Do we need to launch the virtual device from eclipse every time we want to test our code?

Question

If yes, then is there any other method to make it a bit faster?

Answer 1

Run the unit tests against a real device to minimize the bootstrap time. Otherwise I would recommend to leave the AVD (Android Virtual Device) running between runs.

Answer 2

yippie.. got the solution myself..!! leave the AVD running.. ignore the error.. everytime you press F11 (or run your app), make sure you are at home screen of AVD.. thats it..

Answer 3

You don't have to start the emulator again. Just run your application in Eclipse again, and the emulator will also start it again.

But be careful, if you don't change anything in your code, then the application won't be installed and started again, but rather brought to the front. So if you want to start a application again then just insert a linebreak or whitespace in your code an run it again from Eclipse. Then it's reinstalled and started again on the emulator

Answer 4

Eclipse+ADT makes a very powerful IDE for Android development. To start an emulator,

• You can just open the AVD Manager and launch the previously created emulator.
• Create Run Configurations to launch an AVD [which will launch it, if it's not running already]

When you ask Eclipse to launch an android application onto an emulator,

• It will install the .apk onto the emulator and launch it [if not already installed]
• Just bring the application to the foreground [If it was already running in the emulator]
• You can check if the application is already running in the emulator using DDMS perspective

Tip: Do not close the Emulator each time you want to quit the application. Emulator takes time to boot. You can quit an Android application either from inside the emulator or using DDMS