docs/html/preview/setup-sdk.jd

page.title=Set Up to Develop for Android N
meta.keywords="preview", "android"
page.tags="preview", "developer preview"
page.image=images/cards/card-n-sdk_2x.png

@jd:body


<div id="qv-wrapper">
  <div id="qv">
<ol>
  <li><a href="#get-as13">Get Android Studio 2.1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#get-sdk">Get the Android N SDK</a></li>
  <li><a href="#java8">Get the Java 8 JDK and JRE</a></li>
  <li><a href="#create-update">Update or Create a Project</a></li>
  <li><a href="#next">Next Steps</a></li>
</ol>
  </div>
</div>

<p>
To develop apps for Android using new APIs in Android N and new language
features of Java 8, you need to set up Android Studio 2.1 (preview) as described
on this page.</p>

<p>If you instead want to simply test your app's forward-compatibility on the
Android N system image, you can instead follow the guide to <a
href="{@docRoot}preview/download.html">Test on an Android N Device</a>.</p>


<h2 id="get-as13">Get Android Studio 2.1 (preview)</h2>

<p>Developing for the Android N platform requires Java 8 and a new
compiler toolchain called JACK, which is currently supported only in
Android Studio 2.1.
</p>

<iframe width="400" height="225" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SBbWGxXCMqQ?autohide=1&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;"></iframe>

<p>Android Studio 2.1 is currently available as a preview in the canary
release channel. If you already
have Android Studio and don't want to update to the canary channel, you can
download Android Studio 2.1 as a separate installation and use it
with Android N, leaving your primary Android Studio environment
unaffected.</p>

<p>To download Android Studio 2.1 as a separate installation, follow these
steps (or if you want to receive Android Studio 2.1 as an update to your
existing installation, skip to step 4):</p>

<ol>
  <li>Edit the name of your
  existing Android Studio installation and append the version number. This way,
  when you install the new version, it will not override the existing one.</li>
  <li>Download the appropriate ZIP file for your operating system from the
    <a href="http://tools.android.com/download/studio/canary/latest"
    >canary channel download page</a>.
  </li>
  <li>Unzip the package and move the Android Studio 2.1 contents to the
    appropriate location for applications on your system, then launch it.</li>
  <li>Open the Settings dialog
    (<strong>File &gt; Settings</strong> on Windows/Linux, or
    <strong>Android Studio &gt; Preferences</strong> on Mac). In the left
    panel, select <strong>Appearance &amp; Behavior &gt; System Settings &gt;
    Updates</strong>.
  </li>
  <li>On the Updates panel, select the <strong>Automatically
    check updates for</strong> check box and select
    <strong>Canary Channel</strong> from the drop-down list.
  </li>
</ol>

<p>Keep this settings window open for the next step.</p>


<h2 id="get-sdk">Get the N Preview SDK</h2>

<p>Now add the N Preview SDK to your Android Studio 2.1 development
  environment as follows:</p>

<ol>
  <li>While still viewing the Updates panel from the previous
  procedure, select the <strong>Automatically
    check updates for Android SDK</strong> check box and select
    <strong>Preview Channel</strong> from the drop-down list.
  </li>
  <li>Click <strong>Check Now</strong>.</li>

  <li>In the left panel, select <strong>Appearance &amp; Behavior &gt;
  System Settings &gt; Android SDK</strong>.

  <li>Click the <strong>SDK Platforms</strong> tab, then select the
  <strong>Android N Preview</strong> check box.</li>

  <li>Click the <strong>SDK Tools</strong> tab, then select the
    <strong>Android SDK Build Tools</strong>, <strong>Android SDK
    Platform-Tools</strong>, and <strong>Android SDK Tools</strong> check
    boxes.
  </li>

  <li>Click <strong>OK</strong>, then accept the licensing
    agreements for any packages that need to be installed.
  </li>
</ol>

<p>In addition to these preview components, you should download the
N Preview developer docs from the following table. This is an offline version
of the developer.android.com web site, except it includes the updated
API reference for the Android N APIs and an API difference report.</p>

<table id="docs-dl">
  <tr>
    <th scope="col">Documentation</th>
    <th scope="col">Checksums</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap">
    <a href="{@docRoot}shareables/preview/n-preview-1-docs.zip"
      >n-preview-1-docs.zip</a></td>
    <td width="100%">
      MD5: 4ab33ccbe698f46f125cc5b807cf9c2f<br>
      SHA-1: 6a3880b3ccd19614daae5a4d0698ea6ae11c20a5
    </td>
  </tr>
<table>



<h2 id="java8">Get the Java 8 JDK and JRE</h2>

<p>
  The Java 8 Development Kit (JDK) is required to develop apps with Android
  N, and the Java 8 Runtime Environment (JRE) is required to run some
  tools included in Android Studio 2.1. So, if you don't have the latest
  version of each already, download JDK 8 and download JRE 8 now.</p>

<p>With Java 8 installed, set the JDK version in Android Studio as follows:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Open an Android project in Android Studio, then open the
    Project Structure dialog by selecting <strong>File &gt;
        Project Structure</strong>.
   </li>
   <li>In the left panel of the dialog, click <strong>SDK Location</strong>.
   </li>
   <li>In the <strong>JDK Location</strong> field, enter the location of the
    Java 8 JDK, then click <strong>OK</strong>.
   </li>
</ol>


<h2 id="create-update">Update or Create a Project</h2>

<p>
  To use the Android N APIs, your project must be configured appropriately.
</p>


<h3 id="update">Update an existing project</h3>

<p>Open the
  <code>build.gradle</code> file for your module and update the values as
  follows:
</p>

<pre>
android {
  compileSdkVersion <strong>'android-N'</strong>
  buildToolsVersion <strong>24.0.0</strong>
  ...

  defaultConfig {
     ...
     minSdkVersion <strong>'N'</strong>
     targetSdkVersion <strong>'N'</strong>
     ...
  }
  ...
}</pre>


<h3 id="create">Create a new project</h3>


<p>To create a new project for development with the N Preview SDK:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Click <strong>File > New Project</strong>. and follow the steps until
  you reach the Target Android Devices page.
  </li>
  <li>On this page, select <strong>Phone and Tablet</strong> option.</li>
  <li>Under <strong>Phone and Tablet</strong> option, in the <strong>Minimum
    SDK</strong> option list, select
    <strong>N: Android API 23, N Preview (Preview)</strong>.</li>
</ol>


<h2 id="next">Next Steps</h2>

<p>Now that you've set up Android Studio 2.1 (preview), follow the guide
to <a
href="{@docRoot}preview/download.html">Test on an Android N Device</a>.
And learn more about the Android N platform with
<a href="{@docRoot}preview/behavior-changes.html">Behavior Changes</a>
and <a href="{@docRoot}preview/api-overview.html">Android N APIs
and Features</a>.</p>