Develop Reference

Android Studio, Sample Code - Not working

There is sample code on the developer site that i wish to run.
When I import as a new Android Studio project, I'm not given any ability to run the code (disabled buttons).
I attempted to copy the source files over into the shell of a new project, but i than got errors that didn't make sense. reference to duplicate declarations in source files that had nothing relating inside them.
Is there an idiots guide on how to properly use android studio, or is it just this difficult?

In order to correctly import the project, you should follow the Samples guide as found in the developer docs.
To import a downloaded project:
Unpack the downloaded project package.
In Android Studio, chose File >
Import Project and select the root folder of the unpacked project.
Android Studio may ask you to choose the type of project you are
importing.
If this is the case, make sure to choose Import project
from external model and select the Gradle option.
Alternatively, if the Gradle option does not work, I would attempt to use the Eclipse option.

Open .gradle file when you import the project, not the folder of the proyect.

Can't open Project in Eclipse

I ma trying to open the source code of Gallery2 application in of Android in Eclipse and for some reason I am not able to open it.
I did Open> Android project from the existing code and selected the Gallery2 folder that I downloaded. As soon as I do that, i see the following screen:
As we can see that next button is disabled, Finish button is disabled and it says "Select atleast one project even though the project is selected". I am not sure what to do.
Or let me ask the question another way. I have successfully imported project into my workspace. What do I do now? I am fron Visual Studio world and ideally I should be looking for a solution file and that will open the entire project. How does that happen with java Android file?
Any ideas?

Because there is already project whose name is same GalleryActivity/Gallery2 or project which have same package name already imported in your eclipse workspace.
Check all the imported projects in your eclipse project explorer

This similiar error happened to me when I imported a standard Java project, I knew it was a java project but Eclipse didn't think so. It turned out that my project was missing the project.properties file and because of that Eclipse didn't recognize my project as a Java project. In the end I imported it as default project and added java facets to it, that did the trick. I don't know if this is your case but it may be worth to have a look at it, eclipse is a bit pedantic when it comes to things like this.

you have already imported same named project in your workspace. so first check your workspace and if exists delete it. or create another workspace and try to import the project

Importing android source code as a project in eclipse

I have downloaded an android sample called custom view from android refernce from this location
http://developer.android.com/shareables/training/CustomView.zip
It only has the java files and other resources but does not contain any project file for me to import in eclipse as a project.
So when I import existing project into workspace, eclipse does not pick the project in the import dialog.
How can I import it into eclipse ? I have ADT tools installed already,
Thanks,
Ahmed

Maybe that's because you'll have to make the manifest.xml file.
What I'd suggest, is to create a new Android project, with the same package and Activity's name than in your zip (ie com.example.android.customviews and MainActivity), then copy/paste the files from your zip to the new project directory (thus replacingsrcandres` folders). That way, Eclipse will generate the manifest for you, with correct reference.
This should not take more than 30 seconds...

Go to Project Explorer and right click -> Import -> Select Android -> Existing Android Code Into Workspace -> browse to folder with your code -> finish

I encountered the same problem. I did thought that it's missing the AndroidManifest.xml file. I tried to fixed it and place it here. You can download it an try.

Missing AndroidManifest.xml when importing an old Android project into Eclipse

I have an Android project developed on Eclipse (GNU/Linux) that I last touched half a year ago. I am trying to import the project into Eclipse 3.6 on Windows (with ADT installed) installed using File -> Import Project in Eclipse. When the project is imported, I see the following error twice on the console:
[2010-12-10 02:17:12 -
com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.project.AndroidManifestHelper]
Unable to read C:\Program
Files\Android\android-sdk-windows\AndroidManifest.xml:
java.io.FileNotFoundException:
C:\Program
Files\Android\android-sdk-windows\AndroidManifest.xml
(The system cannot find the file
specified)
Why is Eclipse looking for AndroidManifest.xml on the Android SDK path? The file actually seems to be in the project's directory. How do I fix this problem and get the project to compile?

A simple solution is to either reimport the AndroidManifest.xml file or make a change to the file and save it. This worked for me.

