterialDesignLibrary

Library Add-on Guide for Android Studio 1.0 - How to Import a Material Library into Android Studio?

.

Happy coding;)

Answer 3

Officially, Material Design accesses the v7 appcompat Support Library .

Answer 4

To add an answer to Paresh, not all Material Design features are available in older versions. Custom themes and activity transitions are available only for API> 21, however, others claim that some functions are available in the support library.

https://developer.android.com/training/material/compatibility.html

Answer 5

The API has been included since version 22. You need to include this dependency in the gradle dependency:

com.android.support:design:22.2.0

Answer 6

Google Design Support Library Launched in I / O 2015

http://android-developers.blogspot.gr/2015/05/android-design-support-library.html

Here you will find a lot of good material for material design.

• Type of navigation
• Snackbar
• Floating action button
• Layout coordinator, movement and scrolling (the best part, including the parallax effect and docked toolbars).

and much more...