Throughout the codelab, we'll use Android Studio, an open-source IDE built for Android by Google, it is based on IntelliJ IDEA. The IDE comes with coding assistance tools to help write Java code, and offers an integrated visual editor with a layout designer and a large number of bundled static code analysis tools (Lint) to help build quality apps. Finally it's also integrated with Gradle to enable one build across dev environment (IDE, command line, continuous integration server, etc).
Android Studio reached 1.0 in December 2014 and has been tested for what we're trying to do in this lab. Note we'll also be using Java 7 as the target Java SDK for both the Android application and the App Engine Endpoint backend.
This IDE will also allow you to :
- Create Google App Engine backends right from Android Studio
- Generate Java-specific bindings for use in our Android application
- Benefit from as-you-type validations and quick-fixes when defining the backend API
- Use App Engine-specific Gradle tooling that allows for a unified client/backend build
If you're a fan or dark themes, you may be interested to know that some of the Android Studio screenshots in this codelab have been generated with the built-in "Darcula" theme :
Preferences > IDE Settings > Appearance > Theme > Darcula