CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
Dean Blakely
Dean Blakely

Reputation: 3585

Targeting Google APIs

I'm new to Android Development and Eclipse and I'm going through the various tutorials.

When setting up Eclipse I installed Android 2.3.3 SDK Platform along with Google APIs for that platform.

When I create new projects for most all of the tutorial programs I select Android 2.3.3 as my target.

However, when going through the Google Map Views tutorial I am told to select Google APIs instead of Android 2.3.3 when creating the project. I did this and the map view program works just fine.

But this seems like a binary OR decision; I'm allowed to select one or the other. Does the Google APIs include all that's in the Android 2.3.3 platform? In other words could I just always select Google APIs target for the platform level that I want and it would work? Thanks, Dean

Upvotes: 0

Views: 132

Answers (2)

Austyn Mahoney
Austyn Mahoney

Reputation: 11408

Right now the Google API SDK is mostly used for the proprietary Google Maps API in it.

You only want to select this as your target when you require specific API's inside of it. If you don't use Maps in your app, you can usually leave it off. It does include everything that is in its accompanying Android SDK.

When you select this as your target, it makes it so only devices that are running a ROM with the Google API SDK can see your app on the market.

Upvotes: 0

Alex Lockwood
Alex Lockwood

Reputation: 83303

Yes, it would always work because the Google APIs is a superset of the Android SDK.

Google APIs Add-On is an extension to the Android SDK development environment that lets you develop applications for devices that include Google's set of custom applications, libraries, and services. A central feature of the add-on is the Maps external library, which lets you add powerful mapping capabilities to your Android application.

You shouldn't make use of it unless you need to. This will save the system the extra work required to load these unnecessary features at runtime.

Upvotes: 1

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