Setting up environment for Android App Development

Whatsup Geeks,

Lets start our learning on Android App Development. An android project contains all the files that comprise the source code for the Android App.
Android SDK provides all the set of default project directories and files.
Before starting building an android app please ensure that Android SDK is updated with atleast one package installed, and if you're using Eclipse, you should also have the ADT plugin installed (version 22.6.2 or higher). If you don't have these, follow the guide to Installing the Android SDK, Setting up ADT plugins and Adding Platform and Packages step before we start our project development.


If all the above steps are completed, then its great. We can now proceed with our first project.

Creating a project with Eclipse:

When we double click on Eclipse icon present at desktop. It will ask for the Workspace.

Create a folder for your workspace and then check "Use this as the default and do not ask again" for using that Workspace location as default.

Then follow below steps to create your first Android App:

1. Click File -> New in the toolbar (Shortcut Alt+Shift+N).
2. In the window that appears next,  
•  Select the Android Application Project.  

          Else

•   Select Project option for Android Application Project/ Android Project from Existing  Code/ Android Sample Project.

     3.  Fill in the form that appears: 

• Application Name is the app name that appears to users. For this project, use "My First App." 

• Project Name is the name of your project directory and the name visible in Eclipse. 

• Package Name is the package namespace for your app (following the same rules as packages in the Java programming language). Your package name must be unique across all packages installed on the Android system. For this reason, it's generally best if you use a name that begins with the reverse domain name of your organization or publisher entity. For this project, you can use something like "com.example.myfirstapp." However, you cannot publish your app on Google Play using the "com.example" namespace. 

• Minimum Required SDK is the lowest version of Android that your app supports, indicated using the API level. To support as many devices as possible, you should set this to the lowest version available that allows your app to provide its core feature set. If any feature of your app is possible only on newer versions of Android and it's not critical to the app's core feature set, you can enable the feature only when running on the versions that support it (as discussed in Supporting Different Platform Versions). Leave this set to the default value for this project. 

• Target SDK indicates the highest version of Android (also using the API level) with which you have tested with your application.
• As new versions of Android become available, you should test your app on the new version and update this value to match the latest API level in order to take advantage of new platform features. 
• Compile With is the platform version against which you will compile your app. By default, this is set to the latest version of Android available in your SDK. (It should be Android 4.1 or greater; if you don't have such a version available, you must install one using the SDK Manager). You can still build your app to support older versions, but setting the build target to the latest version allows you to enable new features and optimize your app for a great user experience on the latest devices.
• Theme specifies the Android UI style to apply for your app. You can leave this alone.
• Click Next.

• On the next screen to configure the project, leave the default selections and click Next.

• The next screen can help you create a launcher icon for your app.

• Click Next.

• Now you can select an activity template from which to begin building your app.For this project, select BlankActivity and click Next.

• Leave all the details for the activity in their default state and click Finish.