Hi there, I’m pretty new to app building business. It is great that I can find buzztouch when I adventure my first step into this unknown territory. I like buzztouch’s idea to make the source codes available to users, which is very helpful to newbies like me. Following google’s app building instruction, I’ve already setup my coding environment (Eclipse&ADT) and got my “hello world” successfully installed and run on my cellphone. However, when I downloaded source code of the app that I built through buzztouch and tried to open it with Eclipse, I encountered several problems: 1)In the instruction.pdf that comes with source code package, It says “When you choose New > Android Project a dialogue (pop-up-window) will open.” , and the window shoule be like the picture below http://nylbcsbc.org/images/111.png But, what I got is totally different: http://nylbcsbc.org/images/222.png And thoughout the whole “new app” wizard, I didn’t see any option to “create project from exsiting source” 2) Now I tried to import the downloaded source code by myself. Firstly I copy the source codes into a folder in my eclipse workspace folder, then I right click “package explorer” view and chose “import”, in the popup dialogue window I chose Android-> existing android code Into workspace). In the popup “Import Projects” window, I browse to workspace folder and check the project and click “finish” http://nylbcsbc.org/images/333.png But an error wanring showed up saying “invalid project description”. 3)Then I checked ‘Copy project into workspace’ and clicked finish again, this time the import seemed to be completed, but there are errors in some of the source codes which prevented me from compiling. I provide some of the error info here, 1. “GeoPoint cannot be solved to a type” – BT_item.java, line 20 2. “the method setPluginsEnabled(boolean) is undefined for the type WebSettings” - BT_viewUtilities, line 378 There are several other files that also report errors, which look totally beyond me. How can I deal with these issues and get my stuff rolling? Did I miss anything? I look forward to your answer, thank you in advance.

Hello @vincenk, and welcome to Buzztouch! I have a video on my YouTube channel that explains how to go from the control panel to the emulator on Android. It should answer most of your questions: http://www.youtube.com/user/gonorthwest It's one of the 20 minute tutorials. Give it a view, and I bet it takes care of most of your issues. The maps problem is due to not having the Google API 8 (or newer) selected for your project. Hightlight your project in Eclipse, right-click, select Properties > Android, and check the Google API you want (must be 8 or newer). I'd recommend API 11, as that should probably take care of your other issue with the viewUtilities. If you don't have that API available, you can download it through the Android SDK Manager, which you can access from within Eclipse (there's an icon on the menu bar). Give that stuff a try and let us know how it works! We're all here to help each other out, so post back if you hit a snag. Mark

I don't think I've ever seen as descriptive a first post as this. Major props. Sorry you're having issues. And Welcome to Buzztouch :) Mark is on point with pretty much everything. All I can say is I had the same situation with respect to importing/adding projects. I click "new" and "other" and select "create project from existing source", but it's different ways of doing the same thing. If you're still having issues after you watch some of Mark's videos, stop back by and let us know where you're having a problem. Cheers! -- Smug

@Vincenk: Fantastic post....thanks a bunch for the insanely detailed "details." LOL. For sure you'll get this ironed out as you get a little more accustomed to how Eclipse does and does not "automagically" connect some of the dots. Example: Getting Maps to work, etc. We've made some good progress in getting this process sectioned up into easier to understand parts, like how we deliver code and add-ons, etc. but have a long way to go. We look forward to the day when you can literally "download and run" without having to understand some of the details related to all the different screen types you're using (like maps and other goodies). Related to this: “the method setPluginsEnabled(boolean) is undefined for the type WebSettings” - BT_viewUtilities, line 378" I'm thinking that because "PluginState" was not available in Android's built in WebView prior to Android 2.2 (API level 8) that it could be that you're compiling the project with the wrong libraries? Just a hunch? Assuming you've got through some of the setup hurdles you mentioned...I would open up the project properties window and make sure Android 2.3 is selected. Close the properties, do a "Clean Project" and see if that error disappears. I'll be it does. 99% of the challenges with Android are related to the "libraries" a project is compiled with (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 4.0, etc) and the source code in the project itself. Not all source-code files can run in all version of Android so the compiler (Eclipse) shows errors if there is a mis-match. Hope this helps....I'm sure you'll get it and welcome aboard. d.

Great post gang! LA

Thanks for all the heart-warming answers, this is really a welcoming community. It had to be detailed because not only I'm insecure about my English, but also all the notions and concepts about java and android freak me out.There are just too many variables that can cause problems. I hope proving enough details would let my problems be easier to locate and address and the great text wall won't prevent you from reading my post. @GoNorthWest Thank you for your great videos and @David thank you for your great explanations and advices, they are like lightnings in the darkest night, now I've got my first buzztouch app successfully running. Here are some more details: There were totally 3 errors, after I downloaded Google API 18, there was only one left - “the method setPluginsEnabled(boolean) is undefined for the type WebSettings” - BT_viewUtilities, line 378. My android version was android 4.3(18), it turned out that I had to download android 4.2.2 package and chose Google APIs 4.2.2(17) to get rid of the error. Now although I can run the App but there were still 43 warnings, and I tried downloading android 2.3.3 package, and apply Google APIs 2.3.3(10), then the warning is gone. I'm not going to use any fancy plugins recently, so I guess android 2.3.3 should be good for me, correct? But now I'm encountering another severe problem: My first testing app only had a home screen(plugin menusimple) with an "email me" button on it, and it worked; but after I added a splash screen and did some minor tweaks, the App just showed a black screen after install. I tried this on both my Samsung Galaxy S4 and virtual device, also tried setting the Google APIs to 4.2 and 2.3, but none worked. When I pushed "back" button, the devices returned to the home screen for just 1 second and automatically went back to the black screen, I had to turn off my cellphone to end this tragedy. If you'd like to see my codes, you can get it here: http://www.nylbcsbc.org/manhattanwashtest_Android.zip Besides, is there any way I can test run the app on the website? I'm thinking of turn my app back to a save point and make one change at a time and then test it, hopefully I'll be able to locate which change screwed it up. But that would involve a lot of repetitively preparing project, downloading and importing code, setting the project's property, so is there any way to debug/test my app more effectively?

Hi @vincenk, Sounds like you're making progress, and that's a good thing! As for warnings...if they're truly just warnings, you can safely ignore them. They won't prevent you from compiling at all...only errors will. There is no way to test the app on the website. It has to be run in either the simulator or a real device. You actually only need to download the code once, unless you add a new plugin or are making actual tweaks to the code itself. You can eliminate the first case by selecting ALL the Android plugins, even if you're not using them presently, because they'll then be there should you add that screen via the control panel. All the changes you make to the control panel are reflected in the configuration file...that's literally the only thing that changes. When you added the Splash Screen, did you also add it to the appropriate area of the Layout section? If you didn't, you'll need to. Let me know how things are going! If you get stuck on a particular thing, give us a shout, and we'll work to resolve it. Mark

Thanks @Mark. I started buiding the app over and this time it worked fine in AVD. But when I install it to my S4, every row items of "menusimple" were like cut off, every letters in the row items only display the upper half, what could possibly be wrong? And also, I set the background color of row items to some light blue and transculent, but in both AVD and my S4, it is still black