Installing Google’s App Inventor SDK…
Mar 5, 2011 Android, Computer Programming
Have you ever come back home on a Friday night and after spending a great afternoon with your family, having a hearty dinner and finishing up washing dishes, got to have some extra energy to do something you have been neglecting for quite a few months?
Well, today it was one of those for me and decidedly got to install Google’s “App Inventor” software development kit in my trusty Ubuntu box. So here you are the summary and early comments about the tool installation experience.
First, I opened up an email from “App Inventor Team” which I had been letting accumulate electronic dust at the bottom of my “gmail” account. Yeap, having a Google’s account ID is a mandatory step to get access to any Google’s application and this one is not an exception. In my case I am using my gmail’s account which does the trick for me.
the email highlights Just three easy steps to have “App Inventor” SDK installed and be ready to start using it to create Android applications and run them directly over your phone or emulator in a snap, or at least that is Google’s promise.
- Set up your phone and computer.
- Connect your phone to your computer.
- Complete the basic tutorials.
And the story goes like this …
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Well, lucky me. Who would wonder I will have Sun’s Java SDK already installed in my Ubuntu Box so nothing to do here so seems like I am all setup for next step. No, it was not geek’s luck having the latest version of Java SDK installed is a common developers tool that I am not a shame to disclose of. I do really prefer Ruby for fun projects but Java is the one of the few essentials I count on from time to time so today I am happy about it. |
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Next is to install “App Inventor” SDK package. This is a routine thing for any Linux developer so no to much to comment. Download your Debian package, execute sudo –install …., verify the files downloaded and that is it. Next … |
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Hey, this is another freebie for me. I was supposed to have my trusty Nexus One smart-phone hardware setup for Android’s development and debugging. What a geek of me I have this step done long time ago but in case you have not, just go ahead and follow “Set up your Android phone” instructions from the the authoritative source. |
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Ok, we need to double check that our HW is in the correct state. So make sure you get your Android’s smart-phone in USB debugging ready mode. Settings->Applications->Development->USB Debugging “Check”. We are good now. |
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There is always to sides of the equation and in this case your Ubuntu box should also acknowledge that your device is on-line. The way to do this is simple if you had Eclipse’s Android development plug-in already installed which is my case, strange is not it.If it is not the case for you then just go ahead and do it now. It will be very useful next whenever you get ready to build Android’s Marketable applications. Android’s SDK |
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Ok, seems like we are ready for creating our first “App Inventor” application. The very first tutorial comes with a kitty cat picture, a “Meow” sound file and a video that explains what to do to achieve this first milestone! good seems to be easy.Once all is setup the last step is to open the following URL and that is it. http://appinventor.googlelabs.com |
After our hard work …
Wow, Now I am tired and ready to go to bed after working a full 60 minutes getting my “App Inventor” development environment ready and writing this article. Tomorrow it will be harder due I need to think about what to do after finishing with the kitty cat example app but that will be a topic for a future blog entry.
