Android Application Development For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Acquiring the Android SDK

The Android SDK is composed of a debugger, Android libraries, a device emulator, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. You can’t develop Android apps without the SDK.

Downloading the Android SDK

To download the Android SDK, follow these steps:

1. Go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html .

2. Choose the latest version of the SDK starter package for your platform to download the SDK.

You’ve just downloaded the Android SDK.

3. Open SDK Manager.

• Windows: Run the SDK Installer and install the SDK to the default location. When finished, check the Start SDK Manager check box and click Finish. If you’re prompted to accept the authenticity of the file, click Yes. The Android SDK Manager dialog box opens.

• Mac: Double-click the SDK file to unzip it. Move the resulting android-sdk-mac_x86 directory to a safe place, such as your Applications directory. Open the Terminal and enter cd to go to the android-sdk-mac_x86 directory, and then run tools/android. You may be prompted to install Java at this point if you don’t already have it. If so, click Install.

4. Select the SDK Platform Android 4.1 check box.

For the purposes of this book, select version 4.1, as shown in Figure 2-6. At this writing, 4.1 is the latest and greatest version of Android. You should also select the check boxes for the documentation and samples that correspond with Android version 4.1 (API 16).

Every time a new version of the Android operating system is released, Google ...