Using Android Emulator for Mobile Testing

One of our project required us to test their application in mobile phone – Android or iPhone. In my first attempt to do mobile testing, I found this handy tool created by Google. Let me summarize my Android SDK setup in 3 steps – install Android SDK, create Virtual Device and use emulator!

Pre-requisite: Java

Install

1.  For 64bit Ubuntu, you’ll need to install the 32bit libraries

 ~$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
 

2.  Download appropriate Android SDK here (in my case I chose  android-sdk_r16-linux.tgz)

3.  Unzip file in your desired folder

4. Complete Android SDK installation and updates

Go to the android-sdk-linux_x86/tools/ directory and run the Android program to open the Android SDK and AVD manager.

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Create Virtual Device

You can create an AVD or Android Virtual Device  via the AVD Manager or the command-line

1. Using AVD Manager

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Go to Tools > Manage AVD

Click ‘New’ button to create new AVD

Input name, target, sd card, skin, hardware configurations

Click ‘Create AVD’

2. Terminal

android create avd -n <name> -t <targetID> [-<option> <value>] ...

e.g. android create avd -n my_android1.5 -t 2

For more instructions see here

Use!

You can use your Android emulator in two ways:

1. Using AVD Manager

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Go to Tools > Manage AVD

Select Virtual Device to use, then click Start

2. Launch emulator using command-line

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./emulator -avd avdname

See more emulator options here

Now you’re ready to test your mobile application in Android!