1page.title=Creating an Android Project 2parent.title=Building Your First App 3parent.link=index.html 4 5trainingnavtop=true 6next.title=Running Your App 7next.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 27SDK</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 36app. The Android SDK tools make it easy to start a new Android project with a set of 37default project directories and files.</p> 38 39<p>This lesson 40shows how to create a new project either using Eclipse (with the ADT plugin) or using the 41SDK tools from a command line.</p> 42 43<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> You should already have the Android SDK installed, and if 44you're using Eclipse, you should also have the <a href="{@docRoot}tools/sdk/eclipse-adt.html">ADT 45plugin</a> installed (version 21.0.0 or higher). If you don't have these, follow the guide to <a 46href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/index.html">Installing the Android SDK</a> before you start this 47lesson.</p> 48 49 50<h2 id="Eclipse">Create a Project with Eclipse</h2> 51 52<ol> 53 <li>Click <strong>New</strong> <img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/eclipse-new.png" 54 style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0" /> in the toolbar.</li> 55 <li>In the window that appears, open the <strong>Android</strong> folder, 56 select <strong>Android Application Project</strong>, and click <strong>Next</strong>.</li> 57 58<div class="figure" style="width:420px"> 59<img src="{@docRoot}images/training/firstapp/adt-firstapp-setup.png" alt="" /> 60<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> The New Android App Project wizard in Eclipse.</p> 61</div> 62 63 <li>Fill in the form that appears: 64 <ul> 65 <li><strong>Application Name</strong> is the app name that appears to users. 66 For this project, use "My First App."</p></li> 67 <li><strong>Project Name</strong> is the name of your project directory and the name visible in Eclipse.</li> 68 <li><strong>Package Name</strong> is the package namespace for your app (following the same 69rules as packages in the Java programming language). Your package name 70must be unique across all packages installed on the Android system. For this reason, it's generally 71best if you use a name that begins with the reverse domain name of your organization or 72publisher entity. For this project, you can use something like "com.example.myfirstapp." 73However, you cannot publish your app on Google Play using the "com.example" namespace.</li> 74 <li><strong>Minimum Required SDK</strong> is the lowest version of Android that your app supports, 75 indicated using the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels" 76 >API level</a>. 77 To support as many devices as possible, you should set this to the lowest version available 78 that allows your app to provide its core feature set. If any feature of your app is possible 79 only on newer versions of Android and it's not critical to the app's core feature set, you 80 can enable the feature only when running on the versions that support it (as 81 discussed in <a href="{@docRoot}training/basics/supporting-devices/platforms.html" 82 >Supporting Different Platform Versions</a>). 83 Leave this set to the default value for this project. 84 </li> 85 <li><strong>Target SDK</strong> indicates the highest version of Android (also using the 86 <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels" 87 >API level</a>) with which you 88 have tested with your application. 89 <p>As new versions of Android become available, you should 90 test your app on the new version and update this value to match the latest API level 91 in order to take advantage of new platform features.</p> 92 </li> 93 <li><strong>Compile With</strong> is the platform version against which you will compile your app. 94 By default, this is set to the latest version of Android available in your SDK. (It should 95 be Android 4.1 or greater; if you don't have such a version available, you must install one 96 using the <a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/adding-packages.html">SDK Manager</a>). 97 You can still build your app to 98support older versions, but setting the build target to the latest version allows you to 99enable new features and optimize your app for a great user experience on the latest 100devices.</li> 101 <li><strong>Theme</strong> specifies the Android UI style to apply for your app. You can leave 102 this alone.</li> 103 </ul> 104 <p>Click <strong>Next</strong>.</p> 105 </li> 106 <li>On the next screen to configure the project, leave the default selections and click 107 <strong>Next</strong>.</li> 108 <li>The next screen can help you create a launcher icon for your app. 109 <p>You can customize an icon in several ways and the tool generates an icon for all 110 screen densities. Before you publish your app, you should be sure your icon meets 111 the specifications defined in the <a 112 href="{@docRoot}design/style/iconography.html">Iconography</a> 113 design guide.</p> 114 <p>Click <strong>Next</strong>.</p> 115 </li> 116 <li>Now you can select an activity template from which to begin building your app. 117 <p>For this project, select <strong>BlankActivity</strong> and click <strong>Next</strong>.</p> 118 </li> 119 <li>Leave all the details for the activity in their default state and click 120 <strong>Finish</strong>.</li> 121</ol> 122 123<p>Your Android project is now set up with some default files and you’re ready to begin 124building the app. Continue to the <a href="running-app.html">next lesson</a>.</p> 125 126 127 128<h2 id="CommandLine">Create a Project with Command Line Tools</h2> 129 130<p>If you're not using the Eclipse IDE with the ADT plugin, you can instead create your project 131using the SDK tools from a command line:</p> 132 133<ol> 134 <li>Change directories into the Android SDK’s <code>tools/</code> path.</li> 135 <li>Execute: 136<pre class="no-pretty-print">android list targets</pre> 137<p>This prints a list of the available Android platforms that you’ve downloaded for your SDK. Find 138the platform against which you want to compile your app. Make a note of the target id. We 139recommend that you select the highest version possible. You can still build your app to 140support older versions, but setting the build target to the latest version allows you to optimize 141your app for the latest devices.</p> 142<p>If you don't see any targets listed, you need to 143install some using the Android SDK 144Manager tool. See <a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/adding-packages.html">Adding Platforms 145 and Packages</a>.</p></li> 146 <li>Execute: 147<pre class="no-pretty-print"> 148android create project --target <target-id> --name MyFirstApp \ 149--path <path-to-workspace>/MyFirstApp --activity MainActivity \ 150--package com.example.myfirstapp 151</pre> 152<p>Replace <code><target-id></code> with an id from the list of targets (from the previous step) 153and replace 154<code><path-to-workspace></code> with the location in which you want to save your Android 155projects.</p></li> 156</ol> 157 158<p>Your Android project is now set up with several default configurations and you’re ready to begin 159building the app. Continue to the <a href="running-app.html">next lesson</a>.</p> 160 161<p class="note"><strong>Tip:</strong> Add the <code>platform-tools/</code> as well as the 162<code>tools/</code> directory to your <code>PATH</code> environment variable.</p> 163 164 165 166 167
