The journey begins
What? Hey, you are usually focused in ranting about random topics, database performance, and generally proving the world how smart you are. Why then this sudden curiosity for creating an Android application?
It is part curiosity, part opportunity. As they say, opportunities are there waiting for someone that is in the right place at the right time to catch them. I'm not that one, for sure, but still, after the sad news that come from the Java camp, I wanted to explore new ways of writing applications.
Of course, it also helps if the potential audience for your application is numbered in the hundred of millions, if not more.
So, I wanted to develop a simple Android application. Being a Linux aficionado, and looking at the Google docs, Eclipse under Linux seemed like the main opportunity. Let's start with the basics.
Setting up the stage
First, install the Android SDK. Well, the Android SDK is just a zip file that you extract somewhere in your local disk. According to what I read later, one can create whole applications with the SDK without needing any IDE at all. It has been a long time since I created user interfaces out of raw hexadecimal dumps, so I'm not one of those brave souls. In any case, take note of the folder where you extract the Android SDK. You'll need it later.
Android likes you to use Eclipse to create applications. Perhaps, after my long stint with NetBeans it's time to go back to Eclipse again? For some reason, I tend to go from NetBeans to Eclipse and back each year or so. I tend to like the all-included NetBeans philosophy, whereas Eclipse is the place where the minority and cutting edge tools start to appear. This time is back to Eclipse, I guess.
So go to Kubuntu and start Muon. Oh, or Software Center or something similar if you're using Ubuntu. Make sure Eclipse is installed. Start Eclipse to make sure everything is ok. Choose a suitable folder as your workspace.
Next, you can finally go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html#installing and attempt to follow the steps to install the Eclipse infrastructure for Android. You go to Help->Install new software. You add https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ to the Eclipse list of sources, select the Developer Tools, click next and after a quite long pause you get... an error.
Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found.
Software being installed: Android Development Tools 16.0.1.v201112150204-238534 (com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.feature.group 16.0.1.v201112150204-238534)
Missing requirement: Android Development Tools 16.0.1.v201112150204-238534 (com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.feature.group 16.0.1.v201112150204-238534) requires 'org.eclipse.wst.sse.core 0.0.0' but it could not be found
This is one of these errors that if it were not for Google, I'd never be able to resolve. Fortunately, a noble soul has documented the fix, even with a video here. Thanks a million. However, I'm feeling that this is threading into waters that I don't know well enough. There is something very good about the Internet. Being able to tap such huge resources of information is fantastic, but am I really learning something by applying the fix? Yes, that there are people out there that know a lot more than I. Better respect these people and try to contribute something back, like with this article.
Are you ready to create your first Android app? Not yet. When you restart, Eclipse warns you that you have not selected an Android SDK. Go and define one, choosing the right API level for your target and using the folder where you extracted the SDK package. My target is going to be Android version 2.1, just because I happen to have a phone that runs that version.
Now, I'm ready for Hello World.
