What is Android and How to Install it for Visual Studio 2010

Introduction of Android

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This operating system is basically used for for phones, and most recently, tablets. Android is a unique operating system because Google is actively developing the Android platform, but giving it away for free to hardware manufacturers and phone carriers who want to use Android on their devices. It is mostly run on smartphons powered by ARM chips, though it is being ported to various platforms and architectures, including X86.

Key features of the Android Market

• Android Market is open to any developer.
• Developer's can join the market in 3 easy steps: register, upload, and publish.
• Applications can be either free or paid.

Lets Start Installing Android

Welcome; here is a quick start installation guide - if you are new to the Android SDK, follow the steps to install the Android SDK and set up your development environment for the first time.

Before getting started with the Android SDK installation let's check the System Requirements.

System Requirements

• Operating System
  
  
  • Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32-bit or 64-bit), or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
  • Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later (x86 only)
  • Linux (tested on Ubuntu Linux, Lucid Lynx)
     
• You will also need to install a suitable development environment and tools such as:
  
  
  • JDK 5 or JDK 6 (JRE alone is not sufficient). 
  • Android_SDK. 
  • Mono for Android Visual Studio 2010 Plugin (optional). 
  • Eclipse JDT plugin (optional).
    Eclipse IDE is used as your Android development environment; you will have the opportunity to install and run a plug-in called Android Development Tools and develop an application using the Java language.
  • Apache Ant 1.8 or later (optional). 

All the steps and images below are installation steps on Windows 7 operating system:

Step: 1 Download and Install JDK.

Download and install the Java(JDK). The JRE is not sufficient. 

• Start the installation and select the program feature you want to install:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Chose the destination folder and install the JDK:
  
  
  
  
  

Step: 2 Install the Android SDK

• When you start installing the Android SDK it first checks your system to determine if you have already installed the JDK or not; if your JDK is installed properly the setup will ask you to proceed otherwise it shows an error regarding your SDK.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Now choose the destination folder and start menu folder and then go Next:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After setup was completed successfully, check the box to start the Android SDK manager and finish the installation:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In the Android SDK manager refresh all the packages and install all available packages and go into the installed packages and check that all the packages installed:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Now go in virtual devices and create a new virtual device with the given configuration as in the following:
  
  
  

Note: Do not start the virtual device/Emulator from the Android SDK manager; Mono will automatically start it from Visual Studio.

Step: 3 Install Mono for Android using in Visual Studio 2010

• Start the Mono installation and choose the feature you want to install:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Now your installation of Android is complete, you can develop Android applications using Mono in Visual Studio 2010.