Secrets of Android development: tool IDE, SDK, and Google services (1)

BKJIA: when you plan to develop your first Android Application, a large list of tools may be the first obstacle to us. However, the process of downloading and preparing the Android development environment is not complicated, thanks to the convenient integrated software bundle, it can help you use most of the tools you may need at any time, even if not all.

The disadvantage of downloading and using this single bundle is that we may not know which specific tools are included in our Android development environment, it is also a difficult task for many friends to understand the actual functions of each tool.

In today's article, we will unveil this layer of mystery to show you the mainstream tools that will be used to develop the first Android Application. For those who want to use additional features to further strengthen the Android project, the Google Play Services overview that will be introduced later cannot be missed-you can use it to add Google + and Google Maps for your applications, and truly turn the development results into actual benefits.

However, before summarizing your Android Development Kit, you must first make an important decision-which integrated development environment should we use for short, IDE?

1. Eclipse or Android Studio?

Not long ago, the golden combination of Eclipse and ADT (Android development tools) plug-ins was still a recommendation environment in the Android Application development field. However, at the Google I/O 2013 conference, Google overturned all this and presented its IDE solution Android Studio specifically designed for Android development to the world.

The release of Android Studio makes the life of Android Developers more complex, because you have to first weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the two IDE solutions and see how to choose to make the subsequent work smoother.

When we consider whether to use Android Studio or Eclipse as our own development environment, the key factor that plays a decisive role is what we expect from the IDE.

The User Interface focuses on clear processes and rich functions.

The general development environment provided by Eclipse can be expanded through plug-ins to help you develop multiple application types using different programming languages in the same IDE.

For Android development, we can use Android development tools or the ADT plug-in for short to expand Eclipse. Although ADT is mainly designed for Android development scenarios, Eclipse is not like this-that is, the latter contains a large number of functions unrelated to Android application development.

If you are already an experienced Eclipse user, you may already be familiar with Eclipse's rich yet messy user interface. However, if you are new to Eclipse, it may take some time to determine which content is helpful to your Android development work and which content is completely displayed on the messy interface.

In this regard, Android Studio has a significant advantage over Eclipse. Android Studio has a set of primary and dry user interfaces and simple but not simple function configurations. Although the number of features is relatively low, each function will help you complete Android Application development tasks.

Select a mature community or dedicated team

Eclipse is a widely acclaimed IDE with a prosperous Community system, this means that you can get rich and timely help information when you need help-including blog posts, tutorials, Google groups, video guides, forums, and even a wide range of Eclipse ADT user documents.

In contrast, Android Studio is relatively passive in this regard. As an emerging project, Android Studio naturally does not have time to build the same abundant auxiliary resources. Although some Eclipse-based resources also apply to tasks used by Android Studio, if you encounter some problems when using the Android Studio environment, therefore, the Eclipse-centered information may not provide any guidance.

Solid and stable or emerging technologies

As a mature IDE, Eclipse's software is stable and reliable. In contrast, Android Studio is currently in the early preview stage, you may encounter various errors and missing functions during use.

Android Studio has all the innovative features that everyone wants to get from the new IDE, but all of this is compromised by the early preview status. Depending on the actual situation, the absence of the official version of Android Studio may lead to a dilemma. If you plan to develop a small personal project, the vulnerabilities and functions may be insufficient. However, if you need a set of commercial Android applications that are essential to business expansion, the early preview status of Android Studio means that it will not be the smartest option.

Are you familiar with Gradle?

Android Studio is equipped with a Gradle plug-in. That is to say, if we select this IDE, we will use Gradle to automate the construction, testing, release, and deployment of our Android applications.

If you are unfamiliar with Gradle, have no time, and are not interested in learning Gradle, it may be more appropriate to choose Eclipse, this is because the connection between Gradle and Android Studio is so tight that everyone will inevitably encounter a very tangled situation when using any other build tool.

Conclusion

"Android Studio or Eclipse ?" There is no obvious answer to this question. The actual choice depends on a series of related factors, for example, are you familiar with the software, have time or are you willing to learn new technologies, and the types of Android applications you intend to develop.

For example, if you are willing to learn new technical solutions and are interested in Gradle at the same time, the Android Studio's win-win experience will obviously be greatly improved. However, if you are already a senior Eclipse user, and the heavy daily work makes you have no time to get involved in the Learning threshold set by the new IDE, it may be more wise to continue using Eclipse for development.

No matter whether you choose the combination of Android Studio or Eclipse and ADT plug-ins, after determining your development environment, the tool set will be identical in the next step-this is the Android SDK.

2. What is the Android SDK?

The Android SDK is composed of multiple types of tools, including libraries, source code, and sample projects. All these are necessary resources for creating Android applications. Although the introduction to all the content provided by the Android SDK is far beyond the length limit of this article, however, we will still use a short language to outline some important tools necessary for Android Application Development that everyone should be familiar with as soon as possible.

Simulator

The Android SDK contains a mobile device simulator that allows you to test your Android applications on a variety of device platforms without having to purchase the corresponding device products.

The Tool Name shows that the simulator is specialized in simulating different types of Android devices by running a variety of Android Virtual Devices (AVD) configuration schemes. In the typical Android project lifecycle, you need to create a series of AVD configurations for the simulator. Each configuration corresponds to a different Android device.

AVD Manager

The AVD manager is a platform for us to create, edit, fix, delete, and enable the AVD configuration scheme. The AVD Manager also contains a list of known device definitions, which greatly simplifies the simulation process for a specific device model that is not clear about its hardware and software specifications.

SDK Manager

The Android SDK independently rotates various tools, platforms, APIs, and other components in different packages, allowing you to update and download them separately through the SDK manager. Some of the software packages are recommended, and some of them have been installed while we download the Android SDK, however, there are also many software packages that are optional and suitable only for those who are interested in developing specific Android applications.

DDMS

The Dalvik debugging monitoring server or DDMS is a debugging tool that can execute multiple debugging tasks, for example, you can track which objects are being allocated to the memory, which threads are running, and which part of the heap memory is being used by a specific process.

DDMS also contains network usage details tags to track network requests and analyze how our applications are transmitting data. Although DDMS can play a full role in both Android Studio and Eclipse, its specific access methods are different. Eclipse users can access DDMS in the sequence of Window> Open Perspective> DDMS, while Android Studio users need to click the "Monitor" button in the toolbar to access DDMS with a simple Android icon.

Lint

Lint is a code scanning tool designed to improve the structure quality of our coding results by checking vulnerabilities and available Optimizations in the Android project source file.

Although Lint is included in the Android SDK, the methods for starting Eclipse and Android Studio are still different. In Android Stuio, we can choose Analyze> Inspect Code to run Lint. In Eclipse, Lint runs automatically when we modify the layout editor or XML file in the project. Similarly, it will run when exporting the project.

Android debugging Bridge

Android debugging bridge is also referred to as adb, which allows us to execute a series of debugging operations by directly entering commands in the command line. You can find a comprehensive list of adb commands in the official Android instructions and click here to view them ).

No matter you choose Android Studio or Eclipse, you can access all the Android SDK tools mentioned above. However, depending on the IDE selection, other available toolkit types may be different.