How set background drawable programmatically in Android

Question

To set Background:

RelativeLayout layout =(RelativeLayout)findViewById(R.id.background); layout.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.ready); 

Is the best way to do it?

Answer 1

layout.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.ready); is correct.
Another way to achieve it is to use the following:

final int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT; if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {     layout.setBackgroundDrawable(ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.ready) ); } else {     layout.setBackground(ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.ready)); } 

But I think the problem occur because you are trying to load big images.
Here is a good tutorial how to load large bitmaps.

UPDATE:
getDrawable(int ) deprecated in API level 22

getDrawable(int ) is now deprecated in API level 22. You should use the following code from the support library instead:

ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.ready) 

If you refer to the source code of ContextCompat.getDrawable, it gives you something like this:

/**  * Return a drawable object associated with a particular resource ID.  * <p>  * Starting in {@link android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES#LOLLIPOP}, the returned  * drawable will be styled for the specified Context's theme.  *  * @param id The desired resource identifier, as generated by the aapt tool.  *            This integer encodes the package, type, and resource entry.  *            The value 0 is an invalid identifier.  * @return Drawable An object that can be used to draw this resource.  */ public static final Drawable getDrawable(Context context, int id) {     final int version = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;     if (version >= 21) {         return ContextCompatApi21.getDrawable(context, id);     } else {         return context.getResources().getDrawable(id);     } } 

More details on ContextCompat

As of API 22, you should use the getDrawable(int, Theme) method instead of getDrawable(int).

UPDATE:
If you are using the support v4 library, the following will be enough for all versions.

ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.ready) 

You will need to add the following in your app build.gradle

compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:23.0.0' # or any version above 

Or using ResourceCompat, in any API like below:

import android.support.v4.content.res.ResourcesCompat; ResourcesCompat.getDrawable(getResources(), R.drawable.name_of_drawable, null);