Installing the ADT Plug-in

Install the developer tools plug-in by the following steps:

Select Help ➪ Software Updates ➪ Find and Install … from within Eclipse.

In the resulting dialog box, choose Search for new features to install.

Select New Remote Site, and enter the following address into the dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-2:

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

4. The new site you entered should now be checked. Click Finish.

Eclipse will now download the plug-in. When it’s finished, select Android Plugin ➪ Developer Tools from the resulting Search Results dialog box, and click Next.

Read and then Accept the terms of the license agreement, and click Next and then Finish. As the ADT plug-in is not signed, you’ll be prompted before the installation continues.

When complete, you’ll have to restart Eclipse and update the ADT preferences. Restart and select Window ➪ Preferences … (or Eclipse ➪ Preferences for the Mac OS).

Then select Android from the left panel.

Click Browse …, and navigate to the folder into which you unzipped the Android SDK, as shown in Figure 2-3; then click Apply and OK.

If you download a new version of the SDK and place it in a different location, you will need to update this preference to reflect the SDK with which the ADT should be building.

Updating the Plug-in

As the Android SDK matures, there are likely to be frequent updates to the ADT plug-in. In most cases, to update your plug-in, you simply:

Navigate to Help ➪ Software Updates ➪ Find and Install …

Select Search for updates of the currently installed features, and click Finish …

If there are any ADT updates available, they will be presented. Simply select them and choose Install.

Sometimes a plug-in upgrade is so significant that the dynamic update mechanism can’t be used. In those cases, you may have to remove the previous plug-in completely before installing the newer version as described in the previous section.