For a few years now it's been clear that dominates the mobile OS landscape. This Java-based technology has sparked a new , with programmers competing to. Android jobs are also plentiful, as shown by a quick job search using. To be successful, Android developers need a good grasp of the , , and. It's also essential to use an appropriate and effective development environment. For many years, was the preferred platform for Android development. If you're new to Android Studio, this tutorial series will get you started. I'll briefly introduce the Android development platform, then show you how to download, install, and run the software. After that, we'll spend most of our time actually using Android Studio to develop an animated mobile app. In Part 1 you'll start up your first Android project and get to know the project workspace in Android Studio. In you'll code the app, learning how to use Android Studio to enter source code and resources into the project. After you're comfortable with developing a basic mobile app in Android Studio, we'll explore more advanced topics like debugging, performance monitoring, and profiling with Android Studio. We'll also look at extending Android Studio with three useful plugins. Get started with Android Studio Android Studio is Google's officially supported IDE for developing Android apps. Based on , Android Studio is freely available under Apache License 2. The most recent stable version, 2. Download Android Studio Google provides Android Studio for the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. You can from the Android Studio homepage. You'll also find the traditional SDKs, with Android Studio's command-line tools, available from the Downloads page. The Android Studio download page auto-detected that I'm running 64-bit Windows 8. Bundled installer and Android SDK android-studio-bundle-143. Alternatively, I could have downloaded a distribution file without the installer and without the SDK. Installing Android Studio on 64-bit Windows 8. The installer responded by presenting the Android Studio Setup dialog box shown in Figure 1. Set up Android Studio Clicking Next took me to the following dialog box, which gives you the option to decline installing the Android SDK included with the installer and an Android Virtual Device AVD. Do you want to install the Android SDK and AVD? I chose to keep the default settings. After clicking Next, you'll be taken to the license agreement dialog box. Accept the license to continue the installation. Accept the license agreement to continue installation The next dialog box invites you to change the installation locations for Android Studio and the Android SDK. Set the Android Studio and Android SDK installation locations Change the location or accept the default locations and click Next. The installer defaults to creating a shortcut for launching this program, or you can choose to decline. I recommend that you create the shortcut, then click the Install button to begin installation. Create a new shortcut for Android Studio The resulting dialog box shows the progress of installing Android Studio and the Android SDK. Clicking the Show Details button will let you view detailed information about the installation progress. The dialog box will inform you when installation has finished. When you click Next, you should see the following: Figure 6. Leave the Start Android Studio check box checked to run this software To complete your installation, leave the Start Android Studio box checked and click Finish. Running Android Studio Android Studio presents a splash screen when it starts running: Figure 7. Android Studio's start screen On your first run, you'll be asked to respond to several configuration-oriented dialog boxes. The first dialog box focuses on importing settings from any previously installed version of Android Studio. Import settings If you're like me, and don't have a previously installed version, you can just keep the default setting and click OK. Android Studio will respond with a slightly enhanced version of the splash screen, followed by the Android Studio Setup Wizard dialog box: Figure 9. Validate your Android SDK and development environment setup When you click Next, the setup wizard invites you to select an installation type for your SDK components. For now I recommend you keep the default standard setting. Choose an installation type Click Next and verify your settings, then click Finish to continue. Review settings The wizard will download and unzip various components. Click Show Details if you want to see more information about the archives being downloaded and their contents. The wizard downloads and unzips Android Studio components If your computer isn't Intel based, you might get an unpleasant surprise after the components have completely downloaded and unzipped: Figure 13. Intel-based hardware acceleration is unavailable Your options are to either put up with the slow emulator or use an Android device to speed up development. I'll discuss the latter option later in the tutorial. Finally, click Finish to complete the wizard. You should see the Welcome to Android Studio dialog box: Figure 14. Welcome to Android Studio You'll use this dialog to start up a new Android Studio project, work with an existing project, and more. You can access it anytime by double-clicking the Android Studio shortcut on your desktop. Your first Android Studio mobile app The quickest way to get to know Android Studio is to use it to develop an app. In the steps that follow, you'll start a new Android Studio project and get to know the project workspace, including the project editor that you'll use to code the app in. Starting a new project From our setup so far, you should still have Android Studio running with the Welcome to Android Studio dialog box. From here, click Start a new Android Studio project. Android Studio will respond with the Create New Project dialog box shown in Figure 15. Create a new project Enter W2A Welcome to Android as the application name and javajeff. Click Next to select your target devices. Select your target device categories Android Studio lets you select form factors, or categories of target devices, for every app you create. I would have preferred to keep the default API 15: Android 4. Because Android Studio doesn't currently support this API level even when you add the 4. Click Next, and you will be given the opportunity to choose a template for your app's main activity. For now we'll stick with Empty Activity. Select this template and click Next. Specify an activity template Next you'll customize the activity: Figure 18. Customize your activity Enter W2A as the activity name and main as the layout name, and click Finish to complete this step. Android Studio will respond that it is creating the project, then take you to the project workspace. Android Studio workspace The project workspace is organized around a menu bar, a tool bar, a work area, additional components that lead to more windows such as a Gradle Console window , and a status bar. Also note the Tip of the Day dialog box, which you can disable if you like. Accessing AVD Manager or SDK Manager from menu and tool bar To access the traditional AVD Manager or SDK Manager, select Android from the Tools menu followed by AVD Manager or SDK Manager from the resulting pop-up menu or click their tool bar icons. The project and editor windows When you enter the project workspace, W2A is identified as the current project, but you won't immediately see the project details. After a few moments, these details will appear in two new windows. The project and editor windows The project window is organized into a tree whose main branches are App and Gradle Scripts. This file also records permission settings where applicable and other details about the app. For example, res corresponds to the res directory and strings. Conclusion to Part 1 You've installed and configured Android Studio and created a project for your first Android Studio mobile app; now you're ready to build your Android application. In Android Studio, this means populating your new project with Java source code and resource files. Turn to when you're ready to get started with your first Android animated mobile app.
