Question

i m starting (or at least trying to) developing android application(s) and I m using eclipse for it along the android sdk.

Now I m wondering if there’s a faster way to “test” and tryout something newly writen in the code than starting it in the emulator?

I’m wondering because I m running on 8gb ram and q9550 (quadcore) and it takes some time (let’s say 20secs) to upload and start the apk and now

I’m wondering if this really is the only way to test since it requires huge amount of time, especially when I’m trying something new which doesn’t work and thus I’m always gotta run it like this let’s say like 20 times until I figure out what’s wrong with my code…

Answer 1

In the eclipse toolkit, you have the option to run it directly on a device. It’s rather quick to do so.

Enable USB debugging as well as installation of apk from sources other than the market. Then assuming you have already setup the required drivers/settings to connect to your phone via ADB, you should be able to run it on the device and debug. In the run dialog, it will list all available devices and you can simply select the one you want to use.

If you already have a run entry (i.e. you’ve already run your application),

• select your project
• click Run -> Run Configuration

You should be in your application run configuration (on the left under Android Application -> Your_App).

In the Target tab, you should be able to select your device. It will likely already be in “Automatically pick compatible device…”. On my setup, it will run directly on my phone if it’s the only available device. You can select Always prompt to pick device which will let you choose every time.

Eclipse plugin (ADT) information: http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adt.html

Information about setting up your device: http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html