Can't Find Theme.AppCompat.Light for New Android ActionBar Support

Question

I am trying to implement the new ActionBar support library that was released by Google a couple days ago. In the past, I have successfully implemented ActionBarSherlock without any issues using the same method listed on Google Developer's Support Library Setup page - using the guide on how to include the resources (which is similar to how ActionBarSherlock did it). I have the library project loaded in to my own project as a library as well.

I can tell the library is loading fine. When, instead of extending Activity on my MainActivity.java, I changed it to extend ActionBarActivity (as per Google's instructions), no errors occur - and it imports correctly.

I even tried bypassing the style.xml file and adding @style/Theme.AppCompat.Light directly in to the AndroidManifest.xml for both <application> and <activity> with android:theme="@style/ThemeAppCompat.Light" with all attempts resulting in the same error.

Now the issue is I cannot get it to change the theme, let alone even build without throwing an error. Below is the error I am receiving, followed by the style.xml file I changed to use the new theme.

I have moderate experience working with Android apps and am running Eclipse with the latest version of the Support Libraries and SDK compiling with API 18 (Android 4.3).

Error Received During Build

error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name '@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light'. styles.xml /ActBarTest/res/values line 3 Android AAPT Problem

style.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources>     <style name="Theme.ProsoftStudio.ACTest" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">     </style> </resources> 

Any suggestions? This was never an issue with ActionBarSherlock. I want to work on using this new support library. It almost seems like the .jar is loading, but not the resources.

Answer 1

You need to do next:

1. File->Import (android-sdk\extras\android\support\v7). Choose "AppCompat"
2. Project-> properties->Android. In the section library "Add" and choose "AppCompat"
3. That is all!

Note: if you are using "android:showAsAction" in menu item, you need to change prefix android as in the example http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html

Answer 2

If, like me, you are following the Android tutorial on http://developer.android.com/training/basics/actionbar/setting-up.html and keep getting this error, try to change the AppBaseTheme style in all styles.xml files. In detail:

1. In file res/values/styles.xml change the line:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light"> 

   to:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"> 

2. In file res/values-v11/styles.xml change the line:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light"> 

   to:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light"> 

3. In file res/values-v14/styles.xml change the line:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar"> 

   to:

   <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"> 

Now the application should run fine.