42 CHAPTER 2: Configuring Your Android App Development System
This will automatically launch both the AVD emulator as well as your Android application running
on that AVD emulator on your workstation’s desktop, so that you can test your app’s XML markup
logic, UI design, new media assets, and your Java programming logic. You will be learning all about
XML in Chapter 4, Java in Chapter 5, UI in Chapters 6, 7 and 8, and new media assets in Chapters 9
through 12. The rest of the book (Chapters 13 through 17) will cover more advanced topics, relating
to databases, background processing, and developing for Android 5, smartwatches and appliances.
In the next section, we will take a detailed look at how to create an AVD emulator definition using the
Android Virtual Device Manager. This is located on the Window menu, just below the SDK Manager.
Creating AVDs: Android Virtual Device Manager
In addition to the Android SDK Manager, the other important menu command, which is also located
under the Window menu in Eclipse, will access the Android Virtual Device Manager and its collection
of dialogs. Access this using the Window ➤ Android Virtual Device Manager menu sequence.
This menu sequence, shown in Figure 2-11, will open up a dialog from which you can access several
other related dialogs, all of which will be important for you to master as you learn the proper work
flow for creating an AVD emulator completely from scratch.
Figure 2-11. Use the Window ➤ Android Virtual Device Manager to launch a collection of dialogs for AVD creation
Once you select this menu sequence, the Android Virtual Device Manager, which can be seen in
Figure 2-12, will open. As you can see, there is a New button to create the new AVD definition, and
once this is done, buttons will be enabled to Edit (Editing), Delete (Removing), Repair (Fixing), as
well as Detail (specifications) and Start (launching) the selected AVD. Using the Refresh button will
update the list if any new AVD definitions have been added since the list was last refreshed.