simplification and clarification to the Studio Overview

    <h2>In this document</h2>

    <ol>

      <li><a href="#project-structure">Project and File Structure</a></li>

      <li><a href="#build-system">Android Build System</a></li>

      <li><a href="#debug-perf">Debug and Performance</a></li>

      <li><a href="#project-structure">Project Structure</a></li>

      <li><a href="#build-system">Gradle Build System</a></li>

      <li><a href="#debug-perf">Debug and Profile Tools</a></li>

    </ol>

</div>

<p>Android Studio is the official IDE for Android app development,

based on <a class="external-link" href="https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/" target="_blank">IntelliJ IDEA</a>.

On top of the capabilities you expect from IntelliJ,

Android Studio offers:</p>

<p>Android Studio is the official IDE for Android app development, based on

<a class="external-link" href="https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/" target=

"_blank">IntelliJ IDEA</a>. On top of IntelliJ's powerful code editor and

developer tools, Android Studio offers even more features that enhance your

productivity when building Android apps, such as:</p>

<ul>

  <li>Flexible Gradle-based build system</li>

  <li>A flexible Gradle-based build system</li>

  <li>Build variants and multiple APK file generation</li>

  <li>Code templates to help you build common app features</li>

  <li>Rich layout editor with support for drag and drop theme editing</li>

  <li>A rich layout editor with support for drag and drop theme editing</li>

  <li>Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility, and other problems</li>

  <li>Code shrinking with ProGuard</li>

  <li>Code shrinking with ProGuard and resource shrinking with Gradle</li>

  <li>Built-in support for

  <a href="http://developers.google.com/cloud/devtools/android_studio_templates/">Google Cloud Platform</a>,

  making it easy to integrate Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine</li>

  <li>And much more</li>

</ul>

<p>This page provides an introduction to some key Android Studio features. For

specific Android Studio how-to documentation, see the pages in the <a href=

"{@docRoot}tools/workflow/index.html">Workflow</a> section, such as <a href=

"{@docRoot}sdk/installing/create-project.html">Managing Projects from Android

Studio</a> and <a href="{@docRoot}tools/building/building-studio.html">Building

and Running from Android Studio</a>. For a summary of the latest changes to

Android Studio, see the <a href="{@docRoot}tools/revisions/studio.html">Android

Studio Release Notes</a>.</p>

<p>This page provides an introduction to basic Android Studio features. For

more detailed guides to using Android Studio, start by browsing pages in the

<a href="{@docRoot}tools/workflow/index.html">Workflow</a> section.</p>

<p>For a summary of the latest changes, see the <a href=

"{@docRoot}tools/revisions/studio.html">Android Studio Release Notes</a>.</p>

<h2 id="project-structure">Project Structure</h2>

<h2 id="project-structure">Project and File Structure</h2>

<div class="figure" style="width:230px">

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio/studio-project-files.png" width="230" />

<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> The project files in Android

view.</p>

</div>

<h3 id="project-view"><em>Android</em> project view</h3>

<p>By default, Android Studio displays your project files in the <em>Android</em> project view. This

view shows a flattened version of your project's structure that provides quick access to the key

source files of Android projects and helps you work with the

<a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/studio-build.html">Gradle-based build system</a>.

The <em>Android</em> project view:</p>

<p>Each project in Android Studio contains one or more modules with source code

files and resource files. Different types of modules include:</p>

<ul>

  <li>Shows the most important source directories at the top level of the module hierarchy.</li>

  <li>Groups the build files for all modules in a common folder.</li>

  <li>Groups all the manifest files for each module in a common folder.</li>

  <li>Shows resource files from all Gradle source sets.</li>

  <li>Groups resource files for different locales, orientations, and screen types in a single

  group per resource type.</li>

<li>Android app modules</li>

<li>Test modules</li>

<li>Library modules</li>

<li>App Engine modules</li>

</ul>

     <img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/projectview01.png" />

     <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Show the Android project view.</p>

     <img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-projectview_scripts.png"  />

     <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> Show project build files.</p>

<p>The <em>Android</em> project view shows all the build files at the top level of the project

hierarchy under <strong>Gradle Scripts</strong>. Each project module appears as a folder at the

top level of the project hierarchy and contains these four elements at the top level:</p>

<p>By default, Android Studio displays your project files in the

<em>Android</em> project view, as shown in figure 1.

