Prepare your Development Computer
The following are the Supported Operating Systems for developing Android applications using the Android SDK:
- Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32- or 64-bit), or Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit)
- Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later (x86 only)
- Linux (tested on Ubuntu Linux, Lucid Lynx)
- GNU C Library (glibc) 2.7 or later is required.
- On Ubuntu Linux, version 8.04 or later is required.
- 64-bit distributions must be capable of running 32-bit applications
We need to install and configure the following development/software/ tools. In the following i am describing about how we can install and configure these items:
JDK6
This is requiring having JDK 6 on the machine for running Eclipse and Android SDK. This will be better to install full JDK6.
If you are using 64 bit Eclipse package, then you need to JDK 6 for 64 bit. You can download from here:
Android SDK
You can download Android Sdk from Download Android SDK according to your system requirement.
Install the Android SDK starter package on your development machine
Eclipse IDE
Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-in system. It is written mostly in Java. It can be used to develop Java application and, by means of various plug-ins, other programming languages including C++,PHP, Python, C, COBOL, Perl, R, Clojure, Ruby , Scala, Groovy and Scheme. Eclipse SDK is free and open source software. We will use Eclipse for developing android application by using ADT (Android Development Tools) plugin.
We need to Eclipse 3.6.2 (Helios) or greater because latest version our the ADT plugin does not support Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo)
Google recommend using one of these Eclipse packages
- Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
- Eclipse Classic
- Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers
So download one of the above package from the http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/.
All package comes for following version, You can download according to your requirement.
- Windows 32-bit
- Windows 64-bit
- Mac OS X(Cocoa 32)
- Mac OS X(Cocoa 64)
- Linux 32-bit
- Linux 64-bit
I have selected Windows 64 bit version ‘Eclipse IDE for Java Developers’. And It is good that you don’t need to install the package, you just need to extract the package only.
Package Zip file will be extract as ‘Eclipse’ (folder name), you can place this folder on any location of your machine.
Eclipse JDT plugin
Eclipse needs to JDT plugin but there is no cause to do anything because this plugin is included in most Eclipse IDE packages. So leave this step.
ADT (Android Development Tools) plugin
Android provides a custom plugin for the Eclipse IDE, called ADT plugin that extend the Eclipse capability. This enables us to quickly set up new Android projects and create an application UI. We can also debug our applications using the Android SDK tools. I So it is highly recommended to add it in our Eclipse environment.
Follow the simple steps for installing ADT plugin to Eclipse:
1. Start Eclipse (you can find Eclipse.exe on Eclipse folder), then select Help > Install New Software.
2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
3. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter “ADT Plugin” for the Name and the following URL for the Location:
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
4. Click OK
Note: If you have trouble acquiring the plugin, try using “http” in the Location URL, instead of “https” (https is preferred for security reasons).
5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
6. In the next window, you’ll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.
8. Restart Eclipse after successfully installation.
–or—–
Install Manually
Download ADT-18 plugin and follow these steps:
1. Start Eclipse(you can find Eclipse.exe on Eclipse folder), then select Help > Install New Software.
2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
3. In the Add Site dialog, click Archive.
4. select location of the downloaded ADT zip file.
5. Enter a name for the local update site (for example ‘Android Plugin’) in the Name field.
6. Click OK.
ADT Plugin configuration
After successfully installation, we need to take some following steps:
1. start Eclipse.
1. Select Window > Preferences… to open the Preferences panel (Mac OS X: Eclipse > Preferences).
2. Select Android from the left panel.
3. Set the Android SDK physical location path.
4. Click Apply, then OK.
Adding Platforms and Other Packages
And now the last step is to install Android sdk platform and other supported tools. SDK platform tools enable use to develop and debug Android programs. you can choose any Android platform. i decided to use Android 4.0 platform.
for installing platform tools, follow these steps:
1. From within Eclipse, select Window > Android SDK Manager.
2. On Windows, double-click the SDK Manager.exe file at the root of the Android SDK directory.
Android SDK Manager installs the selected packages in your SDK environment. see the below picture
Extra tools
Suppose if you want to debug and run your created android program in real device such as your Android enable Mobile phone, you need to install USB Driver for Windows (this is only for Windows operating system). So this is the optional,You do not need the USB driver unless you want to debug your application on your mobile device.
The following are the steps:
1. Run Android SDK Manager
2. Explore Extras.
3. Select Google USB Driver package.
4. click Install.
See the below picture
Done
Congratulation!
You have done..
Now You can check your Android SDK directory. open all folder one by one to take a look at what’s inside.
Today i have completed my task and tomorrow we will create a our first Android program.
bye..