If you see an error about AndroidManifest.xml, or some problems
related to an Android zip file, right click on the project and select
Android Tools > Fix Project Properties. (The project is looking in the
wrong location for the library file, this will fix it for you.)
from: http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/notepad/notepad-ex1.html

The way you are importing the Android project into Eclipse is wrong. The Correct way of doing is File -> New Android Project. In the Contents Tab in "New Android Project", select "Create project from existing source" and choose the Build Target. That should fix your problem.

It appears that this error is produced because Eclipse thinks the default location for new Android projects is the Android SDK path. Even if the project location is changed, the error fails to be resolved, so the trick is to change the project location before Eclipse is aware of the condition generating the error.
To circumvent this quirk I imported the old project with the following steps:
File -> New -> Android Project
Un-check 'Use default location' and browse to project root directory.
Click 'Create project from existing source'
It's important to do step (2) before (3) otherwise the error persists and prevents running the project.

I had the same problem, all of the above did not work. I cleaned the project and it worked.

Instead of using File ---> New Android Project --> "Create project from existing sources", which will result in the error your are seeing, choose "Create project from existing sample" and choose it from the drop down. This will work.
Experienced JAVA developers tend to go with the first option which is normally there and works for classic Eclipse projects. But this is not your typical project and I bet the Google developers put this special case in the wizard to accommodate the differences.

I had the same problem. I was trying to compile the JakeWharton view page sample, so I checked out the GIT in a directory in a different folder then the workspace which caused the problem.
Eclipse was maintaining 2 folders:
1. A new workspace folder was made under the workspace directory, which eclipse checks for libraries and others source code including the AndroidManifest.xml file
2. The existing folder which was not under the Root workspace
To fix the problem after importing I had to manually move the files in the new workspace folder created by eclipse.

I met this problem when using Facebook SDK, now I solve it by doing this:
Close the project;
Copy "AndroidManifest.xml" file to the project's root path;
Open the project and refresh it, it's Done!

this worked for me by the way:
I changed the project name to the exact name of the project that I am importing.

Eclipse seems somewhat fragile in its naming conventions. One of the causes for this error is a difference between the project name and the folder name in the workspace. I imported a zip file for a project named "HelloDialogs" into a workspace folder named "HelloDialog". This caused the "AndroidManifest.xml file missing" error. Once I renamed the folder correctly, everything worked fine.

Because of the multiple different answers here, I thouhgt I'd add yet another one that worked for me, as I had exactly the same issue when first working with Phonegap android dev tools.
So I found (as mentioned by Gintautas in comments to the accepted answer), that I had to create a new project using the phonegap 'create' script, then when importing the project into eclipse. the only way to get this to work successfully was if the project was originally created in some temp folder somewhere other than the place I actually want to work with it.
So I created a project in windows like this in a cmd window...
c:\phonegap\phonegap-2.6.0\lib\android\bin>create.bat c:\temp\android_boilerplates\test app.test test
Then I imported the project in eclipse like this...
File > New > Project
Within the new project wizard select: "Android Project from Existing Code"
Click "Next"
Now navigate to the temp location of your project and set that to the root directory, check the project you want and check "Copy projects into workspace" as the example below...
Click "Finish"
And that's it, Eclipse should copy all your project files into your workspace and there shouldn't be any errors in your project (fingers crossed).
Your project should look something like this...
Hope that helps, it took me an age to work out why Eclipse didn't like creating a new project from existing code when the new project was being setup in the same place as the existing code. This isn't a problem for other languages I've used, so it was a little weird, but understandable as Eclipse (I'm guessing) seems to want to overwrite certain files.

Eclipse randomly decided to make another folder instead of the one that i had specified, but doesnt have any resources or data or layout etc in it..
it has some conflicts i guess..
anyway, a noob approach to this was, copying the original file to some other location(i put it to desktop)..
now create new project-create existing project, select this one from desktop, n VOILA.. its all fine.. :D

I am a little late to this game but I caused this same problem by generating the initial application into the exact location I was going to work on it. That is to say I put it directly into my current workspace. I then did File, Import, Existing Android Code Into Workspace. The import process blanked out my android.xml file.
I tried above solutions and had no joy. I then generated the initial application into a temp directory and imported from there. This worked for me.

The only way to import a project into eclipse workspace is to create an empty project and then drag and drop all the folders and files into this project. Why is this so is beyond me.
The answer from Raunak is wrong.

