Android revolutionized the mobile application development industry by providing a free and easy to use development framework. You too can build an Android app on your computer – it is definitely easier(not to mention cheaper) than building an iPhone app! Try it now to see how easy it is.
Step 1. Get JDK
Installing the Java Development Kit is a prerequisite to developing applications for Android platform. Getting just the Java Runtime Environment is not enough; you need to get the JDK. Java Development Kit standard should be sufficient for your development platform. You first need to select your operating system before downloading and installing the JDK.
Step 2. Get Eclipse
Download the Eclipse development environment. The preferred version is Eclipse Classic. You can unpack it to your desktop or to a preferred folder. You don’t need to install Eclipse as it runs by an executable file. You do, however, need to set the workspace path to save your work to.
Step 3. Get the Android SDK
Download and install the Android SDK. Google’s dedicated Software Development Kit for the Android mobile operating system makes development much easier by creating a Java framework that you can use. After you install the SDK, make sure you download all the updates just to play it safe.
Step 4. Get the Android ADT Plug-in for Eclipse
Before you can use Eclipse effectively, you need to install the proper plugin for Android. This will effectively link the Android SDK to Eclipse.
You can’t just grab the plugin off a URL. To get the ADT plugin, you will need to do a bit of tinkering with the Eclipse environment. Launch Eclipse, then go to Help>Install new software. Then click on the “Add” button.
This will take you to a screen where you can specify the download path for the Android Plug-in.
Now you need to input the path from where the Plugin will be downloaded and installed into Eclipse. This path is http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
Press OK. Eclipse will now download and install the list of Android Plugin components.
Step 5. Configuring the ADT Plugin
Within Eclipse, you now need to specify the Android SDK path (the one you installed the Android SDK into in Step 3).
Go to Window > Preferences > Android and then Browse to the relevent SDK location.
And Voila! You have just configured your first Android Development environment. Wasn’t that easy?
