Android 101 | Setup

Setup

OS X
Windows
Debian/Ubuntu
Fedora

Install Android Studio

Follow these instructions from the official Android documentation.

Git

Git is a widely used version control system. That means when you developing a new feature or fixing a bug, git is the program in charge of managing your app at those states in development. It also makes life saner when multiple people are working on the same app and trying not to step on each others' toes.

One of the most popular Git repository hosting services is GitHub. Many developers use it to host their personal projects or personal websites. (This site is hosted on GitHub!) In your future you will most likely find yourself using it over and over again. If you don't already have a GitHub account, head over to GitHub to create one. Why not? It's free.

For the purposes of this project, we will use git's command line interface (CLI).

Git CheatSheet →

For Mac, you have a few options for installing the git CLI depending on what you have on your computer prior. You only need to pick one of the following.

Recommended Install with Homebrew.

If you have not already, follow the instructions to install Homebrew.
Open your terminal and install Git using Homebrew by typing in the following command:
```
brew install git
```

Install using the Mac Installer.

Open up the Mac Installer and follow the prompts.
If you would like to login to your git account, you'll need to install the git-credential-osxkeychain to save your username and password in the OSX keychain.

For Windows, you have two options for installing git shell to access the CLI. You only need to pick one of the following.

Recommended Install the Desktop Client from GitHub. This option provides a GUI to git and github. It also installs the git shell.

Open up the Desktop Client and follow the prompts.
Click the gear icon in the top right corner.
Select Open in Git Shell.

Install git shell without the desktop client.

Open up git shell as a regular program.
If the Windows PowerShell opens up, then type $git to output the usage documentation.

To install, open up your terminal and install by using apt-get:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git

To install, open up your terminal and install by using yum:

sudo yum install git

Once you've got git installed, verify that you have the right version. Type the following into your terminal.

git --version

Make sure the result you get is at least git version 2.0.

Finally, you'll need to configure your Git username and email. These will be associated with any future commits. While we won't be committing anything during this project, it is a necessary step to use git. Use the following commands, inserting your own name and email.

git config --global user.name "YOUR NAME HERE"
git config --global user.email "YOUR EMAIL HERE"

Setup Emulator

Navigate to Tools > Android > AVD Manager.
Select Create Virtual Device.
Choose a device. For this activity, we'll be using a Nexus 5 device.
Choose a system image. For this activity, we'll be using Marshmallow with ABI x86_64 (or just ABI x86 if you're on a 32-bit machine).
If your system image is not yet downloaded, you must download first.
For more information about Android versions, check out the documentation here.
Click finish.
Press play on the device you just created. Give it a few seconds to start up.