Importing project gave Unable to resolve target 'android-7'

Question

This app I completed around a year ago (!) but never launched it on the market place. I am trying to open it up in eclipse now to make some small modifications and work on the code a little bit. So I imported it and then found this weird "unable to resolve target" error. It's highlighting every class red in all my 'src' files.

I've looked at a similar question which said to add the line to default.properties file. My project has a project.properties file which has the line:

target=android-7

Any advice how to get this to work? I could always start a new project and just copy all the src files but that would be pretty lame and time-wasting.

One more comment - I'm developing on a new computer and I don't think I have the API level 7. Could that be the problem? I've gone into Window --> Android SDK Manager and the oldest available API it shows is level 8. But level 7 will mean I can target more devices I think so I'd like to go with that.

Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

Well, yes that is your problem. You don't have the API level 7 downloaded. You can right click the project and go properties->android and select another available API. As long as you don't change the min sdk version in your manifest you are still targeting as many devices as before.

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7"/>

Update

You don't have to do this, but you can get the older APIs on the SDK Archives page

I don't know if there is any official source for the next statement but that is what I found while working. If anybody can complete this with a better answer I would appreciate it very much.

You can compile the code with a newer SDK version as long as you don't use any code not compatible to the previous ones.

Example:

I want my app to be available for API level 7. But i only have API level 15 installed. As long as I keep the minSdkVersion="7" in my Manifest and don't use any resource not available in the previous APIs the app will work just fine on my targeted devices.

Answer 2

For anyone who wants to test their project against an API level that isn't the most recent one, you can just use the SDK Manager to install the old SDK:

In Eclipse (with adt installed):

SDK Manager:

Just check the box of the SDK you want to use to test against your project and click install. You can also remove API's that you aren't using.