So you want to start developing an Android App, cook an Android ROM or an Android Theme ? (Yes, I do realize that below is a copy/paste from android.com but I am including it for completeness’ sake)

This page describes how to install the latest version of the Android SDK and set up your development environment for the first time.

If you encounter any problems during installation, see the Troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page.

Updating?

If you are currently using the Android 1.6 SDK, you do not necessarily need to install a newer SDK, since you can already update the platforms, tools, and other components using the Android SDK and AVD Manager tool. To develop against the latest Android platform, for example, you could just download the latest SDK Tools and then add the new Android platform into your existing SDK.

If you are using Android 1.5 SDK or older, you should install the new SDK as described in this document and move your application projects to the new SDK environment.

If you will be developing in Eclipse with the Android Development Tools (ADT) Plugin — the recommended path if you are new to Android — make sure that you have a suitable version of Eclipse installed on your computer (3.4 or newer is recommended). If you need to install Eclipse, you can download it from this location:

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

A Java or RCP version of Eclipse is recommended. For Eclipse 3.5, the ”Eclipse Classic” version is recommended.

Download and Install the SDK

Download the SDK package that is appropriate for your development computer.
You can get the latest version from the SDK download page.

After downloading, unpack the Android SDK archive to a suitable location on your machine. By default, the SDK files are unpacked into a directory named android-sdk-<machine-platform>. Make a note of the name and location of the unpacked SDK directory on your system — you will need to refer to the SDK directory later, when setting up the ADT plugin or when using the SDK tools.

Optionally, you may want to add the location of the SDK’s primary tools directory to your system PATH. The primary tools/ directory is located at the root of the SDK folder. Adding tools to your path lets you run Android Debug Bridge (adb) and the other command line tools without needing to supply the full path to the tools directory.

• On Linux, edit your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file. Look for a line that sets the PATH environment variable and add the full path to the tools/ directory to it. If you don’t see a line setting the path, you can add one: export PATH=${PATH}:<your_sdk_dir>/tools
• On a Mac OS X, look in your home directory for .bash_profile and proceed as for Linux. You can create the .bash_profile if you haven’t already set one up on your machine.
• On Windows, right-click on My Computer, and select Properties. Under the Advanced tab, hit the Environment Variables button, and in the dialog that comes up, double-click on Path (under System Variables). Add the full path to the tools/ directory to the path.

If you will be using the Eclipse IDE as your development environment, the next section describes how to install the Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin and set up Eclipse.
If you choose not to use Eclipse, you can develop Android applications in an IDE of your choice and then compile, debug and deploy using the tools included in the SDK.

Install the ADT Plugin for Eclipse

Android offers a custom plugin for the Eclipse IDE, called Android Development Tools (ADT), that is designed to give you a powerful, integrated environment in which to build Android applications. It extends the capabilites of Eclipse to let you quickly set up new Android projects, create an application UI, add components based on the Android
Framework API, debug your applications using the Android SDK tools, and even export signed (or unsigned) APKs in order to distribute your application.

In general, using Eclipse with ADT is a highly recommended approach to Android development and is the fastest way to get started. For complete information about how to install ADT, see Installing and Updating ADT.

If you prefer to work in an IDE other than Eclipse, you do not need to install Eclipse or ADT, instead, you can directly use the SDK tools to build and debug your application.

Add Android Platforms and Other Components

The Android SDK uses a modular structure that separates the major parts of the SDK — platforms, add-ons, tools, and the API documentation — into a set of separately installable components. The SDK components are available to you for individual download, as needed, from the Android SDK repository site.

The Android SDK starter package includes only a single component: the latest version of the SDK Tools. Included in that component is a tool called Android SDK and AVD Manager that you can use to download other components from the SDK repository site. The tool provides a graphical UI that lets you browse the repository, select new or updated components for download, and then install them in your SDK.

There are several types of SDK components available:

• SDK Tools (available pre-installed in the Android SDK package) — Contains the full set of SDK tools for developing, debugging, and testing your application code and UI. You can read about the tools in the Dev Guide and access them in the <sdk>/tools/ directory.
• Android platforms — An SDK platform component is available for every production Android platform deployable to Android-powered devices. Each platform component includes a fully compliant Android library and system image, sample code, emulator skins, and any version specific tools. For detailed information about each platform, see the overview documents available under the section “Downloadable SDK Components,” at left.
• SDK Add-Ons — SDK add-ons provide a development environment for specific Android external library or a customized (but fully compliant) Android system image. The Android SDK repository offers the Google APIs Add-On, which gives your application access to powerful mapping capabilities through the com.google.android.maps library. You can also add additional repositories, so that you can download other SDK add-ons, where available.
• Documentation — Contains a local copy of the latest multiversion documentation for the Android framework API.

To develop any Android application, even if you are following the Hello World tutorial, you must download at least one Android platform into your SDK.
Typically, you will want to download multiple platforms, so that you can build your application on the lowest version you want to support, but test against higher versions that you intend the application to run on. You can test your
applications on different platforms by running in an Android Virtual Device (AVD) on the Android emulator.

For step-by-step instructions on how to use the Android SDK and AVD Manager to add components, see the Adding SDK Components document.

For release notes and other detailed information about individual SDK components, see the documents listed under “Downloadable SDK Components” in the navigation at left.

Explore the SDK

Once you’ve installed the SDK and downloaded the platforms, documentation, and add-ons that you need, open the SDK directory and take a look at what’s inside.

The table below describes the full SDK directory contents, with components installed.

Troubleshooting

Ubuntu Linux Notes

• If you need help installing and configuring Java on your development machine, you might find these resources helpful:
  • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java
  • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/JavaInstallation
• Here are the steps to install Java and Eclipse, prior to installing the Android SDK and ADT Plugin.
  1. If you are running a 64-bit distribution on your development machine, you need to install the ia32-libs package using apt-get::

     apt-get install ia32-libs

  2. Next, install Java:

     apt-get install sun-java6-bin

  3. The Ubuntu package manager does not currently offer an Eclipse 3.3 version for download, so we recommend that you download Eclipse from eclipse.org (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/). A Java or RCP version of Eclipse is recommended.
  4. Follow the steps given in previous sections to install the SDK and the ADT plugin.

Other Linux Notes

• If JDK is already installed on your development computer, please take a moment to make sure that it meets the version requirements listed in the System Requirements.
  In particular, note that some Linux distributions may include JDK 1.4 or Gnu Compiler for Java, both of which are not supported for Android development.