Why does android/gradle raise: "No resource identifier found for attribute 'compileSdkVersion'"?

Question

I have a Android / Gradle based project

AndroidManifest.xml sets sdk:

...
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="16"
          android:targetSdkVersion="22"
          android:compileSdkVersion="22"/>
...

In the Gradle configuration - build-extras.gradle I set sdk as well - roughly:

...
android {
    compileSdkVersion 22
    buildToolsVersion '22.0.1'

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId 'com.example.myapp'
        minSdkVersion 16
        targetSdkVersion 22
        versionCode 1
        versionName '1.0'
    }
...

When building the project with Gradle I get:

...
No resource identifier found for attribute 'compileSdkVersion' in package 'android'
...

Why ?

I got it to build removing android:compileSdkVersion="22" from the AndroidManifest.xml but that was a lucky punch after a lot of trial and errors. So I had liked to know why?

Answer 1

<uses-sdk> has following syntax, and that does not include compileSdkVersion attribute:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="integer"
          android:targetSdkVersion="integer"
          android:maxSdkVersion="integer" />

uses-sdk element documentation

compileSdkVersion is relevant for compilation process, not for execution of final application, therefore it has no place in application manifest.