How to add "Android Design Support Library" to Eclipse with ADT-plugin?

Alexander Farber picture Alexander Farber · Jul 15, 2015 · Viewed 29.2k times · Source

The Android Developers Blog announced in May 2015:

The Design library is available now, so make sure to update the Android Support Repository in the SDK Manager.

I am using Eclipse (Version: Luna 4.4.2) with latest ADT-plugin and don't see anything "design" in the SDK manager:

SDK manager

When trying to use android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton or android.support.design.widget.NavigationView in my projects like this one -

app screenshot

I unfortunately get errors:

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "android.support.design.widget.NavigationView" on path ...

If I would be using Android Studio, I probably needed the line

compile 'com.android.support:design:22.2.0'

but how to fix this in Eclipse? Can I download a JAR file for the design library?

I have searched \sdk\extras\android\support\ path, but haven't found any.

Answer

xcesco picture xcesco · Jul 15, 2015

Before use the design support library, you have to import support-v7-appcompat library from android-sdks\extras\android\support\v7\appcompat. Then, you have to:

  • create an android library project in eclipse for design support library
  • put the contents of directory android-sdks\extras\android\support\design in the design support library project
  • Link appcompat-v7 library to design support library project
  • Link support library project from your project.

Note: If you can't find the design folder you might want to try this location instead: android-sdk\extras\android\m2repository\com\android\support\design

You can not use directly the jar android-support-design.jar because you need some resources too (this is the reason of aar format).

For more info just check Error in styles_base.xml file - android app - No resource found that matches the given name 'android:Widget.Material.ActionButton'