gradle - appcompat-v7:21.0.0': No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'

Question

When attempting to use the latest appcompat-v7 support library in my project, I get the following error:

/Users/greg/dev/mobile/android_project/app/build/intermediates/exploded-aar/com.android.support/appcompat-v7/21.0.0/res/values-v11/values.xml
Error:(36, 21) No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.
Error:(36, 21) No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.
Error:(36, 21) No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.
Error:(36, 21) No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

While the answer of loeschg is absolutely correct I just wanna elaborate on it and give a solution for all IDE's (Eclipse, IntellJ and Android Studio) even if the errors differentiate slightly.

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Prerequirements

Make sure that you've downloaded the latest extras as well as the Android 5.0 SDK via the SDK-Manager.

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Android Studio

Open the build.gradle file of your app-module and change your compileSdkVersion to 21. It's basically not necessary to change the targetSdkVersion SDK-Version to 21 but it's recommended since you should always target the latest android Build-Version.
In the end you gradle-file will look like this:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 21
    // ...

    defaultConfig {
        // ...
        targetSdkVersion 21
    }
}

Be sure to sync your project afterwards.

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Eclipse

When using the v7-appcompat in Eclipse you have to use it as a library project. It isn't enough to just copy the *.jar to your /libs folder. Please read this (click) step-by-step tutorial on developer.android.com in order to know how to import the project properly.

As soon as the project is imported, you'll realize that some folders in the /resfolder are red-underlined because of errors such as the following:

error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material'.
error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:Widget.Material.*'
error: Error: No resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:actionModeShareDrawable'.

Solution

The only thing you have to do is to open the project.properties file of the android-support-v7-appcompat and change the target from target=android-19 to target=android-21.
Afterwards just do a Project --> Clean... so that the changes take effect.

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IntelliJ IDEA (not using Gradle)

Similiar to Eclipse it's not enough to use only the android-support-v7-appcompat.jar; you have to import the appcompat as a module. Read more about it on this StackO-Post (click).
(Note: If you're only using the .jar you'll get NoClassDefFoundErrors on Runtime)

When you're trying to build the project you'll face issues in the res/values-v** folders. Your message window will say something like the following:

Error:android-apt-compiler: [appcompat]  resource found that matches the given name: attr 'android:colorPrimary'.
Error:(75, -1) android-apt-compiler: [appcompat] C:[Your Path]sdkextrasandroidsupportv7appcompat
esvalues-v21styles_base.xml:75: error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:Widget.Material.ActionButton'.
// and so on

Solution

Right click on appcompat module --> Open Module Settings (F4) --> [Dependency Tab] Select Android API 21 Platform from the dropdown --> Apply

Then just rebuild the project (Build --> Rebuild Project) and you're good to go.