PhoneGap 3 - Setup development Environment for Android on Windows

A guide to start developing with PhoneGap 3 for Android on a Windows machine.

Requirements

Below platforms / software packages are required:

Java JDK 6 or 7
Android SDK tools
Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Eclipse and Eclipse Plugin
Apache Ant
GitHub
Node.js
Cordova PhoneGap

SetUp

Java JDK 6 or 7

Download: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Make sure you download JDK. Eclipse can build against Java 6 with Java 7, so it is fine to have only 7 on board. Officially, Android supports only Java 6, so it is not possible to compile/build against Java 7.

Just install the download by following its instruction. Make sure that you have the following set in your => advanced system properties => environment variables.

System variables:

JAVA_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_25

The "1.7.0_25" part might be different, depending on which version you are installing.

Path: %JAVA_HOME%\bin

Add the line above at the end of the rest of the paths and make sure it precedes with an ;

Android SDK tools

Instructions and Downloadable: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Download the SDK (adt-bundle) from the link above and extract it to a folder. In this case: "C:\AndroidDev\android-sdk\". Make sure that you have the following set in your =>advanced system properties => environment variables.

System variables:

Path: C:\AndroidDev\android-sdk\platform-tools;C:\AndroidDev\android-sdk\tools

Add the line above at the end of the paths and make sure it precedes with an ;

Start the SDK manager and download the API levels you need (I did Jelly Bean version).

Eclipse and Eclipse Plugin

Instructions and Downloadable: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/installing-adt.html

Eclipse is integrated in the download from the SDK tools. Extract the contents (eclipse) in this case to C:\AndroidDev\eclipse\

When you start Eclipse add the plugins like it is described in the link above. When Eclipse asks for the Android SDK, select folder "C:\AndroidDev\android-sdk\".

User variables:

HOME: %USERPROFILE%

Android Studio

Instructions and Downloadable: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html

Important note: As of this moment it is not possible to build PhoneGap apps with Android Studio.

Apache Ant

Download: http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi

Information: http://ant.apache.org/manual/install.html#installing

Download the file and extract it to (in this case): "C:\AndroidDev\apache-ant"

Make sure that you make you have the following set in your advanced system properties, environment variables.

System variables:

ANT_HOME: C:\AndroidDev\apache-ant
Path: %ANT_HOME%\bin

Add the line above at the end of the rest of the paths and make sure it precedes with an ;

GitHub

Download: https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git

Download and install GitHub. Start GitHub and configure anything if needed.

Node.js

Download: http://nodejs.org/

Download the installer from the link above and install it the standard way (next, next.... finish).

It will automatically add it self to the path variables. For reference they are mentioned below here anyway.

User variables:

Path: C:\Users\egscrrd\AppData\Roaming\npm

Where as Joram is my username and should be yours.

System variables:

Path: C:\Program Files\nodejs\

Cordova PhoneGap

Information (overview): http://docs.phonegap.com/en/edge/guide_platforms_index.md.html

Cordova information (install): http://docs.phonegap.com/en/edge/guide_cli_index.md.html#The%20Command-line%20Interface

PhoneGap information (install): https://github.com/mwbrooks/phonegap-cli

You can now download PhoneGap using the Command Line Interface (CLI). Using this method you can select which platform you need, which plugins you need and then build the sources.

The commands below are done with cordova, in stead of phonegap. It is possible to them with phonegap also. Personally, I advice to use the phonegap version, in stead of cordova. Somehow using cordova the needed files are not generated properly.

Difference between Cordova CLI and PhoneGap CLI, according to the FAQ
The PhoneGap CLI is built on top of the Cordova CLI. It has all of the functionality that the Cordova CLI has. The main difference is that the PhoneGap CLI has PhoneGap Build integration. So if you don’t have the native SDK installed, you can delegate compilation to the PhoneGap Build cloud service and get app-store ready mobile apps. Both tools are completely interoperable.

The steps (execute either the Cordova or PhoneGap command, not both), for reference I list them both: