So I started writing this for both Android SDK and Eclipse, but it got kinda long so i’ll break them up.
Let’s start with the SDK.
Well we need to start somewhere here and I hope you bare with me for a couple of days before we get down to the nitty gritty of Android Development (as I wrote before this is a process for me as well and I’m learning as we go).
So what do we need to get this environment up on our system?
* A computer (Mac, PC or some Linux based OS) Guide is based on a PC with Windows XP and up
* Internet Connection
* And some time to follow my instructions
Phase 1 – Android SDK
So how could there be so many (over 1000) applications before an Android device was released?
As part of Google’s Android Software Development Kit (Android SDK) you have the Android Emulator now we are going to download the SDK and run our first Emulator
Well before you can install the SDK you will need a Java Environment
Step 1 – Download and install Java Runtime Environment
So you will need to install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to allow Java Code to run on your OS (PC, Apple or Linux) as well you will need the Java Development Kit (JDK) please note that the JDK contains the JRE so you don’t need to install both.
Open Java’s Web Site – Linky and download the JDK based on your platform, and install it on your system (This should be straight forward if you are here)
Step 2 – Download the SDK
Go to Android Developers website – Linky and download the latest SDK for your environment (Windows, Apple or Linux).
Click on Read More to continue on….
This is a simple guide but you can follow Google’s guide on the installation of the SDK – Linky
So I installed my SDK to C:\Android\android-sdk-windows but you can install it where ever you want.
After the installation is complete the SDK Manager will open.
First thing that needs to be done is get the latest updates from Google, so under Avaliable Packages simply select all and hit install selected.
Next screen will ask you to accept all (or some) packages to install
And last part of the download might take a few minutes for all the packages to download and install on your system
So when all is done and you are back on the SDK Manager you can create a new Emulator
Select Virtual Device
Select New
A new screen will open and you will start setting up your first Virtual Device
So what do we have on this screen?
Name : Give you device a name…. could be something nice like MyFirstDevice
Target : This is where you specify the Android Release you want your AVD (Android Virtual Device) to be on let’s pick 2.1 or 2.2 for now
SD Card : Size of the “Virtual” SD Card the AVD will have
Skin : Now this is nice, although i’m going to start you off with the Default you can select from multiple skins (Like Galaxy Tab and others and you can download new skins from the WWW, just Bing Android SDK Skins) and you can find multiple examples on how the skins would look like, but just play around with it.
And last but not least
Hardware : here you can setup multiple things like Camera, GPS, Device RAM size, Keyboard and more let’s start simple and leave the Abstract LCD Density (you can add and remove later on)
When you are done hit create AVD, wait a few and you should get a message that you have created a new AVD bla bla bla hit ok
Now, Select your device from the list (you should have just one right now) and hit start
Now a Launch Options screen will show.
Here you can specify resolution or scale the device size by inch or resolution, as well you can simply wipe data on load….
Your AVD will start loading
As you can see quite generic, some buttons on the right side with a keyboard a DPad etc, and on the left your AVD is loading (give it some time the first time)
Now say hello to your new AVD, as you can see i’ve created a folder (with the sites name and nothing else right now)
So that’s it for this part, please wait for the Eclipse Environment Setup and then our first Android Development Project.
What else? some Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliate program
