How-To: Android Development Environment

Several of my colleges asked me how you must set-up a Android development environment. So because after multiple requests I will explain how. Basically it is a matter of

• Check if your development environment meets the requirements.
• Download and install the Android SDK
• Install the Android Development Tools (ADT) within Eclipse.
• Set-up a device.

Check development environment

Before making your environment Android development ready, please check your current environment.

1. Go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/requirements.html and ensure that your environment is Android ready.
2. If you need the JDK (the JRE is not sufficient), download the latest from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp and install it.

Install Android SDK

So we are ready to install the Android SDK.

1. Go to http://developer.android.com/index.html and click on the upper right image named Download
2. Click the appropriate link to download the SDK for your host platform.
3. Unzip the downloaded file to a directory (in my case c:\dev)
4. You do not need to setup the SDK because we will use Eclipse to complete the set-up.

Install Android Development Tools

Now we are ready to configure Eclipse with de ADT plug-in.

1. From within Eclipse select Install New Software from the Help menu.
2. Click on the Add button and enter the following URL into the Location field and click OK.https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
3. Click the checkbox as shown in image, and then click Next.
4. Complete the installation and restart Eclipse.
5. Once Eclipse has restarted, you have one last task to perform: you need to tell Eclipse where the Android SDK is located.
6. From within Eclipse select Preferences from the Window menu.
7. Select Android and provide the location of the Android SDK (in my case C:\dev\android-sdk-windows) and click OK.
8. Now select Android SDK and AVD Manager from the Window menu.
9. Select available packages and select the latest version of the SDK.
10. Click Installed selected and complete the installation, preferably by restarting Eclipse.

Set-up a device

The only thing left is to set-up a Android device. Of course you can use your own Android device, but a emulator is just as easy.

1. Press the Device Manager button and click on New.
2. Create the device and click Create AVD.
3. Finally run the freshly created Device by selecting the device and click Start and Launch. (please be patient it’s not that fast)

Hope this helps.