First Step To Learn Android

Hello everyone,

As you all know that Android is the very popular operating system and used by most of the people in the world.If you want to be Software developer then it's a good time to learn Android Technology.

To learn Android,you need a very basic understanding of JAVA language.JAVA is a open source and platform independent language.Open source means all the development tool (JDK Java Development tool) are freely available for each operating system like Windows,linex,MAC etc.

Before staring learning JAVA you need  understanding of  programming logic's from c and c++ language.

Android is a Operating System based on linex carnal for handheld devices like Smart Phone.Today many mobile company uses Android Operating System in there Mobile devices.Currently most of the company launches there smart phone based on Android Operating System.

For Developer Point of View

Android is open source,we uses Java language for application development.To become a Android application developer you need a basic knowledge of core java like 

1. All Opps concept :Polymorphism ,Inheritance,Encapsulation,Object,Class.
2. Thread
3. Synchronization
4. Interface
5. String
6. Data Types
7. Collections

Development Environment :

 You will be glad to know that you can start your Android application development on either of the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows XP or later version.
• Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later version with Intel chip.
• Linux including GNU C Library 2.7 or later.

Second point is that all the required tools to develop Android applications are freely available and can be downloaded from the Web. Following is the list of software's you will need before you start your Android application programming.

• Java JDK5 or JDK6
• Android SDK
• Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (optional)
• Android Development Tools (ADT) Eclipse Plugin (optional)

Step1 - Setup Java Development Kit (JDK) :

You can download the latest version of Java JDK from Oracle's Java site: Java SE Downloads.To set java path you go to following options...

Start->Control Panel->Performance and Maintenance->System->Advance->Environment Variable 

1. Now Click on new
2. Set Variable name as PATH
3. Set Variable value as you JDK Path followed by bin directory
4. Now click on Ok option.

Now create another Environment Variable :

1. Now Click on new
2. Set Variable name as JAVA_HOME
3. Set Variable value as your JDK Path.
4. Now click on Ok option.

If you are running Windows and installed the JDK in C:\jdk1.6.0_15, you would have to put the following line in your C:\autoexec.bat file OR follow upper steps..

set PATH=C:\jdk1.6.0_15\bin;%PATH%
set JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.6.0_15

On Linux, if the SDK is installed in /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15 and you use the C shell, you would put the following code into your .cshrc file.

setenv PATH /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15/bin:$PATH
setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15

Check your System Java path is set or Not :

1. Go to command Prompt by CMD
2. Type JAVAC and Press Enter :if you see message "JAVAC is not an internal OR external command" means you java path is not set.
3. If this messages are appear means your java path is set successfully.
4. 
    

Step 2 - Setup Android SDK :

You can download the latest version of Android SDK from Android official website : Android SDK Downloads. 

Step 3 - Setup Eclipse IDE :

To install Eclipse IDE, download the latest Eclipse binaries from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. 

After download compete unzip the file and copy it to any where you want in your system.

Eclipse can be started by executing the following commands on windows machine, or you can simply double click on eclipse.exe or right click on eclipse.exe and create an Shortcut on desktop for easy of use.

Step 3 - Create Android Virtual  Device :

To test your Android applications you will need a virtual Android device. So before we start writing our code, let us create an Android virtual device. Launch Android AVD Manager using Eclipse menu options Window > AVD Manager> which will launch Android AVD Manager. Use New button to create a new Android Virtual Device and enter the following information, before clicking Create AVD button.