This view is organized by modules to

provide quick access to the key source files of your

project.</p>

<p>All the build files are visible at the top level

under <strong>Gradle Scripts</strong> and each app module

contains the following three elements:</p></p>

<ul>

  <li><code>java/</code> - Source files for the module.</li>

  <li><code>manifests/</code> - Manifest files for the module.</li>

  <li><code>res/</code> - Resource files for the module.</li>

  <li><code>Gradle Scripts/</code> - Gradle build and property files.</li>

  <li><b>manifests</b>: Manifest files.</li>

  <li><b>java</b>: Source code files.</li>

  <li><b>res</b>: Resource files.</li>

</ul>

<p>For example, <em>Android</em> project view groups all the instances of the

<code>ic_launcher.png</code> resource for different screen densities under the same element.</p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The project structure on disk differs from this flattened

representation. To switch to back to the segregated project view, select <strong>Project</strong>

from the <strong>Project</strong> drop-down. </p>

<h3 id="other-views">Other Android Studio views</h3>

<p>When you use the <em>Project</em> view in Android Studio, you

should notice that the project structure appears different than you may be used to in Eclipse. Each

instance of Android Studio contains a project with one or more app modules. Each

app module folder contains the complete source sets for that module, including

{@code src/main/} and {@code src/androidTest/} directories, resources, build

file and the Android manifest. For the most part, you will need to modify the files under each

module's {@code src/main/} directory for source code updates, the gradle.build file for build

specification and the files under {@code src/androidTest/} directory for test case creation.

    <p>  <img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-project-layout.png" alt="" /></p>

    <p>  <class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> View Android Studio <em>Project</em>

         structure.</p>

<p>You can also customize the view of the project files to focus on specific aspects of your app

development: </p>

<ul>

  <li><em>Packages</em> </li>

  <li><em>Project Files</em> </li>

  <li><em>Scratches</em> </li>

  <li><em>Problems</em> </li>

  <li><em>Production</em> </li>

  <li><em>Tests</em> </li>

</ul>

<p>The Android project structure on disk differs

from this flattened representation. To see the actual file structure of the

project, select <strong>Project</strong> from the <strong>Project</strong>

drop-down (in figure 1, it's showing as <strong>Android</strong>).</p>

<p>For example, selecting the <strong>Problems</strong> view of your project displays links to the

source files containing any recognized coding and syntax errors, such as missing an XML element

closing tag in a layout file.<p>

<p>You can also customize the view of the project files to focus on specific

aspects of your app development. For example, selecting the

<strong>Problems</strong> view of your project displays links to the source

files containing any recognized coding and syntax errors, such as missing an

XML element closing tag in a layout file.</p>

<p>For more information, see

<a class="external-link" href="http://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/IntelliJIDEA/Project+Organization">IntelliJ project organization</a>

and <a href="{@docRoot}tools/projects/index.html">Managing Projects</a>.</p>

<h2 id="build-system">Gradle Build System</h2>

<h2 id="build-system">Android Build System</h2>

<p>The Android build system is the toolkit you use to build, test, run and package

your apps. This build system replaces the Ant system used with Eclipse ADT. It can run as an

integrated tool from the Android Studio menu and independently from the command line. You can use

the features of the build system to:</p>

<p>Android Studio uses Gradle as the foundation of the build system, with

more Android-specific capabilities provided by the <a

href="{@docRoot}tools/revisions/gradle-plugin.html">Android Plugin for

Gradle</a>. This build system

runs as an integrated tool from the Android Studio menu and independently from

the command line. You can use the features of the build system to:</p>

<ul>

    <li>Customize, configure, and extend the build process.</li>

    <li>Reuse code and resources across source sets.</li>

</ul>

<p>The flexibility of the Android build system enables you to achieve all of this without

<p>The flexibility of Gradle enables you to achieve all of this without

modifying your app's core source files. To build an Android Studio project, see

<a href="{@docRoot}tools/building/building-studio.html">Building and Running from Android Studio</a>.

