Test and Debug

After writing your codes, it's time to test my application.

Using Android Virtual Emulator

One way to test your application is to run it on a virtual device.  The Android Virtual Device is included in the Android SDK tools.

1. Run the AVD manager.

On Eclipse, click Windows > Android SDK and AVD Manager.

2. Create a new virtual device.

- Name: virtual_galaxyS

- Target: Android 2.2

- SD card size: 512MiB

- Skin: Built-in: HVGA

* You can create several AVD with different screen sizes and Target versions.

3. Run your application.

On Eclipse, click Run > Run

* If you have multiple AVD, choose one that you want to use.

Now, have you made a good, working app already? Then good for you but most of the cases, it's not. So we need to debug.

Debugging

In debugging, the DDMS and DEBUG perspective view in the Eclipse IDE are  helpful.

The Debug Perspective in

Making new Android project

In the succeeding posts, I will try to present my workflow in developing an android app using the RB Pace Calculator as an example.

Let's start.

From my previous post, Hello Android World! and How to get started?, I would assume that you already have the necessary things to start Android development.

In this time being, below are my development tools/platform.

1. PC - Toshiba R830 (Intel Core i5-2410M, 2.3GHz, 6GB DDR3)
2. Win7 Pro 64bit

3. Eclipse (Helios Service Release 2) with Android SDK tools.

4. Java Development kit (v1.6.0.250)

5. Samsung GalaxyS (Android v2.3.3) - used for testing my apps.

Procedure

1. Create a new Android project in eclipse.

In this case:

- Project Name: RB Pace Calculator

- Create new project in workspace.

- Build Target: Android 2.2

- Application name: RB Pace Calculator

- Package Name: com.fmvf.pacer

- [check] Create Activity: convert

- Min SDK version: 8

- Finish

2. Design the 'view' of your application.

In this case, I made

How to get started?

This would be the very first question of any beginner like me. How to start? Where to start? What do I need? Well, as long as you have already set up your Development PC (as in previous post) then we can say that we have already started. As for me, I used the Eclipse IDE as this is what I commonly read so I assumed I can get a lot of help in the net.

I already have my IDE with ADT plugin installed, now what?

Make sure that your PC have been setup properly including all the components needed. If you have a background on java programming, then it will be a lot easier for you. But for me who is without java experience, I better start reading a lot and browse through sample codes. My usual technique in programming is to see sample codes then learn from it how each syntax was used.

Some things to consider before starting actual project

1. App layout - this could be something to think about since a lot of android devices are coming out today. Smartphones and tablets comes with different screen sizes so better design your layout properly.

2. API level - which API level would you like to support or which phone features would you like to use? Since Android OS itself is continuing to develop, there could be a lot of changes in different android versions and some features might not be available yet on previous versions. I'll give an overview of the android versions later to help you decide

3. Target users - As of today, devices are running on different android versions. So which version/s would you like to support? This graph could help you in deciding based on percentage of users of each version. You may notice that android 1.5 and 1.6 users are declining while android 2.1 and 2.2 users are increasing.