The most amazing thing about any IDE is that it provides all the required files when we create any project in any platform. The case is the same for Android & Eclipse i.e. “Create New Project” will do the same here. Let’s have a look how we can play with it.

To create a new project in Eclipse, follow these steps:

Creating new Android Project in Eclipse

  1. Under File menu, select New & in that select New Android Project or you can click the icon for creating the Android Project directly from toolbar.

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  1. Provide a project name.

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  1. Then you will get the option to choose the location for the project source code. As its a new project,
    you can mark the Create New Project in Workspace radio button. [If you want to put the project files at a particular location other than the default, you can avoid checking the Use Default Location check box and now you can browse to the folder you want to choose.]

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  1. Now it will ask for selecting a build target for application.
    • For most of the applications, you will select the version of Android which is most appropriate for the Android devices used by target users.
    • The required support of API is to be considered as well.
    • If you wish to include any functionality related to Google (Google Maps, Google Ad-Mob etc…) then it is recommended to use Google APIs version for your target platform. Usually I prefer the Android 2.3 (API level 9) build target for most of my applications.
  2. Provide the application name. Now this name will be seen by user in the Project Explorer view in Eclipse
  3. Provide package name. The package name must be given such a way that it should follow standard package namespace conventions for Java.
    • Few examples of package name
      1) com.android.test
      2) com.freefeast.demo
      3) com.service.controller
  4. If you want to have a default Activity then you can check Create Activity check box, now this will create a default launch Activity class for the application.FreeFeast Note : What is an Activity?
    An activity is one of the core component of  Android. An activity represents a certain task which an application is suppose to do. It is related to a screen in the application. Suppose your project has a single activity then you can say it has a single screen & vice versa.Capture
  5. Now an important thing to make sure here is that use Min SDK Version. It should be set to the API level of build target by default (e.g. Android 2.3 is API level 9). It may vary depending upon the demand of lowest version support.If older version is to be supported then it can go upto 8 or lesser than that.[Again depending upon the requirement of an application]
  6. Hit the Next button.
  7. Android project wizard provides the option for creating test project in correspondence with your application. We will have a look at it afterward. For now you can skip it.
  8. Click the Finish button.