CHAPTER 2: Configuring Your Android App Development System 39You may also notice on the right in Figure 2-7 that there is a default check mark that Eclipse has
selected for you next to the Google USB Driver. This driver needs to be updated to a newer version,
and to alert you to this, the Android SDK Manager has placed a check mark next to this software
utility, in this case, a USB hardware driver. I am going to leave this check mark selected so that you
can see the work process for “pulling” an Android component upgrade over to your Eclipse ADT
configuration from the Google Android software repository.
You will also use this Android SDK Manager dialog to install any of the extras shown in Figure 2-7,
including the latest Android SDK documentation, specialized emulators, earlier Android OS (called
API or Level) versions, as well as external Google Cloud function libraries.
Let’s do this now, and place your checkmarks in any of the other unchecked boxes next to functions
you might need for your Android application. For instance, if you were going to create a messaging
application, you would select the Google Cloud Messaging for Android Library option, in addition to
the Google USB Driver, which is shown selected in Figure 2-7 on the right side of the screen.
Once you’ve selected the features you need, beyond the selections that the Android SDK will make
for you automatically that it knows that you will need, then click on the Install (number selected)
packages button.
It is important to note that you should not install any features or Android API libraries that you do
not currently need for your currently open Android development project, as these downloads can
be quite massive, and these APIs also get updated quite frequently. For this reason, you should
download only those features, emulators, system images, and API libraries that you intend to use in
the application development environment for the current project.
Later, you can add in older Android version API libraries, but only if and when you will need to utilize
them to develop for targeted devices that only run these older versions of Android and need custom
development. An example of this is the original Kindle Fire, which runs Android 2.3.7 API Level 10.
The Android Support Library may not provide as “tight” a backward-compatibility result as simply
using the API Level 10 API to create applications specifically for the Amazon Kindle Fire product line.
Once you click on the Install 1 package button, you’ll be given the Choose Packages to Install
dialog, which is shown in Figure 2-8, and which allows you to accept the license terms and conditions
so that the Android software repository can (is willing to) install the latest USB driver revision (in this
case, it is version 8, but will probably be a later version by the time this book is published).