Android Material Design AppCompat

Question

I am new to Android Material Design Concept. I have created a new project and added material theme with AppCompat support for pre-lollipop versions but my problem is, in Lollipop it shows the ActionBar aka Toolbar but if i run the same in pre-lollipop it doesn't show the ActionBar.

Do i just need to use Toolbar control everywhere in my Layout regardless of API version?

Edited:

<!-- Base application theme for prelollipop -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/primary_dark</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
</style>

<!-- Material theme for lollipop-->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material.Light">
    <item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/primary</item>
    <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
</style>

Answer 1

Every Activity needs to extend ActionBarActivity. AppCompat doesn't use the native Toolbar or ActionBar, even on Lollipop.

For more info see: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2014/10/appcompat-v21-material-design-for-pre.html

Answer 2

Your activity must extend ActionBarActivity. You can ditch the special v21 style.

If your style extends Theme.AppCompat or Theme.AppCompat.Light there should be a default action bar automatically. If the style extends ...NoActionBar you have to specify it in the layout like in pure LOLLIPOP. The second will give you finer control over the Toolbar theming.