Those familiar with Phonegap development know this awesome service: Adobe PhoneGap Build. It allows building for different platforms without having entire Phonegap infrastructure installed on developer's machine. However, some 'old-school' guys like me, prefer having everthing within reach on local machine. Here are some instructions to get up and running with Phonegap development for Android platform.
System: Ubuntu 13.10 or Windows 7 or 8
IDE: Eclipse 3.8.1 or IDEA 13
Java: Oracle JDK 1.7.0_45
Download latest JDK from Oracle web site, untar it to destination of choice (I used /opt). Install alternatives like described in this article. Make sure it's working and Oracle JDK is default:
# java -version java version "1.7.0_45" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_45-b18) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.45-b08, mixed mode)
Plug into USB and turn on development mode. For version 4.2 you have to tap About Phone -> Build number several times to activate Developer's menu, like described here. I'm also used CyanogenMod of Android 4.4. Turn on USB Debugging from Developer options.
# npm install -g phonegap
$ phonegap create hello
or in full form:
$ phonegap create hello com.example.hello HelloWorld
To develop and debug in Eclipse with ADT Plugin, or with ADT Bundle, start new project:
New project -> Android -> Android project from existing code
Point Eclipse to pick up phonegap-generated code. Make sure that both project and library files were picked up by Eclipse.
Then Run As -> Android Application
Despite being favorite IDE for Android development at the moment, I've only found handful of instructions for running Phonegap project in IDEA. For time being, I'm editing HTML files from /www folder in IDEA (as Web project) and then sending to be installed to device via this command:
phonegap run android
This command is run from application folder, it will compile and install app on active development device.