Android Application Development with Eclipse IDE

Android

Welcome aboard developers! Android is the head-to-head competitor for iOS (Apple) created by Google Inc. and Open Handset Alliance. Nowadays it’s becoming more and more popular among the mobile app developers because of its simplicity,reliability and ease of coding. There are many ways to develop Android applications on your PC. The most easiest way is integrating the ADT(Android Developing Tools) with the Eclipse IDE.

I assume that most of you are familiar with android operating system and its basics as it would be a plus point to get started with it. If you are not sure just check this Wikipedia page

Without any further introduction let’s move on to see what we have to do in order to build our Android Application Development Environment.

What do you need?

• Android Software Development Kit.
• Java
• Eclipse IDE.
• Android Developing Tools.
• A little bit of common-sense.

Step 1 – Getting the Android SDK

• Head over to Google’s official page of Android SDK and select the SDK you want to download according the Operating System you wish to build Android apps. The download contains a zip file and you can extract it to anywhere you like.

Android SDK Download Page

• This step has already been said in my previous post : Test Drive Your Android Applications on Ubuntu in 3 Steps

• Just follow Step 2 in that post.

Step 2 – Installing Java

• For windows users, just goto Java SDK Download page and install it.

• For Ubuntu users just type this in the terminal

• Sabayon users don’t have to worry because they get it in-built!

Step 3 – Setting Up Eclipse IDE

• It is recommended to use Eclipse 3.5 or a newer version.
  

• First you need to download and install Eclipse. For Windows users, Just goto Eclipse’s download page. Select Eclipse IDE for Java Developers. In most cases, it’s the top most entry. After downloading it you can simply run it without installing it by extracting it!

• For Linux users, if you are using ubuntu just open up a terminal and hit,

Note: make sure that you have updated you system!

• If you are using sabayon,

• or you can simply use sulfur and install via the repositories

Downloading Eclipse

Step 4 – Setting Up Eclipse IDE

• Run Eclipse IDE and you’ll be greeted with its welcome screen. Now navigate to Help→Install New Software…→Add

• First you need to install the WST Plugin from the Eclipse Repository. So enter any name in the Name field and under Location enter the following address

http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/

• Now click on Ok and you’ll be presented with a list of available plugins.(This might take some) Now Type WST in the search bar and install the WST plugins.

WST Plugin

• Again go to Install New Software menu and Now it’s google’s chance! Under Name category enter anything you like and under the Location text box enter the following address

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

ADT Plugin

• Now tick the Developer Tools and press Next→Finish

• We are reaching the end! Now head on to Window→Preferences→Android and browse for the location where you have extracted the Android SDK

Preferences

Step 5 – Creating a New Project

• To create a new project go to File→New→Project then select Android

• Now enter the Project Name, Application Name, Package Name and Activity name. Select the target platform you wish to develop your app for.

Creating a New Project

• That’s all folks. Press Ctrl+F11 to Run your project.

Sorry to make such a long post, But I tried my best to make it compact. If you get stuck somewhere just ask them in comments form. Have a nice day!