Android ScreenCast

View and interact with your Android Phone on your PC!

I stumbled across this nifty utility:

Android ScreenCast

It allows you to view and record your screen and explore your Android device on your computer. Rooted devices can also accept input controls (keyboard and mouse). The tool is java based so is cross platform.

Installation

The instructions on the link above are very simple and should be sufficient for a basic installation. Try that first. If you have any trouble, this guide will go into more detail and provide alternative methods of getting you up and running. Since my main OS is Windows, this guide will focus on the Windows based components of the SDK but very similar methods apply if you are running Linux or OSX.

– Download and install the latest Java Runtime Environment here
– Download the Android SDK here: here
– Run the SDK by launching SDK Setup.exe and install the latest version of “Android Platform Tools” via the updater.

If you are unable to download the components via the SDK interface (for example, if you are behind a proxy that requires authentication), then you can download the latest version via your browser using the following method.

Standalone SDK Component Download

You only need to do this if the updater in the SDK does not work.

View this XML file http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml containing the latest SDK file names. Locate the Android Platform Tools for your OS.

<sdk:archive os=”windows” arch=”any”>
<sdk:size>10075800</sdk:size>
<sdk:checksum type=”sha1″>ee7f70ed0c15286d6dbca85b57eb3d1950cc8ec4</sdk:checksum>
<sdk:url>platform-tools_r04-windows.zip</sdk:url>
</sdk:archive>

The archive file name is the information we are after; platform-tools_r04-windows.zip

The address to put in your browser is therefore

http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r04-windows.zip

The file should be downloaded, unpacked and the root folder placed in the platforms directory within the SDK to give a path similar to

android-sdk-windows\platforms\platform-tools_r04-windows

Connecting to your phone

Connect your phone by USB and make sure USB debugging is enabled.
Settings->Applications->Development->USB Debugging (Debug mode when USB is connected)

Check that it is detected as an ADB device. If you are unsure about this, you can check whether it is connected correctly using the command

adb devices

adb.exe can be found in the Platform Tools directory or the Tools directory of the SDK. If your phone is connected correctly, the command will return it’s specific ID will be displayed as a connected device.

In this case the device ID is 0123456789ABCDEF

You can now launch androidscreencast.jnlp which should successfully connect to your phone.

Running in Offline Mode

Since this is essentially a web based java application launcher, every time you run it, it connects to a webserver to download the appropriate (and latest) java runtime files. There are instances where this may be undesirable and this section explains how to run AndroidScreenCast in “Offline Mode”

Files required

androidscreencast.jnlp download
androidscreencast.jar download
ddmlib.jar download (note that this .jar file is different to the file of the same name found in the Platform Tools directory)

You must have the Android SDK and Platform Tools installed as described previously.

Place all three files in the same directory (in this guide I will use the directory C:\AndroidScreenCast)

Since all the application files are now local, the launcher (.jnlp file) needs to be edited to reference the local copies rather than the web based ones.

Codebase

<jnlp spec=”0.2 1.0″
codebase=”http://androidscreencast.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/AndroidScreencast/dist/” href=”androidscreencast.jnlp”>

<jnlp spec=”0.2 1.0″
codebase=”file://localhost/C:/AndroidScreenCast/” href=”androidscreencast.jnlp”>

Resources

<resources>
<j2se version=”1.5+” href=”http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se”/>
<j2se version=”1.5+”/>
<jar href=”androidscreencast.jar” main=”true” download=”eager”/>
<jar href=”ddmlib.jar” main=”false” download=”eager”/>
</resources>

<resources>
<jar href=”androidscreencast.jar” main=”true” />
<jar href=”ddmlib.jar” main=”false” />
</resources>

Save the changes, ensure your device is connected and run the androidscreencast.jnlp

The application will now run without downloading the runtime files every time. The main disadvantage to doing this is that if there are any updates, you need to change the files manually. Otherwise, functionality is identical.

Any comments/questions/problems, post below

Have fun!

Note:

To stop the screen turning off when in use, enable the following

Settings->Applications->Development->Stay Awake (Screen will never sleep while charging)