Android Hello World Example

Android is now one of the most popular smartphone/mobile operating system in the world. This tutorial will help you on creating your first android application (Hello World application) using Eclipse IDE and Android Development Tools (ADT) and also Android Virtual Device (AVD) or your real android device to run the application.

Tools used in this tutorial:
1. JDK 1.6
2. Eclipse IDE
3. Android SDK

Note
I suggest you to use ADT Bundle so installing ADT plugin in Eclipse is not required. You can download it here ADT Bundle

1. Create Android Project

Select File–>New–>Other–>Android Application Project and click Next Button

2. Configure Project Settings

Enter your Application Name, Project Name and Package Name. Select Minimum Required SDK, the lowest version of Android that the application supports. Target SDK, the highest version of Android. Compile With, android version which the application will be compiled with. And Theme. If you are not sure, just leave it as it is. Click Next.

Click Next again

3. Configure Launcher Icon

Create you launcher icon as you want or as you requirements need. In this tutorial i have changed few default settings.

4. Create Activity

Choose an activity BlankActivty template and click Next. An activity is a single, focused thing that the user can do. Almost all activities interact with the user, so the Activity class takes care of creating a window for you in which you can place your UI.

Enter Activity Name and click Finish

5. Project Structure

Here is the project structure generated by the IDE

the layout file (activity_hello.xml) is shown in the Graphical Layout mode as follow

6. Code

Open string.xml and there is string property with name hello_world which contains value as ‘Hello world!’ that is used by TextView to be shown in our application.

file : string.xml

<resources>

    <string name="app_name">HelloWorld</string>
    <string name="action_settings">Settings</string>
    <string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>

</resources>

<string name="app_name">HelloWorld</string>

<string name="action_settings">Settings</string>

<string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>

</resources>

Open activity_hello.xml and you should see the element. Take a look at “android:text=”@string/hello_world”. The “@string/hello_world” refers to “Hello world!” in string.xml

file : activity_hello.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/hello_world" />
</RelativeLayout>

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="match_parent"

android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

tools:context=".MainActivity" >

<TextView

android:id="@+id/textView1"

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="@string/hello_world" />

</RelativeLayout>

And here’s our activity

file : MainActivity.java

package com.agung.android;
 
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;
 
public class HelloActivity extends Activity {
 
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_hello);
    }
 
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_hello, menu);
        return true;
    }    
}

package com.agung.android;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.view.Menu;

public class HelloActivity extends Activity {

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_hello);

}

@Override

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.

getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_hello, menu);

return true;

}

We don’t need to change any code yet.

7. Run Configuration

Right click on the project and select Run As–>Run Configurations. If there is no AVD already created, create it by click Manager

Click New

Configure AVD as you wish or follow like below

8. Run Application

Right click on the project and select Run As–>Android Application

9. Running Program

Eclipse will running AVD and our application should be there.

Click on Hello World icon, and here’s what our application looks like, very basic application

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3 thoughts on “Android Hello World Example”

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Vega Pradana Rachim says:

April 3, 2013 at 10:05 am

ahh. thank you gan :D. its work.. tambah lg dong tutorialnya. hhee.. btw td untuk MainActivity.java atau string.xml gt, sempet bingung tmpatny dimana. mgkn bisa diperjelas lg nntinya

1. Agung Setiawan says:
  
  April 3, 2013 at 10:19 am
  
  😀
  iya ntar nyusul tutorial yang lain hehe
  
  MainActivity.java sama strings.xml itu bawaan hasil generate Eclipse pas pertama bikin project
  MainActivity.java bisa ditemukan di src/nama_paket/MainActivity.Java (pada contoh diatas nama_paket-nya com.agung.helloworld
  Sedangkan strings.xml bisa dilihat di res/values/strings.xml

Agung Setiawan

Software Engineer