Setting up an Environment on the Android

The first step towards creating a PhoneGap application is to setup a mobile development environment. We will begin with Android because the Android application development is in Java, which is based on Eclipse, and supports almost all features of PhoneGap.

You will need to download and install the following prerequisites for Android:

1. JDK 1.6+
2. Eclipse 3.4 to 3.6
3. Android SDK with an Android 2.2 platform
4. Android ADT plugin for Eclipse
5. Android AVD for Android 2.2
6. PhoneGap SDK 1.1.0 for Android

Since Android is programmed in Java, we need JDK 1.6+ and Eclipse 3.4+. We will then install Android SDK. The Android SDK is a generic SDK and does not come with support for any platform. A platform is an OS version, for example 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Ginger Bread, and 3.0 Honeycomb. These platforms need to be downloaded in order to create, build, and run Android projects. This plugin is called the Android ADT Plugin.