How can I avoid deprecated methods and maintain backwards compatibility?

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How to deal with deprecated classes in Android to keep compatibility

I ran into the deprecated Display.getWidth() method and saw that it has been replaced with android.view.getSize(). However getSize() has only been available since API 13 and View appears not to be included in the V4 Android support library.

So, if I want to avoid the deprecated calls, how can I do this without maintaining different projects/builds for various API levels.

Here is your solution http://stackoverflow.com/a/10165103/614807 — Chirag, Sep 10 '12 at 13:10
@ChiragRaval that is not a solution to this question. That answer just states that it is "okay" to use deprecated methods. — Jeff Axelrod, Sep 10 '12 at 13:20

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 10 '12 at 13:32

Given a Display object named display, this should work:

int width=-1;

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT>=Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB_MR2) {
    Point size=new Point();
    size=display.getSize(size);
    width=size.x;
}
else {
    width=display.getWidth();
}

IOW, use Build.VERSION.SDK_INT to branch between the "before" and "after" cases for where a new API is introduced.

This will require your build target (Project > Properties > Android in Eclipse) to be set to API Level 13+, so you can call getSize().

BTW, I am assuming that the width is `x` in a `Point` -- the documentation is decidedly fuzzy on this, um, point. :-) — CommonsWare, Sep 10 '12 at 13:34

Jeff Axelrod · Answer 2 · 2012-09-11T13:33:56.077

There is an official Android developers class Creating Backward-Compatible UIs:

This class demonstrates how to use UI components and APIs available in newer versions of Android in a backward-compatible way, ensuring that your application still runs on previous versions of the platform.

They advocate using Java interfaces for libraries that aren't back-ported to get a more object-oriented solution. Then you extend these into two concrete classes: one that provides alternate behavior for unsupported platforms and one that calls the actual API for supported platforms.

Then there's a factory class that instantiates the correct class by checking the current platform against the supported platform range. Ultimately though, it boils down to a conditional like if ( Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= HONEYCOMB_MR2 ).

How can I avoid deprecated methods and maintain backwards compatibility?

2 Answers2