Cordova 2.0 Android App Creation in Mountain Lion with Eclipse: from Install to Google Play

I kept meticulous notes as I downloaded Eclipse and all the other software I needed to create an Android app for Google Play as though my readers were absolute newbies on the Mac (I’ve been there and I haven’t forgotten) using PhoneGap 2.0.0.

I highly recommend you read this informative FAQ page before you start your app if you are going to submit to the Amazon app store: https://developer.amazon.com/help/faq.html  and this page if you want your app to work on the Kindle Fire devices: http://www.amazonappstoredev.com/2012/09/the-kindle-fire-hd-7-emulator.html

My article below follows these basic steps, but provides much more material to finalize the app: http://docs.phonegap.com/en/2.0.0/guide_getting-started_android_index.md.html#Getting%20Started%20with%20Android

(After I finished the app, I discovered strange error. An Aussie colleague told me to open up the bin/create file in the Downloads folder and do a search for “Darwin.” “Darwin11” should be changed to “Darwin12.” It looks like it would be better off to download PG 2.1.0 instead.)

Prepopulated Database using PhoneGap Storage API, Cordova 2.0.0

I slightly adapted the PhoneGap Cordova Storage API to show content on the screen (PG’s version only shows content in the console). Here is that code below. Just copy and paste it into a text file, name it PGStorageAPI.html, and click to display in web browser. You’ll need cordova-2.0.0.js in the same folder.

Please note that this database is created in the HTML on this page. It is not a separate database that can be lost in an upgrade or low-memory situation. Also, it is not a data-entry database where the user enters data. Just like you cannot lose an HTML page in your app, so you can’t lose the pre-populated data on this page. As you can see, this pre-populated database is ideal for highly repetitive page layouts, such as this one where the same layout information is repeated over and over. Entering the information once in the database frees one from hand-coding the HTML for each entry. Image Gallery, anyone?

(When I copied this file into a text file and renamed the ending .html, and included cordova-2.0.0.js, the page was blank. A bit of searching around found several double-quotes turned into question marks, and a mixture of curly and straight quotes and double-quotes. Once I go those fixed, the script worked fine. I guess it was the change from typing it in my Mac, pasting it in here, then copying/pasting from here into a Windows text editor. What a mess. )