I found a .classpath file in the root directory of my Android project. I opened it and updated the file paths in it, and it seemed to fix the problem for me.

I had the problem when I tried to update an old project with recent code from the SVN. I had the Manifest.xml exported to my local file system as backup and deleted it. I've then reverted my complete project to the most recent version from the SVN and then it worked :)

This is what I had to do to get this to work. Fortunately I had backups of earlier "project".
1) Import the project as usual.
2) If the errors with empty xml etc. comes up, close the project.
3) Go to the original project if you have backup.
4) Copy all of the projects root files and directories and paste it over where Eclipse expects the projects root directories and files to be.
5) Open the project and refresh. Make "Clean" if necessary and you're done!
Always make backups because Eclipse f--kups! I learned this the hard way when suddenly my Android project refused to work because of empty manifest-file.

Sometimes if you automatically fix imports in MainActivity IDE imports android.R class instead of one that will be generated for the project. Remove the import and recompile.

when importing project from another workspace add existing project in workspace. and tick to the copy projects in workspace.then check the api level and supporting library from project.properties files.then rebuilt project and clean it.. it is works for me.

2017 Solution: Much Easier and tested solution is to remove your application folder from elipse project only then Import it again and the problem will be fixed immediately!

How to import existing Android project into Eclipse?

I'm trying to import and existing Android project into my current Eclipse workspace. I select File->New->Android Project, which brings up the Android project dialog, I then select, "Create project from existing source", Location, Build Target and Finish.
I get the following error: Invalid project description.
Does anybody know how to get past this error?

File → Import → General → Existing Projects into Workspace → Next
Select root directory: /path/to/project
Projects → Select All
Uncheck Copy projects into workspace and Add project to working sets
Finish

Solved: If you want to "Create project from existing source", you need to create a new directory and then put the project directory tree into that new directory. Then point to the new directory when importing.

This error message appears when the source code you try to import is inside an existing workspace.
Put your source code in a directory OUTSIDE any existing workspace and then import

Just delete the ".project" file in your project folder (it's hidden on Linux, use "ls -a" to show), then from Eclipse, choose Create Android Project from existing source

Im not sure this will solve your problem since I dont know where it originats from, but when I import a project i go File -> Import -> Existing projects into workspace. Maybe it will circumvent your problem.

It seems you cannot have your project root, with the AndroidManifest.xml deeper than one directory level below your workspace root. I struggled for an hour with this before I just gave up and rearranged my repo.

You can also use Make new > General > Project, then import the project to that project directory

I found James Wald's answer the closest to my solution, except instead of "File->Import->General->Existing Projects into Workspace" (which did not work for me at all) I used "File->Import->Android->Existing Android Code Into Workspace". I am using Helios, maybe your version of Eclipse does not have this quirk.

I had the problem of getting errors when checking out an Android project from SVN. This is what I did and the whole thing settled down.
1. checkout the project from SVN as we normally do any other project
2. right click and get properties of the project
3. In the java build path->order and export tab select the android API and OK it
this removed all the project issues
so far so good but not sure if this is the 100% correct method

This post helped me: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8431

In my Android Project folder .project file was missing. Restoring the .project file,which will be hidden in Unix OS environment resolved the error.

Updating #JamesWald's answer, and incorporating other comments. Assuming you want to create a cfesh copy from, say, a backup in your new workspace:
Put the existing project in a directory not inside the destination workspace.
In Eclipse: File->Import->Android->Existing Android Code into Workspace, Next
Select root directory: /path/to/project/from/step/1
Projects->Select All (or not, as the case may be)
Make sure you set the new project name correctly - To change one click on the old project name (left column) and then click on the new project name (right column) and then edit. It will default to the class name of the Default Activity.
Assuming you want a copy in the destination workspace, check "Copy projects into workspace"
uncheck "Add project to working sets"
Finish

Same problem happened to me as well and the .project file was not there in the project.
I copied a .project file from an existing android project and replace the project name with the name of the project I am trying to import.
Then using File -> Import -> Existing projects into workspace I was able to import the project.

What works for me is that: File > Import > Existing Project into Workspace (under General tab), then choose the project root folder. The importing of Existing Android Code into Workspace somehow does not work on Eclipse for me.