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Android Application Development with Eclipse – Part 2

In the previous article, I gave you an introduction about the Android platform and also gave you an idea on how to develop Android applications with Eclipse. In this article, I will discuss with you some steps required to install Eclipse with the Android Development Toolkit (ADT) plugin for developing Android applications.

1. Depending on your platform, Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux, you need to download the Android Software Development Kit or SDK first.
2. Then you need to extract the downloaded file to a memorable location on your hard drive.
3. If Eclipse is not installed beforehand, download the Eclipse IDE package for Java developers and install it. Google recommends Eclipse 3.5 to Android app developers for programming
4. Run Eclipse and select Help —> Install new software
5. You will get a window of ‘Available Software’ and also an option called ‘Add’. Click ADD.
6. In the Name you must specify Android Application Development Tools and in the field Rental field enter this dl-ssl.google. com / android / eclipse /.
7. After clicking OK, you can find Developer Tools in the Available Software list. This leads to the installation of the Android development tools and DDMS, which is the Android debugging tool.
8. To complete the plugin installation process, click next Y End up. Once everything is installed, restart Eclipse.
9. When restarting Eclipse, select Window -> Preferences. You will find Android in the category list.
10. Eclipse should now be aware of the location of the Android SDK. For this click on the option Android that appears on the left side of the window, and then click Surf which allows you to select the location on the hard drive where the SDK files have been stored.
11. Then click ok so Eclipse can save this location.

Android open source project platforms are open source. However, proprietary Google extensions such as Google Maps are not included. If you decide not to use the Google APIs, you will not be able to use the Google mapping feature in your application. You must target one of Google’s platforms as it will help you to use Google’s proprietary extensions.

• Select Window-> Android SDK and AVD Manager.
• Click Available packages present on the left side and look at the repository which shows the list of available Android platforms.
• You can select the platforms you want to download from the list or keep all checked to download all available platforms. Once you are done selecting, click Install selected and follow the installation instructions.

After completing all the downloads, you can start developing the application.

Starting a new Android project

You can use the Eclipse New Project Wizard to create a new Android application. Generate files and code that are ready to run. It serves as a good starting point for developing your application.

• Select File-> New-> Project …
• Choose Android project
• In the New Project dialog box, enter the required settings.

Once you click Finish, Eclipse will create a new Android project that you can run instantly. I will give more additional information about it in the next article.