To configure custom build settings in an Android Studio project, see

<a href="{@docRoot}tools/building/configuring-gradle.html">Configuring Gradle Builds</a>.</p>

<a href="{@docRoot}tools/building/building-studio.html">Building and Running

from Android Studio</a>. To configure custom build settings in an Android

Studio project, see <a href=

"{@docRoot}tools/building/configuring-gradle.html">Configuring Gradle

Builds</a>.</p>

<h2 id="debug-perf">Debug and Performance</h2>

<p>Android Studio provides a number of improvements to assist you in debugging and improving the

performance of your code, including an improved virtual device management, inline debugging, and

performance analysis tools.</p>

<h3>Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager</h3>

<p>AVD Manager has updated screens with links to help you select the most popular device

configurations, screen sizes and resolutions for your app previews.</p>

Click the <strong>Android Virtual Device Manager</strong>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/avd-manager-studio.png"

style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" /> in the toolbar to open it and create

new virtual devices for running your app in the emulator.</p>

<p>The AVD Manager comes with emulators for Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices and also supports

creating custom Android device skins based on specific emulator properties and assigning those

skins to hardware profiles. Android Studio installs the Intel® x86 Hardware Accelerated Execution

Manager (HAXM) emulator accelerator and creates a default emulator for quick app prototyping.</p>

<h2 id="debug-perf">Debug and Profile Tools</h2>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}tools/devices/managing-avds.html">Managing AVDs</a>.</p>

<p>Android Studio assists you in debugging and improving the

performance of your code, including inline debugging and

performance analysis tools.</p>

<h3 id="inline-debug">Inline debugging</h3>

<p>Use inline debugging to enhance your code walk-throughs in the debugger view

with inline verification of references, expressions, and variable values. Inline debug information

includes: </p>

with inline verification of references, expressions, and variable values.

Inline debug information includes:</p>

<ul>

 <li>Inline variable values</li>

 <li>Referring objects that reference a selected object </li>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-memory-monitor.png"

srcset="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-memory-monitor2x.png 2x" width"635" height="171" alt="" />

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> Monitor memory and CPU usage.</p>

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> Monitor memory and CPU usage.</p>

<h4 id="heap-dump">Heap dump </h4>

<p>When you're monitoring memory usage in Android Studio you can, at the same time, initiate

help you track memory usage and find memory leaks. </p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-hprof-viewer.png" alt="" />

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 5.</strong> HPROF viewer with heap dump.</p>

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> HPROF viewer with heap dump.</p>

<p>To create a snapshot of the Android app heap memory, click the

Dump Java Heap icon (<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-dump-heap-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:17px"/>)

calls related to those actions to optimize your app's performance and memory use. </p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-allocation-tracker.png" alt="" />

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 6.</strong> Allocation tracker.</p>

    <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> Allocation tracker.</p>

<p>For information about tracking and analyzing allocations, see

  <a href="{@docRoot}/tools/help/am-memory.html#tracking">Memory Monitor</a>.

The <em>Inspections Scope</em> dialog appears so you can specify the desired inspection profile and scope.</p>

<h4>Running inspections from the command line</h4>

<p>You can also run {@code lint} inspections from the command line in your SDK directory. </p>

<pre>

sdk$ lint [flags] <project directories>

</pre>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The {@code lint} <strong>--show</strong> and <strong>--list</strong>

flags can be used to display the available issues and explanations. </p>

<p>For more information, see

<a href="{@docRoot}tools/debugging/improving-w-lint.html">Improving Your Code with {@code lint}</a>

and <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/lint.html">lint tool</a>.</p>