Debugging. Docand Developer tools

Developer tools is a comprehensive guide for developers working with Android application development. It covers a wide range of topics, from setting up your development environment to deploying and publishing your apps. The book is packed with information and includes a print-on-demand service to keep it up-to-date with the latest information.

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Debugging

38. Debugging

Content from developer.android.com/tools/debugging/index.html through their Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license

The Android SDK provides most of the tools that you need to debug your applications. You need a

JDWP-compliant debugger if you want to be able

In this section

• Debugging Environment to do things such as step through code, view variable values, and pause execution of an application. If you are using Eclipse, a JDWPcompliant debugger is already included and there

• Additional Debugging Tools

• Debugging Tips is no setup required. If you are using another IDE, you can use the debugger that comes with it and attach the debugger to a special port so it can communicate with the application VMs on your devices. The main components that comprise a typical Android debugging environment are: adb adb acts as a middleman between a device and your development system. It provides various device management capabilities, including moving and syncing files to the emulator, running a

UNIX shell on the device or emulator, and providing a general means to communicate with connected emulators and devices.

Dalvik Debug Monitor Server

DDMS is a graphical program that communicates with your devices through adb . DDMS can capture screenshots, gather thread and stack information, spoof incoming calls and SMS messages, and has many other features.

Device or Android Virtual Device

Your application must run in a device or in an AVD so that it can be debugged. An adb device daemon runs on the device or emulator and provides a means for the adb host daemon to communicate with the device or emulator.

JDWP debugger

The Dalvik VM (Virtual Machine) supports the JDWP protocol to allow debuggers to attach to a

VM. Each application runs in a VM and exposes a unique port that you can attach a debugger to via DDMS. If you want to debug multiple applications, attaching to each port might become tedious, so DDMS provides a port forwarding feature that can forward a specific VM's debugging port to port 8700. You can switch freely from application to application by highlighting it in the

Devices tab of DDMS. DDMS forwards the appropriate port to port 8700. Most modern Java IDEs include a JDWP debugger, or you can use a command line debugger such as jdb .

Debugging Environment

Figure 1 shows how the various debugging tools work together in a typical debugging environment.

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Key features

Provides a professional-grade development environment for building Android apps.
Offers a full Java IDE with advanced features for building, testing, debugging, and packaging.
Supports graphical UI builders to create rich Android UI with drag and drop.
Enables on-device developer options for easier debugging and testing.
Includes powerful debugging features, including a Java debugger, memory analysis, performance profiling, and OpenGL ES tracing.
Supports native development with C/C++ for broader compatibility.
Offers a fully instrumented, scriptable test environment with integrated reports.
Provides comprehensive documentation for various Android SDK tools and components.
Includes information on publishing and releasing your apps to users.
Offers support for different platforms and IDEs.

Frequently asked questions

The Developer tools provide a professional-grade development environment, a full Java IDE with advanced features, graphical UI builders, on-device developer options, powerful debugging capabilities, native development support, a scriptable test environment, a comprehensive documentation for Android SDK tools, and information on publishing and releasing apps. The tools offer support for multiple platforms and IDEs.

The ADT Bundle includes everything you need to start developing apps. Unpack the ZIP file and save it to an appropriate location. Then, open the adt-bundle-<os_platform>/eclipse/ directory and launch eclipse. The IDE is already loaded with the Android Developer Tools plugin and the SDK is ready to use.

The system requirements for the Developer tools vary depending on the platform you're using. The document lists the requirements for different platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

The ADT Bundle includes everything you need to start developing apps, including Eclipse IDE with built-in ADT and the Android SDK. The SDK Tools package is not the complete SDK environment and includes only the core SDK tools, which you can use to download other SDK packages.