[android] setBackground vs setBackgroundDrawable (Android)

I want to set background drawable of a view. There are two methods for this (as far as I see): setBackground and setBackgroundDrawable.

When I use setBackground, it says it has been added in API level 16 but my project's min SDK version is 7. I assume it's not going to work on anything below 16, am I right? But when I use setBackgroundDrawable, it says it's deprecated.

What am I supposed to use?

Using Android studio 1.5.1 i got the following warnings:

Call requires API level 16 (current min is 9): android.view.View#setBackground

and the complaints about deprecation

'setBackgroundDrawable(android.graphics.drawable.Drawable)' is deprecated

Using this format, i got rid of both:

    if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
        //noinspection deprecation
        layout.setBackgroundDrawable(drawable);
    } else {
        layout.setBackground(drawable);
    }

Use setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.xml/png)

I also had this problem, but I made a workaround using a ImageView.

Try using a RelativeLayout and add a ImageView inside it (width and height: fill_parent, scaleType: center).

Also make sure the imageview is the first element inside the RelativeLayout, so it will act as background.

You can use setBackgroundResource() instead which is in API level 1.

i know this is an old question but i have a similar situation ,and my solution was

button.setBackgroundResource( R.drawable.ic_button );
Drawable d = button.getBackground();

and then you can play with the "Drawable", applying color filters, etc

You can also do this:

try {
     myView.getClass().getMethod(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 16 ? "setBackground" : "setBackgroundDrawable", Drawable.class).invoke(myView, myBackgroundDrawable);
} catch (Exception ex) {
     // do nothing
}

EDIT: Just as pointed out by @BlazejCzapp it is preferable to avoid using reflection if you can manage to solve the problem without it. I had a use case where I was unable to solve without reflection but that is not case above. For more information please take a look at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/index.html

seems that currently there is no difference between the 2 functions, as shown on the source code (credit to this post) :

public void setBackground(Drawable background) {
    //noinspection deprecation
    setBackgroundDrawable(background);
}

@Deprecated
public void setBackgroundDrawable(Drawable background) { ... }

so it's just a naming decision, similar to the one with fill-parent vs match-parent .

This works for me: View view is your editText, spinner...etc. And int drawable is your drawable route example (R.drawable.yourDrawable)

 public void verifyDrawable (View view, int drawable){

        int sdk = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;

        if(sdk < Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
            view.setBackgroundDrawable(
                    ContextCompat.getDrawable(getContext(),drawable));
        } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
            view.setBackground(getResources().getDrawable(drawable));
        }    
    }

Use ViewCompat.setBackground(view, background);

you could use setBackgroundResource() instead i.e. relativeLayout.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.back);

this works for me.

Now you can use either of those options. And it is going to work in any case. Your color can be a HEX code, like this:

myView.setBackgroundResource(ContextCompat.getColor(context, Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF")));

A color resource, like this:

myView.setBackgroundResource(ContextCompat.getColor(context,R.color.blue_background));

Or a custom xml resource, like so:

myView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.my_custom_background);

Hope it helps!