tool-api-level (again)

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I'm porting (or re-writing) an app developed for iOS using Titanium to Android, and apart from layout problems, which most folks seem to have and I won't bore you with here, I am trying to get my head round the difference between 'tool-api-level' and 'minSdkVersion' in the tiapp.xml. I know about setting the minimum and target API's, but in most (all?) documentation for Titanium the tool-api-level is stuck at 8. Why is this if the current (as at October 2012) Android SDK Tools is version 20.0.3 - is this to do with 'Platform-tools' which are at version 14?

2 Answers

Hi Patrick,

Tool-Api-Level you mentioned is the Platform API of Android from and above which Titanium APIs work and are supported, unless specifically mentioned or deprecated.

At 2.1.2 or above version of Titanium Mobile SDK support for Jelly Bean(API-16) is also incorporated.

At a personal note, till this point all applications created in Titanium by me worked great in ICS (API 14) and above except where APIs were deprecated like ButtonBar.

I hope this helps and is relevant to your need and be a probable candidate to be an accepted answer.

If you have any other concern, do comment back :)

— answered 8 months ago by Perminder Singh Bhatia
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2 Comments

  • Thanks for your answer Perminder. With Appcelerator examples tending to show 'tool-api-level 8' I even wondered if the 'tool level' was the same thing as the Android API's. It is very confusing and I'm sure I'm not the first to say so! I'm finding that whatever I set the tool-api-level to, some of my beta testers tell me my app won't work or doesn't look good on their device. This is the main problem with the Android platform - it may work on the emulator, but it's another matter on a real device. I'll see if I get any more answers, but again thanks for your reply.

    — commented 8 months ago by Patrick Mounteney

  • Patrick,

    If you are experiencing difference between how your app look on emulator and on device, its probably because of the emulator size and resolution is different from device size and resolution. Probably you can try tweaking your AVD settings to have that on sync. But, i agree to the point that an app can give confirmation to the level of 90% on emulator but the remaining 10% wow factor can only be seen on device :)

    i hope you get better answers.

    Regards, Perminder

    — commented 8 months ago by Perminder Singh Bhatia

Hi Patrick, Here is the link for Titanium Compatibility matrix. you can refer the supported Android APIs. I think till API level 15 is supported.

— answered 8 months ago by Ashish Nigam
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2 Comments

  • Thanks Ashish - I've also looked at the tiapp.xml and timodule.xml Reference in the Titanium documentation which states '<tool-api-level>: The version of the Android API that Titanium builds against. Currently defaults to Android API level 8.' - But it still doesn't make a lot of sense if the latest is 15 or 16. Maybe 8 is their lucky number?

    — commented 8 months ago by Patrick Mounteney

  • Hi Patrick, its not like lucky number or something. its the android version being used widely so they make it default. though with 2.1.3.GA API level 16 is also supported.

    — commented 8 months ago by Ashish Nigam

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