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In this video we will review our tools and create the shell of our project in Android Studio.
Downloads
You can download and install Android Studio from the Android developer site. You can use any version you like and you may just need to work through slight differences in the tools. If you want to use the exact version we use in this course, make sure to download this version from the list: "Android Studio v2.3.0 (March 2017)."
Installing Android Studio
Need help setting up your Android development environment? Check out these setup instructions:
Importing Project Files
Project files for each video are available in the Downloads tab. Once downloaded, select File > Open from the Android Studio menu and then navigate to the InteractiveStory folder that you unzip from the project files. When you have that folder selected, click "Choose" and the project will be opened in a new Android Studio window.
GitHub Repo
- End of Stage 1 video 2 (starter files)
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Let's talk for a minute about the tools
we're going to use for this project.
0:00
In an effort to provide you with
a consistent learning experience, we're
0:03
providing the exact version of Android
Studio used to record these videos,
0:06
in the download links below.
0:10
It includes the appropriate SDK and
emulator image I'm using.
0:12
If you download and use these tools,
0:16
then everything should match up as
long as you don't update anything.
0:17
Now, don't worry, if you do update or
0:20
if your version of Android Studio is
a little different than what you see here.
0:22
Our developer tools
are constantly evolving, but
0:26
the main pieces will still be the same.
0:28
And more importantly, the code and
0:30
the concepts we are covering
here are less volatile.
0:32
So even if the tools are a little
bit different, the code and
0:34
the ways to solve problems
will still apply.
0:37
If you really get stuck because of Android
Studio, you can either get help from our
0:40
Treehouse community or
reinstall these versions of the tools.
0:43
You can even have more than one
version installed at a time.
0:46
As usual if any minor changes or
0:50
bugs pop up in these videos, then we
will add a visual call out like this.
0:51
And then I'll add notes for
screenshots in the teacher's notes.
0:56
So if you spot a difference, check
the notes first and then let us know.
0:59
Remember it's really important to follow
along and not just watch these videos,
1:04
because you will learn so much more.
1:07
If you get stuck with your own code,
you can always download the project
1:10
files on each video page for
my code from the video.
1:13
Which you can then use for comparison or
as a starting point for your own work.
1:16
Okay, make sure you have Android
studio set up how you want it and
1:21
then let's start the project.
1:23
Okay, so once Android Studio loads up,
1:25
let's click on Start
a New Project here at the top.
1:28
The first thing we need here is a name for
our application.
1:31
Let's call this Interactive Story.
1:34
Now my company domain was already
filled in with teamtreehouse.com, but
1:38
you can use whatever you'd like here.
1:42
Whether it's your own organization,
or perhaps just your own name.
1:44
For example, for
1:47
my personal projects I will often just
use jakuben.com as my personal domain.
1:48
One thing I should note is that you do
want to use just lowercase letters and
1:53
periods like we have here.
1:56
You don't want to use any
other special characters or
1:58
uppercase letters as
they may cause problems.
2:00
So moving on, we see the package name is
generated down here with the domain name
2:03
and then the project name here at the end.
2:07
I'm going to change my project location,
2:09
though you certainly
don't have to do this.
2:11
I'm gonna change this to Development and
click Next.
2:14
Now on this screen we want to select
the form factors that our app will run on,
2:17
as well as the Minimum STK
that we wanna target.
2:21
This app is just going to be for
phones and tablets, so
2:24
we don't need to check anything else.
2:27
And we can accept the default minimum SDK,
which, at the time of this recording,
2:28
is API 16.
2:33
Don't worry if your minimum
version is different.
2:33
Backwards compatibility is easier than
ever thanks to some changes in how Android
2:36
handles API versioning.
2:40
Notice that this tell us that by
going with this default setting,
2:41
our app will run on approximately 95.2% of
devices active on the Google Play Store.
2:44
And that's pretty much our market,
2:50
since we're developing apps we want
to be available on Google Play.
2:52
And this lets us use some of the newer and
more stable features of Android,
2:54
without having to worry about backwards
compatibility from much older devices.
2:58
If we click on Help me choose,
3:02
we can see a further breakdown
of what people are using.
3:04
I'm gonna click OK and click Next.
3:06
Now in this screen, we want to select
one of these project templates.
3:09
We can see a bunch of different
types of activities here for
3:12
different types of screens.
3:15
You might think this basic activity
would be appropriate but we don't want
3:16
to include this floating action button,
or FAB, that we see down here.
3:19
So, with empty activity selected,
let's click Next.
3:23
The default name here, Main Activity,
is fine because the default activity
3:27
will be the main activity that
runs when our app launches.
3:30
Let's leave the layout name as it's
generated and then make sure that this
3:33
Backwards Compatibility box is checked for
app compat here.
3:37
We'll talk a little bit more
about this later, okay?
3:40
Let's click Finish.
3:42
Okay, once we get to this screen,
our project is ready.
3:47
We can see down here there's a message
that our gradle build finished.
3:50
Now before we continue,
I wanna show you one thing.
3:53
Expand this gradle scripts section
here on the left, and then double
3:56
click on the second build.gradle file, the
one that has module:app shown after it.
4:00
We haven't talked much yet about Gradle.
4:04
But that's the build system that sets
a bunch of configuration parameters for
4:07
our projects.
4:11
At some point, you will likely
need to make changes to this file
4:12
as new versions of Android and
Tools are released.
4:15
But for now, I just want to give you
a quick tour of what we see here.
4:17
Notice that there are a few different
settings about SDK versions.
4:20
Up here, we have the compile
SDK version and it's set to 25,
4:23
which is the latest version I currently
have installed on my computer.
4:27
This is the version of the SDK that
you have installed that's used to
4:31
compile your app.
4:34
But it can still run on
older versions of the SDK,
4:35
down to the minimum which we see here.
4:38
And here we see the number 16 which is
what we selected in our project wizard.
4:41
Then we have the target SDK
version which is often the same
4:45
as the compile SDK version.
4:48
This represents the SDK which
we've tested our app against, and
4:50
if it's set to something different,
4:53
it may enable compatibility
behaviors automatically for us.
4:55
So anyhow, if you need to change any of
these after you first create the project
4:58
like when a new version of the SDK is
available, you can come in here and
5:01
change the values directly.
5:05
Now if you're wondering how to get all
these different versions of the SDK,
5:07
you can use the SDK Manager.
5:10
Which is this little icon here, with the
arrow pointing into the Android's head.
5:12
So if we click on that,
5:17
it will show what is installed in
our version of Android Studio.
5:18
This is where we can come and download
newer versions as they become available,
5:22
although Android Studio
will also prompt us.
5:26
Okay, I'm going to close this with Okay,
and close this gradle file,
5:28
and we're back in our app,
and we're ready to continue.
5:32
Let's take a short break,
and then we'll start coding.
5:35
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