I have started learning android development using the eclipse IDE. I am using the book "Android application programming" by James Talbot & Justin McLean.
I have downloaded Eclipse and the Android SDK. However, when I create a new android project I get the error:
[2018-04-16 23:53:15 - OnYourBike-Chapter3] C:\Users\benjo\workspace\learningandroid\OnYourBike-Chapter3\res\values-v14\styles.xml:8: error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar'.
[2018-04-16 23:53:15 - OnYourBike-Chapter3]
and another one but for Theme.AppCompat.Light.
I am very new to both eclipse and android SDK and the solutions I have read were mostly to go to "android-sdk\extras\android\support\v4 or v7 and import a library. I don't have these v4 or v7 folders. I have a bunch of folders like this:
Folder contents
I have tried adding the .jar libraries from these folders, but it didn't work.
I have tried cleaning, building the project, replacing the code in the style.xml file, installing the Android Support Repository (tried installing Android Support Library, but couldn't find it).
I have gone through atleast 10 threads just on stackoverflow and couldn't fix my issue. Nothing worked.
My mainActivity.java file is full of errors, and looks like this:
mainActivity
The error on the import reads: "The import android.support cannot be resolved".
Here are pictures of my Android SDK Manager :
Android SDK Manager SDK Tools
Android SDK Manager Extras
Hopefully someone can help me solve this. It is really frustrating and I have spent my whole day trying to fix this with no success.
for certain compatibility reasons, I have to use Eclipse Neon for Android Development to develop an android app. Therefore I also have to use the newest Android SDK so I can implement some newest features.
Now, I am facing the problem that I cannot compile any Android app with Eclipse, because I get errors like
The import android.support cannot be resolved
ActionBarActivity cannot be resolved to a type
Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name "ThemeAppCompat. …"
upon building. As I found out, this is because Eclipse is missing the "Android support library" (android support library.jar ?) in the sdk folder. The reason for this is, as I found out, that this library is obsolete and has been replaced by the "Android support repository". It has not been installed by the Android SDK manager and cannot be installed anymore, but Eclipse still needs it apparently.
I searched a lot for a solution for this but all answers I could find was "Swtich to Android Studio"… Unfortunately, there is no way around using Eclipse for me. Is there any known way to include the support repository and make eclipse use it? I found this site
https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/support-library/setup.html
and thought, maybe I can follow these steps to make my app to a gradle.build and then include the stuff from the repository and get my stuff to work, but unfortunately I could not find a way to realize this.
I changed the related section in the gradle.build file to this:
…
dependencies {
…
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:24.0.0'
}
…
but could not get the app being built.
Is there any known solution for this? I actually cannot imagine that I am the only one trying to develop an Android App with the new support repository file these days. Should I maybe manually insert the obsolete (but newest) android support library.jar file from an older IDE? Could this work?
Thank you many times for your help.
Why am I having such a hard time getting into the swing of Android development? I've been developing in various languages over the years and, for some reason, just can't seem to get beyond that "jeez-i-still-feel-a-total-noob" stage with Android.
So I'm trying to add an Action Bar to my Android 2.3.3 project. No problem, right? The Android developers website has a nice and clear article explaining exactly how to do it. Of course it involves adding the appcompat v7 support library. No problem, even this is documented step-by-step on this page. But, as with just about every such exercise in Android, I find that you can do exactly what the page tells you to do, it still won't work without significant amount of Googling to fix the errors that you encounter afterwards.
So I've followed the steps under "Using Eclipse" in the section "Adding libraries with resources" in the above link. The first error I get is Unable to resolve target 'android-16'. No problem, this one I could figure out for myself but I'm curious, is there anything in the documents I've been following that would have suggested to me that I need Android 4.1.2 (API16) installed? Did I just read right over it or should I have known by myself that, to do what I'm trying to do, I would need API16?
Never mind, at least I can fix that but then I get a new problem. As soon as I add the android-support-v7-compat library to my project and click the OK button, the console output lights up with errors, the first one being:
C:...\android-support-v7-appcompat\res\values-v14\styles_base.xml:24:
error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that
matches the given name 'android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar'.
and the other 60 odd errors are similar but for different given names.
I would really appreciate if anyone could help me out here. Obviously I'd like to know how to solve this particular problem but if anyone could give me some tips on how to get past this very frustrating stage of learning this new development environment, I would be ever so thankful. What is it that I should have done differently not to run into these kinds of errors, other than following the instructions on the Android Developers website step by step?
OK, I guess I should post an answer as I've eventually managed to solve my own problem.
It turns out I have to use a build target of Android 4.2.2, regardless of the fact that I'm specifically developing for Android 2.3.3 - I mean, that's why I'm using support libraries after all. I imagine it might be possible that some other lower target (but higher than 2.3.3) would still work I just used the highest one I have installed and it solved the problem.
How I was supposed to know this from following the step-by-step instructions on the Android Developers website is a mystery to me. The reason I decided to try changing the targetSdkVersion was because of the final section in the page referenced in the question. It reads "If you are increasing the backward compatibility of your existing application to an earlier version of the Android API with the Support Library, make sure to update your application's manifest." Now I'm not increasing the backward compatibility of my existing application. I'm changing an existing application that targets 2.3.3 to be able to include an Action Bar (seems more like "forward compatibility"). I tried upgrading the targekSdkVersion though as I was out of ideas and lo and behold, it worked.
Don't know if it helps you at all, but I've been struggling with a similar issue for several hours and finally managed to resolve it. In my case, inside my own project's styles.xml file, I was referencing the AppCompat style in the wrong way in the parent attribute.
I was using:
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.AppCompat">
where I should have used:
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat">
My mistake was in the reference to the theme.
