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?

It's deprecated but it still works so you could just use it. But if you want to be completly correct, just for the completeness of it... You'd do something like following:

int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
    setBackgroundDrawable();
} else {
    setBackground();
}

For this to work you need to set buildTarget api 16 and min build to 7 or something similar.

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

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 .

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

Use ViewCompat.setBackground(view, background);

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

this works for me.

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);
    }

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!

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 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 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