Running the AWS SDK for Android S3Uploader sample with Eclipse

As we announced previously, the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse now supports creating AWS-enabled Android projects, making it easier to get started talking to AWS services from your Android app. The Toolkit will also optionally create a sample Android application that talks to S3. Let’s walk through creating a new AWS Android project and running the sample.

First, make sure that you have the newest AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, available at thinkwithwp.com/eclipse.

To create a new AWS-enabled Android project, choose File > New > Project… and find the AWS Android Project wizard.

The wizard will ask you to choose a project name and an Android target. If you haven’t set up your Android SDK yet, you’ll be able to do so from this wizard. Also make sure the option to create a sample application is checked.

That’s it! The newly created project is configured with the AWS SDK for Android and the sample application. You’ll want to edit the file Constants.java to fill in your AWS credentials and choose an S3 bucket name before running the application.

If this is your first time using the Android Eclipse plug-in, you may need to create an Android Virtual Device at this point using the AVD Manager view. On Windows 7, I found that I couldn’t start the emulator with the default memory settings, as referenced in this Stack Overflow question, so I had to change them:

With this change, the emulator started right up for me, and I was able to see the S3Uploader application in the device’s application list.

Finally, there’s one last trick you might find useful in using the sample application: it relies on images in the Android image gallery of the emulated device. If you can’t be bothered with mounting a file system, a simple way to get some images in there is to save them from the web browser. Just start the web browser, then tap-hold on an image and choose “Save Image”.

We’re excited by how much easier it is to get this sample running now that Eclipse does most of the setup for you. Give it a try, and let us know how it works for you!