I found that setting the Android target to 2.3.3 for the library project android-support-v7-appcompat solves this issue. You don't need to set your project's target higher, but the library's target lower.
You have pinpointed the all important document and the relevant section "adding libraries with resources":
http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/setup.html
The error suggests that your project is not able to find these resources. Please double check the following :
You have checked "is library" on the library project
You have exported the jars IN THE LIBRARY PROJECT as described in that section
You have added the library project as a reference to your app project
You have added the android-support-v4.jar to your libs folder in your app project
If this is all definitely correct, check eclipse for any error messages - is it the library project or the app project that lights up like the proverbial Christmas Tree ?
First of all check if you have done all the described steps as explained on the developers site. Then, for the errors :
Unable to resolve target 'android-16'
Make sure that you have installed API16, this errors occurs if you have mentioned your targetsdk to 16 in your Manifest while the sdk for API16 is not installed. You can either install the API or edit the targetApi of your project to the minimum required version, for the support library you are using I think API 11 is the minimum required android version.
android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar
This error should also be fixed once the targetsdk is fixed in your project. Since to use Holo.ActionBar you'l need to target your project to minimum supported api level ie. 11 or higher.
I met similar problems. Using API 18, ADT.
To solve the "Unable to resolve target 'android-16' problem", I remove the import lib project and repeat what the tutorial says.
Then I found I couldn't really "add" the library to my project. (The instruction "In the Library pane, click Add." there is not that detail.
1. In your project -> properties -> Java build path -> Libraries -> Add Library... -> Android Classpath Container -> Select the lib project
2. In your project -> properties -> Android -> add... -> choose the lib -> apply
cheers
Here is how I avoided the error, " Unable to resolve target 'android-16'", when adding v7.
First, I followed the instructions for adding support libraries with resources in eclipse. Following step 4, I clicked Finish. That's when I saw the error message, android-support-v7-appcompat] Unable to resolve target 'android-16'.
Second, I read this post. I also opened the download manager, but did not need anything updated. In order to make sure that I followed the steps exactly as correctly as I could, I deleted the android-support-v7-appcompat project and started over.
This second time I didn't check any different boxes, after all. But, I also got no errors at step 4. Who can say why?
Thanks, Dewald, you expressed in this question the same frustration I have. Is experience the only way out?
If some of your resource xml files cannot find their respective AppCompat references, make sure you also add the support libraries to your project properties. You do this by:
1.) right clicking on your project in the project
2.) Select properties. (Bottom of the menu)
3.) click Android on the left hand side menu of the new pop up window
4.) In the libraries section, click the "add button"
5.) Select the respective libraries. (If none show up, check to see if they are already displayed in the "libraries" window of the pop up menu. If there is a red x by the desired library, try and resolve that issue first.)
6.) Once there is a green checkmark next to the desired libraries, make sure the "Is Library" option in the libraries section IS NOT selected.
7.) Click apply.
8.) Close the pop up menu.
If this doesn't work, let me know and I can help you out. I spent three hours on the problem so I know pretty much all the possible things that can go wrong with the set up.
Go to Project -> uncheck Build Automatically
Go to Project -> Clean... , clean both the library project and your app project
Export your app as a signed APK while Build Automatically is still disabled
I downloaded the source code for a rich text editor from:
http://code.google.com/p/android-richtexteditor/
and the code will not compile correctly. The errors I get are:
"Unable to resolve target 'android-4'",
"AndroidManifest.xml file missing!", and in the Html.java file there are 2 errors involving;
"The import org.ccil cannot be resolved"
When you download the file you will need to download the version 4 of the source code because the newest versions source code has been removed. I am using eclipse version 4.2.0, Android SDK Manager Revision 20. I have installed API versions 4.0, 4.1 and many of the extras. I am pretty sure I downloaded the "classic" version of eclipse. I suspect there are 2 causes to these errors, and would appreciate input. The other threads concerning both this project and the generic errors have been unhelpful, as at least one of the threads highest ranked answers was in fact incorrect. Also, the instructions put forth were not for my version of eclipse, or were incomplete.
"Unable to resolve target 'android-4'"
The project was set up to be built against API Level 4 (Android 1.6), and you do not have that SDK on your development machine.
"AndroidManifest.xml file missing!"
That should be self-explanatory.
"The import org.ccil cannot be resolved"
That suggests a missing class, or possibly an incomplete refactoring of the code.
Considering that this code has not been maintained in well over two years, I would suggest that perhaps you consider something more modern. For example, I am working on a RichEditText widget to fill the same role.
Does anyone know where the android compat libary is
located in xmlvm so I could copy it by myself to the project folder because this is
what I guess is missing, also would be provided by target=android-on-iphone but as mentioned below this target isn't available in the current build.
I had absolutely no problem installing xmlvm and getting in touch with the
demo/samples also all the demos worked perfectly for me.
But now im stuck at the last 4 errors in xcode, i migrated my android project via --
skeleton=android:migrate then cross-compiled it via --target=iphone and opened
up the project in Xcode. after few project setup changes the errors went down from
72 to 4 errors ;)
however the errors are importing file not found errors of compat libs, so this
should somehow get to be solved i think...
is it because --target=android-on-iphone wasnt used by me because this option
will copy the android compat libary to the project folder.. well i tried to use this
target mentioned in 2 documentations of xmlvm but in the actual build of xmlvm
this target however does not exist..
How to solve these errors?
Screenshots:
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8957/bildschirmfoto20120620u.png
http://imageshack.us/f/138/bildschirmfoto20120620u.png/
From what I can see, it looks like you are using part of the Android API which is not yet implemented.
Unfortunately it seems that you either need to rewrite your application or implement the API yourself.