Setting Up Eclipse For Android Development

Hello Guys, I appreciate your effort to learn to develop an android App.Since you have decided to create an android app I m sure you already know the influence and necessity of android as OS.

So  guess we can now go the point where we can technically know the hows of an android app

Some of the Important point you need to know before we go further

Android Code is written using Java syntax

If Know Java well and good if don't Know Java your love for programming will make learning easy for you so no worries go ahead

What you need to Begin

Required OS Specifications

Ø  Microsoft Windows -XP or Later

Ø  Mac OS X 10.5.8 or Later(Intel Chips Only)

Ø  Linux(Including GNU C Library 2.7 or later)

Required Software specifications

Ø  The android SDK Starter Package

Ø  Java Development Kit (JDK) 5 or 6 you can download it from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

IDE Required

Ø  Eclipse

All the above requirements are open source and hence free

Downloading and installing Android SDK

1.      Link to download the latest Android SDK as per your OS

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

2.      After downloading run the sdk manager.exe

3.      You can see the following screen

Download the latest packages of frame work sdk

1.      latest version of tools, compatibility/support library,

2.      documentation and

3.      sample code

When you click on the install package button, The packages you have chosen will be installed and we can move further

Developing with eclipse

Eclipse is a popular open-source IDE for Java development.It is available for free download for Windows mac and Linux from the eclipse foundation.

www.eclipse.org/downloads

Many variations of eclipse are available with eclipse 3.5(Galileo or above)

You will require the following tools along with eclipse for android development

Ø  Eclipse Java Development tools (JDT Plug-in)

Ø  Web Standard Tools (WST)

These packages come along with the eclipse so don't need to worry about their installation

Using the Android Development tools Plug-In for Eclipse

As i had said earlier that eclipse is commonly used for java development so question arises how are we going to develop  android Apps

The answer to this is Android development tools (ADT) Plug-Ins

ADT Plug-in can make creating, testing, and debugging your applications faster and easier

Installing the ADT Plugin

Steps

1.       Open Eclipse

2.       Select Help / Install new software

3.       Click on the add button

4.

5.       Type up a name that you might remember for future  Reference

6.       Eg.Android Developer Tools

7.        

8.       In the Location Field Type :https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/.

9.       Click Ok and eclipse will search for the ADT Plug-in. When Finished it displays for the availablePlug-ins.

10.   Select the check box next to Developer Tools root node and then click next

11.   Eclipse Now downloads the plug-ins. When it finishes. a list of developer displays for your review. Click Next

12.   Read and accept the terms of the license agreement, and click next and finish. As the ADT Plug-in is not signed you will be prompted before instalation continues.

13.   

When installation is complete, you need restrat Eclipse and update the ADT preferences. Restart and select Window       Preferences(Or eclipse updates to -> Preferences for Mac OS)

14.   Select Android From Left Panel.

15.   Click Browse, Navigate to the folder into which you installed the android SDK, and then click apply. The list displays each available SDK target

16.   Click OK to complete the installation.

Creating your First Android Application

1.       Select -> File -> New ->Project.

2.       Select the android project application type from the android folder, and click next.

3.      

4.      

5.       In the wizard that appears, enter the details for your new project. On the first page

6.      

7.       Click Next

9.       Click Next

10.  

11.   click next

12.    and click next

13.    and click finish

14.   You will now see this screen

Creating and android virtual Device

Steps

1.       Go to the root folder in which you have installed the android

2.       Find the folder android(If your root folder is C then go to C:android/android-sdk/

3.       Run AVD manager

4.       You get the following screen Shot

5.       Click on New

6.       Enter the details as shown in the above snap shot and click Ok

7.      

After seeing the Above Screen click Ok Again

8.      

You can now you can see that My_avd is installed

In the next Blog you can see the detials about hoe to run An anroid Application in Eclipse