Home | History | Annotate | Download | only in firstapp
      1 page.title=Creating an Android Project
      2 parent.title=Building Your First App
      3 parent.link=index.html
      4 
      5 trainingnavtop=true
      6 next.title=Running Your App
      7 next.link=running-app.html
      8 
      9 @jd:body
     10 
     11 
     12 <!-- This is the training bar -->
     13 <div id="tb-wrapper"> 
     14 <div id="tb"> 
     15  
     16 <h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
     17 
     18 <ol>
     19   <li><a href="#Eclipse">Create a Project with Eclipse</a></li>
     20   <li><a href="#CommandLine">Create a Project with Command Line Tools</a></li>
     21 </ol>
     22 
     23 <h2>You should also read</h2>
     24 
     25 <ul>
     26   <li><a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/index.html">Installing the
     27 SDK</a></li>
     28   <li><a href="{@docRoot}tools/projects/index.html">Managing Projects</a></li>
     29 </ul>
     30  
     31  
     32 </div> 
     33 </div> 
     34 
     35 <p>An Android project contains all the files that comprise the source code for your Android
     36 app. The Android SDK tools make it easy to start a new Android project with a set of
     37 default project directories and files.</p> 
     38 
     39 <p>This lesson
     40 shows how to create a new project either using Eclipse (with the ADT plugin) or using the
     41 SDK tools from a command line.</p>
     42 
     43 <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> You should already have the Android SDK installed, and if
     44 you're using Eclipse, you should have installed the <a
     45 href="{@docRoot}tools/sdk/eclipse-adt.html">ADT plugin</a> as well. If you have not installed
     46 these, see <a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/index.html">Installing the Android SDK</a> and return here
     47 when you've completed the installation.</p>
     48 
     49 
     50 <h2 id="Eclipse">Create a Project with Eclipse</h2>
     51 
     52 <div class="figure" style="width:416px">
     53 <img src="{@docRoot}images/training/firstapp/adt-firstapp-setup.png" alt="" />
     54 <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> The new project wizard in Eclipse.</p>
     55 </div>
     56 
     57 <ol>
     58   <li>In Eclipse, select <strong>File &gt; New &gt; Project</strong>.
     59 The resulting dialog should have a folder labeled <em>Android</em>.  (If you dont see the
     60 <em>Android</em> folder,
     61 then you have not installed the ADT plugin&mdash;see <a
     62 href="{@docRoot}tools/sdk/eclipse-adt.html#installing">Installing the ADT Plugin</a>).</li>
     63   <li>Open the <em>Android</em> folder, select <em>Android Project</em> and click
     64 <strong>Next</strong>.</li>
     65   <li>Enter a project name (such as "MyFirstApp") and click <strong>Next</strong>.</li>
     66   <li>Select a build target. This is the platform version against which you will compile your app.
     67 <p>We recommend that you select the latest version possible. You can still build your app to
     68 support older versions, but setting the build target to the latest version allows you to
     69 easily optimize your app for a great user experience on the latest Android-powered devices.</p>
     70 <p>If you don't see any built targets listed, you need to install some using the Android SDK
     71 Manager tool. See <a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/index.html#AddingComponents">step 4 in the
     72 installing guide</a>.</p>
     73 <p>Click <strong>Next</strong>.</p></li>
     74   <li>Specify other app details, such as the:
     75     <ul>
     76       <li><em>Application Name</em>: The app name that appears to the user. Enter "My First
     77 App".</li>
     78       <li><em>Package Name</em>: The package namespace for your app (following the same
     79 rules as packages in the Java programming language). Your package name
     80 must be unique across all packages installed on the Android system. For this reason, it's important
     81 that you use a standard domain-style package name thats appropriate to your company or
     82 publisher entity. For
     83 your first app, you can use something like "com.example.myapp." However, you cannot publish your
     84 app using the "com.example" namespace.</li>
     85       <li><em>Create Activity</em>: This is the class name for the primary user activity in your
     86 app (an activity represents a single screen in your app). Enter "MyFirstActivity".</li>
     87       <li><em>Minimum SDK</em>: Select <em>4 (Android 1.6)</em>.
     88         <p>Because this version is lower than the build target selected for the app, a warning
     89 appears, but that's alright. You simply need to be sure that you don't use any APIs that require an
     90 <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels">API level</a> greater than the minimum SDK
     91 version without first using some code to verify the device's system version (you'll see this in some
     92 other classes).</p>
     93       </li>
     94     </ul>
     95     <p>Click <strong>Finish</strong>.</p>
     96   </li>
     97 </ol>
     98 
     99 <p>Your Android project is now set up with some default files and youre ready to begin
    100 building the app. Continue to the <a href="running-app.html">next lesson</a>.</p>
    101 
    102 
    103 
    104 <h2 id="CommandLine">Create a Project with Command Line Tools</h2>
    105 
    106 <p>If you're not using the Eclipse IDE with the ADT plugin, you can instead create your project
    107 using the SDK tools in a command line:</p>
    108 
    109 <ol>
    110   <li>Change directories into the Android SDKs <code>tools/</code> path.</li>
    111   <li>Execute:
    112 <pre class="no-pretty-print">android list targets</pre>
    113 <p>This prints a list of the available Android platforms that youve downloaded for your SDK. Find
    114 the platform against which you want to compile your app. Make a note of the target id. We
    115 recommend that you select the highest version possible. You can still build your app to
    116 support older versions, but setting the build target to the latest version allows you to optimize
    117 your app for the latest devices.</p>
    118 <p>If you don't see any targets listed, you need to
    119 install some using the Android SDK
    120 Manager tool. See <a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/index.html#AddingComponents">step 4 in the
    121 installing guide</a>.</p></li>
    122   <li>Execute:
    123 <pre class="no-pretty-print">
    124 android create project --target &lt;target-id> --name MyFirstApp \
    125 --path &lt;path-to-workspace>/MyFirstApp --activity MyFirstActivity \
    126 --package com.example.myapp
    127 </pre>
    128 <p>Replace <code>&lt;target-id></code> with an id from the list of targets (from the previous step)
    129 and replace
    130 <code>&lt;path-to-workspace></code> with the location in which you want to save your Android
    131 projects.</p></li>
    132 </ol>
    133 
    134 <p>Your Android project is now set up with several default configurations and youre ready to begin
    135 building the app. Continue to the <a href="running-app.html">next lesson</a>.</p>
    136 
    137 <p class="note"><strong>Tip:</strong> Add the <code>platform-tools/</code> as well as the
    138 <code>tools/</code> directory to your <code>PATH</code> environment variable.</p>
    139 
    140 
    141 
    142 
    143