Setting up eclipse with Android development environment

Today, we will explore something different. Android is a very well known brand in the public now and can be found in devices such as smartphone, tablet, wearable like watch and glass, any end user device like tv or smart appliances. So we will take a look from programming point of view. This is a fresh start article and if you come from java development background and has zero knowledge on android development then this is an article for you. More on android development articles will come later.

To reduce the learning curve and to have a better learning and development experience in android, you should really setup android developer toolkit plugin in an IDE. If you have been develop Java for sometime now, IDE such as eclipse or netbeans should come in mind. Eclipse has always been my favourite IDE for java development and in this article, I will share on how to install ADT plugin in eclipse for android environment.

This article is based on this instruction. You should refer that for any changes or error encountered if you read this article in the future. As of this writing, I'm using eclipse luna for this ADT plugin installation. Let's start the installation.

1. Launch eclipse and click Help then Install New Software... then click on Add button.


2. We will add ADT plugin repository to this eclipse IDE. In the pop up window, add as following and then click on OK.
   Name: ADT Plugin
   Location: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
   


3. Wait a while for the update to pull in by eclipse and the in the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click on Next.
   


4. In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.


5. Read 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.


6. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.


7. Once Eclipse restarts, you must specify the location of your Android SDK directory. Because this is a new installation, there is no android sdk installed and click on Open Preferences.
   


8. In the "Welcome to Android Development" window that appears, select Install new SDK. Then wait until the installation is complete.
   
   


9. When sdk is installed, a new window popup requesting to install new build tool. Click on Open SDK Manager.
   


10. There are preselected build-tools and as of this moment, just accept the default preselected tools and click Install button. We can install more tools later.
    


11. Wait until the installation is complete and it is done.

That's it, now start the first session for android hello world development.