Android Studio Overview
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Android Studio is the official IDE for Android application development, based on IntelliJ IDEA. On top of the capabilities you expect from IntelliJ, Android Studio offers:
- Flexible Gradle-based build system.
- Build variants and multiple apk file generation.
- Code templates to help you build common app features.
- Rich layout editor with support for drag and drop theme editing.
- lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility and other problems.
- ProGuard and app-signing capabilities.
- Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, making it easy to integrate Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine.
- And much more.
Procedure to Create Android Development Environment using Android Studio
Step 1: Install the Java Development Kit (JDK) Version 1.6 or Higher
First, check if you have the Java Developer Kit (JDK) version 6.0 or greater already installed (JRE alone is not sufficient). To check if you have the JDK installed (and which version), open a terminal and type java -version. If you have Java 6.0 or greater, continue to the next step. You can download the latest version of the Java Development Kit from
here.
Step 2: Set your JAVA_HOME
Select Computer from your Start Menu or right-click it on your desktop.
Select System properties - Advanced system settings - Environment variables.
Click New under System Variables. Enter JAVA_HOME in the Variable name box and the path to your Java installation in the Variable value box. It will be something similar to what is listed in the following image.
Step 3: Install Android Studio
Navigate to the Android developers site to install Android Studio. This page will automatically detect your operating system. Accept the terms and conditions to start the download. To download Android Studio
Click Here. Double-click the downloaded file and follow all the prompts.
Step 4: Install Android System Images and Tools
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Open Android Studio and click the SDK Manager button on the toolbar. After the SDK Manager has fully loaded, close Android Studio. We are building for Android 5.1.1 (API 22) so ensure the following packages are checked under the Tools section:
● Android SDK Tools rev 24.3
● Android Platform-tools rev 22
● Android SDK Build-tools rev 22.0.1
Check these under the Android 5.1.1 (API 22) section:
● SDK Platform
● ARM EABI v7a System Image
● Intel x86 Atom System Image
● Google APIs (x86 System Image)
And check these under the Extras section:
● Android Support Repository
● Android Support Library
Click Install. Accept the licenses that are shown for each section to enable the download.
Step 5: Create an Android Virtual Device (AVD)
Open Android Studio and click AVD Manager in the toolbar. AVDs allow us to test and run our Android apps.
Use the following settings for a Nexus5 AVD (this is so you can use your own configuration settings to create an AVD):
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- Device: Nexus 5 (4.95, 1080 x 1920; xxhdpi).
- Target: Google APIs x86 (Google Inc.) - API Level 19 (Make sure you select the target with Google APIs in the name.)
- CPU: Intel Atom (x86)
- Check the box to use the Host GPU then click OK.
- You should now see the AVD you created in the AVD Manager, where you can start it, delete it, or create another one!
You are now ready to create your first Android program using Android studio.