lPart of the EE Times Network l All l Articles l Products l Course l TechPaper l Webinars Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Teach yourself Android application development - Part I: Creating Android products Part 1 of a two-part excerpt from Sam's "Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours" covers a brief history of the Android platform, a quick overview of Eclipse, and creating Android projects. Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. Developers enjoy a comprehensive software development kit, with ample tools for developing powerful, feature-rich applications. The platform is open source, relying on tried-and-true open standards developers will be familiar with. And best of all, there are no costly barriers to entry for developers: no required fees. (A modest fee is required to publish on third-party distribution mechanisms such as the Android Market.) Android developers have numerous options for distributing and commercializing their applications. Introducing Android To understand where Android fits in with other mobile technologies, let's take a minute to talk about how and why this platform came about. Google and the Open Handset Alliance In 2007, a group of handset manufacturers, wireless carriers, and software developers (notably, Google) formed the Open Handset Alliance, with the goal of developing the next generation of wireless platform. Unlike existing platforms, this new platform would be nonproprietary and based on open standards, which would lead to lower development costs and increased profits. Mobile software developers would also have unprecedented access to the handset features, allowing for greater innovation. As proprietary platforms such as RIM BlackBerry and Apple iPhone gained traction, the mobile development community eagerly listened for news of this potential game-changing platform. Android Makes Its Entrance In 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced the Android platform and launched a beta program for developers. Android went through the typical revisions of a new platform. Several prerelease revisions of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) were released. The first Android handset (the T-Mobile G1) began shipping in late 2008. Throughout 2009, more Android handsets and diverse types of devices powered by Android reached world markets. As of this writing, there are more than 36 Android phones available from carriers around the world. This number does not include the numerous Android tablet and e-book readers also available, nor the dozens of upcoming devices already announced, nor Login Register Welcome, Guest lHOME lDESIGN lFORUMS lE-LEARNING lPRODUCTS Page 1 of 7Teach yourself Android application development - Part I: Creating Android products10/19/2010http://www.embeddedinternetdesign.com/dhandler.jhtml;jsessionid=OCZRBN3KYOUURQE1G...the consumer electronics running Android. The rate of new Android devices reaching the world markets has continued to increase. In the United States, all major carriers now include Android phones in their product lines. Google has been a contributing member of the Open Handset Alliance from the beginning. The company hosts the Android open source project as well as the Android developer program at http://developer.android.com. This developer website is your go-to site for downloading the Android SDK, getting the latest platform documentation, and browsing the Android developer forums. Google also runs the most popular service for selling Android applications to end users: the Android Market. The Android mascot is the little green robot shown in Figure 1.1. The Android Developer Challenge Google has hosted several contests, called Developer Challenges, to encourage developers to write Android applications. The first two rounds saw $10 million in prize money awarded! Cheap and Easy Development If there's one time when "cheap and easy" is a benefit, it's with mobile development. Wireless application development, with its ridiculously expensive compilers and preferential developer programs, has been notoriously expensive to break into compared to desktop development. Here, Android breaks the proprietary mold. Unlike with other mobile platforms, there are virtually no costs to developing Android applications. The Android SDK and tools are freely available on the Android developer website, http://developer.android.com. The freely available Eclipse program has become the most popular integrated development environment (IDE) for Android application development; there is also a powerful plug-in available on the Android developer site for facilitating Android development. So we've covered cheap; now let's talk about why Android development is easy. Because Android applications are written in Java, developers will be familiar with many of the packages provided as part of the Android SDK, such as java.net. Developers will be pleased to find that the learning curve for Android is quite reasonable. So let's get started! Familiarizing Yourself with Eclipse Let's begin by writing a simple Android "Hello, World" application that displays a line of text to the user. As you do so, you will also be taking a tour through the Eclipse environment. Specifically, you will learn about the features offered by the Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in for Eclipse. The ADT plug-in provides functionality for developing, compiling, packaging, and deploying Android applications. Specifically, it provides the following: • The Android project wizard, which generates all the required project files • Android-specific resource editors • The Android SDK and AVD (Android Virtual Devices) Manager • The Eclipse DDMS perspective for monitoring and debugging Android applications • Integration with Android LogCat logging • Automated builds and application deployment to Android emulators and handsets • Application packaging and code signing tools for release deployment Installing the Android SDK and Tools You will find all the details of how to install and configure your computer for Android application development in Appendix A, "Configuring Your Android Development Environment." You will need to install and configure Eclipse, the Android SDK, and the ADT plug-in for Eclipse. You may also need to install the USB drivers for any Android handsets you will be using for development. Now let's
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