JDK Installation

So, I do not have Java installed. I go to the official website, http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html, to get the latest version of it. I download JDK for MAC OS X and install it. You should pay attention that it should be JDK, not JRE. Only JDK provides the required functionality to build our Android application. After JDK installation let's run this command and check whether Java has been successfully installed:

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_25"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_25-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.25-b02, mixed mode)

OK! We have successfully installed the JDK.

Android SDK installation

Let's try to add the Android platform in our application using the Cordova CLI again:

$ cordova platform add android
Creating android project...
Error: Please install Android target "android-19".
Hint: Run "android" from your command-line to open the SDK manager.

Apparently, we have not installed all the necessary packages for development under Android 4.4.2 (API 19) yet. Open the Android SDK Manager using the android console command. Select Android 4.4.2 (API 19) and press Install. The installation process should look like this:

You also need to install all the following packages in order to make sure that they all run smoothly:

For Cordova command-line tools to work, or the CLI that is based upon them, we need to include the SDK's tools and platform-tools directories in our path. On a Mac, I use a text editor to create or modify the ~/.bash_profile file, adding a line such as the following one:

export PATH=${PATH}:/Development/adt-bundle/sdk/platform-tools:/Development/adt-bundle/sdk/tools

You can see the path to your Android SDK in the SDK Manager window. You can launch it by going to Android Studio | Tools | Android | SDK Manager.

Here, in the top-left corner, you can see the SDK Path value. It is what we included in the path.

Once all the required packages are installed let's try to add the Android platform again:

$ cordova platform add android
Creating android project...
Creating Cordova project for the Android platform:
 Path: platforms/android
 Package: com.cybind.travelly
 Name: Travelly
 Android target: android-19
Copying template files...
Project successfully created.

And we have successfully done it! Now, in our platforms directory, we got the android subfolder. In the plugins folder, there appeared a new file named android.json.

Android Studio installation

To get started, go to https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html and download Android Studio (with the Android SDK for Mac):

Once downloaded, install it using the following steps:

There will be one step where we need to add a path to the JDK. In my case, it looks like this:

On the license agreement screen, we will accept all the points:

It will take some time after that, and eventually, we will see the successful installation screen:

Opening the project in Android Studio

Now, let's try to open our Android project in Android Studio by following these steps:

Now, we can build and run the Android application directly from Android Studio.

We can add the Android emulator device now.

Adding an Android emulator

Open the terminal and enter the following command:

$ android avd

In the opened window, click on Create. In the window that appears, enter the parameters of the emulator. In my case, it looks like this:

I entered the name of the device, selected the Nexus 4 (4.7", 768 x 1280: xhdpi) device, and targeted Android 4.4.2 - API Level 19.

After that, I clicked on the OK button. We successfully added the emulator.

Go back to the main window of Eclipse, highlight the project, and click on the Run button. As a result, we see our project running in the Android emulator:

So, we can run our application in the emulator from the console with this command:

$ cordova emulate android

To run the application on the device, we only need to connect it to our computer and run this command:

$ cordova run android

That's all! We have completed the configuration of our project to run on iOS and Android emulators and devices. Now, let's discuss some of the best development practices for PhoneGap applications.