Installing the Eclipse Plugin

Android offers a custom plugin for the Eclipse IDE, called Android Development Tools (ADT). This plugin provides a powerful, integrated environment in which to develop Android apps. It extends the capabilities of Eclipse to let you quickly set up new Android projects, build an app UI, debug your app, and export signed (or unsigned) app packages (APKs) for distribution.

If you need to install Eclipse, you can download it from eclipse.org/downloads/.

Note: If you prefer to work in a different IDE, you do not need to install Eclipse or ADT. Instead, you can directly use the SDK tools to build and debug your application.

Download the ADT Plugin

  1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software.
  2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
  3. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter "ADT Plugin" for the Name and the following URL for the Location:
    https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

    Note: The Android Developer Tools update site requires a secure connection. Make sure the update site URL you enter starts with HTTPS.

  4. Click OK.
  5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
  6. In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
  7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.

    If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can't be established, click OK.

  8. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Configure the ADT Plugin

Once Eclipse restarts, you must specify the location of your Android SDK directory:

  1. In the "Welcome to Android Development" window that appears, select Use existing SDKs.
  2. Browse and select the location of the Android SDK directory you recently downloaded and unpacked.
  3. Click Next.

Your Eclipse IDE is now set up to develop Android apps, but you need to add the latest SDK platform tools and an Android platform to your environment. To get these packages for your SDK, continue to Adding Platforms and Packages.

Download the ADT Translation Manager Plugin

ADT Translation Manager Plugin is an Android SDK Tools plugin that helps you work with strings that you are localizing. It's designed to work with the translation services built into the Google Play Developer Console that let you quickly find and purchase translations of your app from a list of pre-qualified vendors.

The plugin simplifies the management of strings during translation. It lets you easily export your default strings and upload them directly to the Developer Console, from which you can get estimates or purchase translations. When your translations are ready, the plugin lets you quickly download and import them back into your project. During import, it moves all of the translated resources into the correct locations under res/values, so that localization works instantly.

For more information about translation services in Google Play, see Purchase professional translations through the Developer Console.

To install the ADT Translation Manager Plugin follow these steps:

  1. Install the ADT Plugin, as described above.
  2. In Eclipse, select Help > Install New Software.
  3. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
  4. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter a repository name for the Name and the following URL for the Location:
    https://dl.google.com/alt/
  5. Click OK.
  6. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Android Developer Tools - Translation Manager and click Next.
  7. In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
  8. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.

    If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can't be established, click OK.

  9. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Installation notes

  • The full ADT Plugin must be installed in your Eclipse environment before you install the ADT Translation Manager Plugin.
  • ADT Translation Manager Plugin is designed for use with the translation services offered through the Google Play Developer Console. It is not designed for general purpose import/export of strings.
  • To use the plugin, you must set up a Developer Console account.
  • Currently, translation services are available through the Developer Console only as part of a pilot program. To use the plugin, you must first sign up for the pilot program by visiting the Developer Console.
  • If you downloaded ADT as part of the SDK ADT bundle, you may encounter an error when attempting to download the ADT Translation Manager Plugin from the remote repository. In that case, open the Install New Software, uncheck "Contact all update sites during install to find required software" at the bottom and try again.

Troubleshooting ADT Installation

If you are having trouble downloading the ADT plugin after following the steps above and you are behind a firewall (such as a corporate firewall), make sure that you have properly configured your proxy settings in Eclipse. In Eclipse, you can configure proxy information from the main Eclipse menu in Window (on Mac OS X, Eclipse) > Preferences > General > Network Connections.

If you are still unable to use Eclipse to download the ADT plugin as a remote update site, you can download the ADT zip file to your local machine and manually install it:

  1. Download the ADT Plugin zip file (do not unpack it):
    Package Size MD5 Checksum
    ADT-22.6.3.zip 14590813 bytes 3982259fd2cc81e53bbbe05dcd6529a7
  2. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software.
  3. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
  4. In the Add Repository dialog, click Archive.
  5. Select the downloaded ADT-22.6.3.zip file and click OK.
  6. Enter "ADT Plugin" for the name and click OK.
  7. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
  8. In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
  9. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.

    If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can't be established, click OK.

  10. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

To update your plugin once you've installed using the zip file, you will have to follow these steps again instead of the default update instructions.

Other install errors

Note that there are features of ADT that require some optional Eclipse packages (for example, WST). If you encounter an error when installing ADT, your Eclipse installion might not include these packages. For information about how to quickly add the necessary packages to your Eclipse installation, see the troubleshooting topic ADT Installation Error: "requires plug-in org.eclipse.wst.sse.ui".

For Linux users

If you encounter this error when installing the ADT Plugin for Eclipse:

An error occurred during provisioning.
Cannot connect to keystore.
JKS

...then your development machine lacks a suitable Java VM. Installing Sun Java 6 will resolve this issue and you can then reinstall the ADT Plugin.