Design support library - Which version to use with SDK v21

Question

I have problems to understand the version scheme of the support libraries and when to use which version. Currently I have a project with compileSdkVersion 21, <

Answer 1

Support Library should always match the compileSdkVersion even if the targetSdkVersion or minSdkVersion are lower. If you want to use the design library you will need to set compileSdkVersion to at least 22 and library version 22.2.0.

The reason for that is simple. The version of the library reflects the version of the Android sdk against it was built. If you try to use a higher level version of the support library than the compileSdkVersion it may not find resources that were added in a later version.

Answer 2

You can use one of these:

//You have to use compileSdkVersion=22
compile 'com.android.support:design:22.2.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:22.2.1'

//You have to use compileSdkVersion=23
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.3.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.2.1'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.2.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.1'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.0.0'

The design library has dependency with appcompat-v7 library.
You can't use the v23.0.x version compiling with api 22 (it is the reason of "Error:(2) Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:TextAppearance.Material.Widget.Button.Inverse'.

Also, because the first version of the design library is 22, you can't use compileSdk=21.