Getting Set Up for Android Development on a Mac

Getting set up for developing for Android on a Mac is super easy.

Downloads and Set up

1. Download and Install the Mac version of the SDK
   http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
2. Download Eclipse and Install (if you don’t already have it) version 3.4 or newer is recommended.
   http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
3. Look in your home directory for .bash_profile 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}:/tools
   You can create the .bash_profile if you haven’t already set one up on your machine.

Installing Android Development Tools (ADT)

1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software.
2. In the Available Software dialog, click Add….
3. In the Add Site dialog that appears, enter a name for the remote site (for example, “Android Plugin”) in the “Name” field.
   In the “Location” field, enter this URL: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
   Note: If you have trouble acquiring the plugin, you can try using “http” in the URL, instead of “https” (https is preferred for security reasons).
   Click OK.
4. Back in the Available Software view, you should now see “Developer Tools” added to the list. Select the checkbox next to Developer Tools, which will automatically select the nested tools Android DDMS and Android Development Tools. Click Next.
5. In the resulting Install Details dialog, the Android DDMS and Android Development Tools features are listed. Click Next to read and accept the license agreement and install any dependencies, then click Finish.
6. Restart Eclipse.

Now modify your Eclipse preferences to point to the Android SDK directory:

1. Go to Eclipse > Preferences… to open the Preferences panel.
2. Select Android from the left panel.
3. For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse… and locate your downloaded SDK directory.
4. Click Apply, then OK.

Add the Android Platforms and Other Components

Open Eclipse and select Window >Android SDK and AVD Manager.

1. Select Available Components in the left panel. This will reveal all components currently available for download.
2. Select the components you’d like to install and click Install Selected. I suggest just installing everything, but that’s personal preference. You will want to get all of the Platform version for testing your app though.
3. Verify and accept the components you want and click Install Accepted. The components will now be installed into your existing Android SDK directories.

Tip: Use the “Display updates only” checkbox to show only the components you do not have.

What Versions to Support

Take a look at Google’s Device Dashboard for information on what versions of Android are currently being widely used. The data for the dashboard is regularly updated, but do keep in mind that the data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Android Market within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date. What this means, is that there will be devices out there that are not accounted for since the users did not visit the Android Market.

This is the dashboard as of 12/14/2009

That’s It

And we’re done. You’re all set for creating Android Apps. Go ahead and try making your Hello World app. And if that’s not advanced enough for you, Google also has a Notepad app tutorial.