Installation Instructions for Android SDK and Eclipse

Download the software by saving the following files to your desktop (or any other location). This software has been especially packaged for this class; general users should download the original versions). Even if you already have a version of Eclipse, please install this: it won't interfere with any other version(s) you might have.

  1. Eclipse - an Integrated Development Editor (IDE)
  2. Android SDK - the Android software development kit

Install Eclipse

  1. Double-click on the eclipseAndroid.exe file you just downloaded
  2. When prompted for a Destination folder, enter: c:\android\eclipse
  3. When installation is done, open that directory
  4. Right-click on "eclipse.exe" and pick "Send to | Desktop (create shortcut)"

This will create a shortcut on your desktop from which to start Eclipse (soon).

Install the Android SDK

  1. Double-click on the androidSDK file you downloaded before
  2. The zip file should open to show the folder android-sdk-windows
  3. Drag that folder to c:\android

Install the remaining Tools

  1. Open the directory c:\android\android-sdk-windows and double-click on "SDK Setup" (ignore errors)
  2. On the left side, click "Settings"
  3. Check the box "Force https:// as http://" and click on "Save & Apply"
  4. Go back to "Available packages" and check the server
  5. You should see a number of API's and a USB driver. Make sure all are checked (for in-class only check the two 2.1 entries and download the rest, including the documentation, later), then click "Install selected..."
  6. Accept all license agreements (!) and prepare to wait until everything downloads and installs
  7. When everything is done, close the SDK Setup program

Setup the Android Plugin for Eclipse

  1. Start Eclipse using the shortcut created previously. When prompted for a workspace, enter c:\android\workspace
  2. , then select Help > Install New Softare.
  3. In the Available Software dialog, click Add....
  4. In the Add Site dialog that appears, enter a name for the remote site (for example, "Android Plugin") in the "Name" field. In the "Location" field, enter the following URL, the click OK: 
    http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
  5. Back in the Available Software view, you should now see "Developer Tools" added to the list. Select the checkbox next to Developer Tools, which will automatically select the nested tools Android DDMS and Android Development Tools. Click Next.
  6. In the resulting Install Details dialog, the Android DDMS and Android Development Tools features are listed. Click Next to read and accept the license agreement and install any dependencies, then click Finish.
  7. Restart Eclipse.

Modify your Eclipse preferences

  1. Select Window > Preferences... to open the Preferences panel
  2.  Select Android from the left panel.
  3. For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse... and locate your downloaded SDK directory.
  4. Click Apply, then OK
  5. Quit Eclipse

Setup at least one AVD (Android Virtual Device)

  1. Start Eclipse and accept the default workspace c:\android\workspace
  2. Click "Windows" then "Android SDK and AVD Manager"
  3. Click "New ..."
  4. Give it a name and select an available target (including "Google API's")
  5. Give it 512 MiB for the SD Card and click "Create"
  6. Finally, "Start" your newly created Android Virtual Device

Note that you should create new AVD's for each of your available targets so that you can test your program, eventually, against different versions of Android. Settle on a naming convention that you'll remember, such as avd1.5_sd for Android version 1.5 with simulated SD card, avd1.5_sd_g for Android 1.5 + SD card + Google API, etc.

Next time on Wed we'll learn how to play an MP3 music file (section 4) but we'll skip, for now, the stuff on using the GPS sensor. You could read ahead if you are interested, it is fun.