About Android: Android Environment Setup

Android Environment Setup

We can start android application development in Microsoft Windows XP and higher versions of windows. You need following things installed or ready on your local system

Java JDK5/JDK6
Android SDK
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
Android Development Tools (ADT) Eclipse Plugin

Android Application : Setting up Java Developer Kit

First step to start android application development is to setup the JDK. You can go through the series of lectures which will clearly teach you, how to downloadand set up JDK

You can create .bat file on your local drive and put following content in batch file –

set PATH=C:\jdk1.6.0_15\bin;%PATH%
set JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.6.0_15

After running the file entries will be made into path variable and JAVA_HOME will be set to your home directory of JDK.

You can also refer the article to set path variable

Getting Android SDK

First step is to download android SDK from the android developers website.

After downloading the complete package extract the zip file. You can see following content inside zip file.

Now you need to open the eclipse from eclipse -> eclipse.exe. Once you open the eclipse you will able to see SDK icon on top of eclipse IDE.

After clicking on the icon you will be prompted to download all necessary packages. You can download all the packages if you have fast internet access.

After downloading all the packages you will able to develop android application for the any version. Downloaded stuff will go into sdk -> platforms folder

Create Android Virtual Device

It is advisable to use your android phone directly to test output of the android application through USB. It will work faster than creating virtual device.

What exactly AVD is ? Suppose you don’t have android device to test application you have developed. In that case you need tool to test your application. AVD exactly provides you an virtual emulator to test your android app.

In eclipse you can launch AVD screen by clicking on the following icon.