Debugging Android Apps & Manifests in Eclipse

Software Engineering Large Practical

Debugging Android Applications,
working with Android Virtual Devices,
and Manifests

Stephen Gilmore

School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

October 10th, 2012

Stephen Gilmore Software Engineering Large Practical

Eclipse DDMS perspective
The Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS) is a debugging tool for
Android. It provides port-forwarding services and screen capture on
the device. It provides information about process, threads and
heap usage. It contains the logcat console which allows us to see
diagnostic error messages. It allows the developer to simulate the
eﬀect of an incoming call or SMS, or to simulate setting the
phone’s location.


DDMS perspective in Eclipse

.05.14.png


Set your location


LogCat — a log of events on the phone


File Explorer — see ﬁles on the phone

.07.32.png


Devices — see processes in the emulator

.10.14.png


Allocation tracker

.10.28.png


Creating an Android Virtual Device
An Android Virtual Device (AVD) is an emulator conﬁguration
which allows the developer to replicate the eﬀect of having an
actual Android device such as a phone or a tablet. The AVD allows
you to specify hardware and software settings which will be
emulated by the Android Emulator. When creating a new AVD you
specify the target API (i.e. a particular version of Android).


Creating an emulator


Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager


Create a new AVD (Click New...)


Create new Android Virtual Device

.21.54.png


Starting the emulator
Having deﬁned the type of AVD that we are interested in, we can
start one running and investigate the functions of our virtual
device.


Start the new AVD

.22.07.png


Launch Options

.22.18.png


Emulator launches ...

.23.31.png


Emulator home page is displayed

.03.13.png


Click to display options

.03.14.png


Functions of the phone

.03.57.png


Developer tools
There are some tools on the device which are speciﬁcally there to
help developers (API Demos and Dev Tools). The developer tools
allow us to see (for example) processes which are running on the
phone.


Useful functions

.11.56.png


Developer Tools

.04.23.png


Running processes

.05.16.png


API demos
There are some tools on the device which are speciﬁcally there to
help developers (API Demos and Dev Tools). Using these we can
learn about the Android API features such as auto-completion.


API demos

.05.43.png


API demos

.06.09.png


API demos

.06.17.png


Auto-complete contacts

.09.29.png


Manifest files
Every Android application must have an AndroidManifest.xml
file (with precisely that name) in its root directory. The manifest
presents essential information about the application to the Android
system, including information about intents which are messages
sent to activities, services and broadcast receivers. The manifest
also specifies permissions which the application requests (such as
the permission to connect to paired Bluetooth devices) and
libraries that it needs.


Manifest ﬁles


The manifest editor


Adding extras

.50.09.png


Labels and icons


Application nodes and intents

.50.50.png


Attributes for an action


Add permissions


Add instrumentation


Source code view


Source code tab

.51.48.2.png


Resources and strings
An Android application may need resources such as image ﬁles and
strings. A string resource provides text strings for the application
with optional text styling and formatting.


Resources and strings


A String resource, app name


Managing string resources


Drawable resources


Managing drawable resources


Contents of app notes.png


The icon in the launcher view


Editing string resources
String resources can be edited using the Android Resources editor.


Application nodes


Browsing


Editing strings


Updating a string


Text in the XML view


Updating a string in the Resources view


The XML text is updated automatically


Getting it wrong: editing the XML


The bug shows up in the resources view


Oh dear


Android Eclipse issues
Working with hand-crafted and automatically-generated Java ﬁles
can be confusing. In particular we focus on errors involving the
automatically-generated R.java ﬁle.


Oh no, Java problems . . .


“Layout cannot be resolved . . . ”


R.java is generated so clean the project?


No good. Delete R.java and try again?


R.java is regenerated but errors remain


Refresh the view?


No good. What now?


Close the project and reopen it?


Reopening the project. Praying . . .


Didn’t work :-( but look at this . . .


Moving the folder ﬁxes the problem :-)


Debugging Android Apps & Manifests in Eclipse

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