Hello! Once again, this tutorial is going to be short on text, and just over 6 minutes (yeah, I know...not a strict Five Minute Tutorial!) on video. There are some subjects that I think lend themselves more to a visual instruction than text. The topic today is "Eclipse Keytool Plugin." A quick shoutout to @Fred for having brought this to our attention some time ago, and @Daikokutan for bringing it up again. I figured it was time to take a look at what all the hoopla was about! [Edit - 7/20/12] Thanks to @Fred for kindly pointing out I neglected to mention the source of the original blog post that I used as inspiration for the video. Take a look: http://www.icodeya.com/2011/04/how-to-get-your-md5-fingerprint-for.html [/Edit] If you want to skip the text, and head straight to the video, here you go: HD Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaXE2FUENFI Short Link: http://youtu.be/IaXE2FUENFI This tutorial revolves around the concept of the keystore that is required for signing Android apps, and for generating the Google Maps API key that allows maps to be enabled in your Android app. I've written an extensive tutorial about it, and that can be found here: Android App Signing and Keystores : http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=84308A45D0AECFC6F296DDA And it's also addressed in the "buzztouch for Android" guide : http://www.buzztouch.com/files/howtos/buzztouch_For_Android-A_Users_Guide.pdf In a nutshell, you need a release key to sign your app, and you need the MD5 signature in order to generate a Google Maps API key. You can get both those things using the Eclipse Keytool Plugin. The basic steps for installation are: * Start Eclipse * Go to Help...Install New Software from your menu bar * Under "Work with," provide this URL : http://keytool.sourceforge.net/update * Click Keytool when it comes up in the list of things to install, and hit Next * Proceed with the rest of the wizard until installation is complete * Restart Eclipse After you have restarted Eclipse, you'll see a "Keytool" entry on your menu bar. Click there, and then "Create a new Certificate" in order to create a release keystore. Fill in the required information (alias, password, name and validity period), the name of the keystore, and you're good to go. The video should guide you through this fairly well. Once the keystore is created, a pane should open up that displays all the information about the keystore, including the MD5 signature. You can grab that and use it to generate your Google Maps API key. That's really pretty much it. The purpose of this tutorial was to help you get the plugin installed and show you basically how to use it. I think you'll find this tool is much easier and more intuitive to use than the command line method I've taught in the past! Hope this helps in your Android app development process. Please don't hesitate to drop me an email or post a question in the forum if you run into problems! Mark

Hey, do you compile your Android apps on a Mac or Windows system? Are there any quirks to compiling on a Mac? I am digging my MacBook, and would like to see if I could set up Eclipse for Mac, but it sure took a lot of time to get Java and Eclipse and set everything up in the first place.

Hi Daniel, I've done it on both, and it depends on the resources of the system (mostly memory) as to which I prefer. I have a fairly beefy laptop running Windows 7, and it cruises along pretty well with Eclipse. My home PC is super old, and I can't stand to use Eclipse there. But I also have a Mac mini, and that works really well! Bottom line is that you could easily use your MacBook for both iOS and Android development. This guide tell you how to get set up on Mac: http://www.buzztouch.com/files/howtos/buzztouch_For_Android-A_Users_Guide.pdf Mark

That is a SWEET tutorial!! I LOVE it!! I gotta say, it's a lot easier to get Eclipse up and running on a Mac. The ONLY thing I like better right now about Windows is being able to use paint.net for graphics. If can get the hang of Sumo Paint, I'll just about convert. Hey, this is off topic, and maybe worth another discussion, but do you prefer to develop for Android or iPhone? What about revenue? Is yours better for Android or iPhone?

dang double post

Glad you liked the tutorial! It's a pretty sweet plugin...glad @Fred and @Daikokutan found it for us! I agree...things seem to be easier to install and get running on a Mac (at least for Eclipse). And I've never had an Emulator fail to start, which has happened many, many times to me on Windows. I used to use Paint.net for graphics as well, but found it to be a huge memory hog, so I switched over to GIMP, which is available on Mac and Windows. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be amazed how powerful it is. At the moment, I prefer to develop for iOS, for the big reason that I think the interface is way more refined than for Android. All my apps at the moment are free, and I'm making super litter in revenue. But, my goal hasn't really been to make money yet, so I haven't put tons of effort into that. Mark

A better example of what @GoNorthWest is trying to communicate in this tutorial is in the original tutorial found at http://www.icodeya.com/2011/04/how-to-get-your-md5-fingerprint-for.html @Atrain clued me into the keytool, the tutorial found at icodeya.com explains how to install it very well. Credit goes to the original writer for an excellent article. Fred

I'm using a mac. Its not working for me at the moment. I have installed it all but up in the top navigation bar there is no 'key tool' tab? I restarted eclipse, still nothing. Jawdoss

Interesting. I've never tried it on Mac...I'll give it a shot this weekend and see what happens. Mark

Eclipse on a Mac doesn't behave like it does on a windows pc, kind of a different layout.

yeh ok, let me know.

I just installed Keytool on my Mac installation of Eclipse, and I see the key icon (for keytool) up on the Eclipse menu bar. It's between Project and Run. To get the menu bar, you need to open Eclipse and then make sure Eclipse has the focus (click anywhere in the GUI). That'll bring up the menu bar at the top. You can also add a Keytool pane to Eclipse. Go to Window...Show View...Other. Then expand Keytool, and click on Keytool. That'll add a pane like Console or LogCat. Let me know if you run into any problems! Mark

hmm. the key tool isn't showing up anywhere and i went to go and install it again but it said that it was already installed in the error pain.

So not showing up in Show View either? If that's the case, perhaps contact the author of the plugin? I've installed it twice, and it's worked perfectly each time. Mark

ok, is there a way to uninstall software? i might try re-installing it

Yep. Here are instructions for Mac: * Hit Eclipse...About Eclipse * Click Installation Details * Highlight what you want to uninstall (Keytool) * Click Uninstall * Follow the rest of the prompts Mark

Excellent tutorial !

really good. The keytool was a complete mystery for me when i got to the upload own project to android in the developer panel stage. this is super helpful.

This is great - I was completely stuck and this has given me an MD5 Fingerprint in minutes - thanks. The only issue I had was that it seems to have installed in the older version of Eclipse (with the purple look) rather than the new green version. Not sure if this matters or not?