System requirements
This topic will describe the system requirements for developing and deploying applications using the ArcGIS application programming interface (API) for Android.
Supported operating systems
The System Requirements page from Google provides a list of supported operating systems. Development of ArcGIS Android apps is supported on Mac OS X (Intel), Linux, and Windows-based operating systems. Refer to Google's documentation for the specific Windows operating systems that are supported.
Eclipse IDE
The Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) is the only supported development environment, and it is required if any development work is to be done with the ArcGIS API for Android. The following items must be considered when setting up your development environment:
- The Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in for Eclipse provided by Google is required before you can install the plug-ins provided by Esri. Instructions on installing this plug-in are provided by Google on the following page: ADT Plugin for Eclipse. In general, Esri's Eclipse plug-ins are loosely coupled with Android's ADT. Thus, you should be able to work with the latest ADT plug-in for Eclipse.
- The ArcGIS API for Android Eclipse plug-ins are supported on Eclipse 3.6.2 (Helios) and higher packages.
- Eclipse's Java development tools (JDT) plug-ins are required before the ADT can be installed. Most Eclipse IDE packages include these by default, but they must be installed if not included with the package you download from Eclipse's website.
- There are several types of Eclipse packages that can be downloaded from the Eclipse Downloads site. Esri supports all the Eclipse IDE packages stipulated by Google (see Google's System Requirements document for a list).
- Java Development Kit (JDK) 6 is required. A Java runtime environment (JRE) is not enough for development.
Supported Android SDK platforms
Esri is supporting Android software development kit (SDK) platforms 2.2 (API 8) and above.
OpenGL ES 2.0
The ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android uses OpenGL ES 2.0 technology to render map images. This technology makes the product much more versatile and usable by reducing the memory footprint, dramatically improving rendering speeds and using less power. The Android SDK team started added GPU support with Android 4.0.3 r2 which allows apps built with ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android to be deployed and tested on an emulator. Please refer to our blog post for specific setup instructions.
Supported ArcGIS Server versions and platforms
The ArcGIS API for Android will work with services from ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 and 10. This includes ArcGIS Server for the Microsoft .NET Framework and for the Java platform on all Esri supported operating systems.