Introduction to Android

Android as a system, is a java based operating system that runs on the Linux kernel. The system is very lightweight and full featured. Android applications are developed using java and can be ported rather easily to the new platform. One of the more compelling feature of Android is that, because of it’s architecture, third party applications- including that are “home grown”- are executed with the same priority as those that are bundled with the core system.

Android's default user interface is based on direct manipulation, using touch inputs, that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, and a virtual keyboard. The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide feedback to the user. Applications ("apps"), which extend the functionality of devices, are written using the Android software development kit (SDK) and, often, the Java programming language that has complete access to the Android APIs..

On the top of all features that are available from the android side of the equation, Google has thrown in some very tantalizing features of its own; Developers of Android applications will be able to tie their applications into existing Google offerings such as Google Maps and the Omnipresent Google Search.

1. Download and setup Android Environment

Downloading and installing the JRE  Eclipse as an application written in Java, it requires the JRE to run.  Navigate to the Sun Developer Network(SDN) Downloads page at  From the SDN Download page, navigate to the download section for the proper JDK. select and initiate the download.  On the Java SE Previous Releases Download page, click the Download button for JDK5.0 update x, where x is latest update number.

 After downloading, notification will be appear on screen (Do you want to run or save this file), click run to begin the installation of the JDK.  During the installation process, you will be prompted to read and accept the License Agreement. After agreeing to the standard license Agreement and clicking next, you will be able to select your custom setup option.  To keep the process simple, and fairly standardized, you should accept the suggested packages- by default everything is selected- and continue the installation by clicking Next.

 When the installation completed page appears (Installation Completed), click Finish and your installation should be completed.

Downloading and installing Eclipse  Navigate to the Eclipse Downloads page at Download the Eclipse IDE for Java Developers from this site.  After Downloading Eclipse, now install it. Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Eclipse package. Expand the package and run the eclipse.exe file.  Eclipse installs to your user directory by default.  Once the Eclipse installation commences, you will be prompted to create a default workspace or folder. The default path for the workspace is your user directory. to select a different location, click Browse and navigate to it.

 After selecting a location for workspace, click OK.  At this point, development environment is downloaded and installed.  Next we need to download and install the android SDK, download and install the Android plugin for Eclipse, and configure the Eclipse setting.

Downloading and installing the android SDK  The android SDK easily accessible from the or page.  From the development home page, click download the SDK link under Getting Started. After you agree to the terms of the Android SDK License Agreement, you will see the Download the Android SDK page.  Click the package name for your operating system to begin the download. Now there is some series of steps to associate the SDK with Eclipse development environment.

Double-click the SDK Manager.exe file at the root of the Android SDK directory. Open the Tools directory and select: – Android SDK Tools – Android SDK Platform-tools – Android SDK Build-tools (highest version) Open the first Android X.X folder (the latest version) and select. Open the Extras directory and select: - Android Support Repository -Android Support Library -Google Repository -Google Play services

Downloading and installing the Android Plugin For Eclipse 1.Open the Eclipse application. You will download the Android Plugin for Eclipse from within the Eclipse IDE. 2.Choose Help->Software Updates->Find and Install. 3.In the install update window, which allows you to begin the process of downloading and installing any of the plugins that are available to you for Eclipse, click Search for New Features to Install radio button and then click Next.

4 In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter "ADT Plugin" for the Name and the following URL for the Location: ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ 5 Click OK. 6 In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next. 7 In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.

8Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish. If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can't be established, click OK. 9When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Install ADT Plugin Now that we have the plugin repo setup we need to install the plugin from it. On the 'Install Software' screen, select the repo you just created from the 'Work with' selector. Select the 'Developer Tools' option from the listed below options. Click 'Next' and accept the agreements. Click 'Finish' and let it install. It might take a while depending on your internet speed.

Access ADT Plugin Preferences You'll most likely have to restart Eclipse after you install the ADT Plugin so do that before you continue. Mac/Linux: After Eclipse has restarted, click 'Eclipse' in the application menu. Windows: After Eclipse has restarted, click 'Window' in the application menu. Then select 'Preferences'. In the Preferences window, select the Android tab on the left side and it's corresponding drop down menu. This is the ADT Preferences screen. It will allow you to change setting, remove the SDK and make editor preferences for your development.

Setup ADT Plugin Click 'Browse' on the right side of the screen. Search for the folder in which you installed the Android SDK into and select it. Press the 'Apply' button on the Preferences screen. You should see the Android version you installed early to show up if all went well. If not, try reselecting the folder. (Make sure the folder contains the folders 'build-tools','platform','extras' and etc. Press the 'OK' button and restart Eclipse.