Just a quick note to thank everyone who attended the Application Basics webcast on Tuesday (September 9th), and to thank the O’Reilly team for hosting the webcast. We covered a lot in the hour ranging from how to access and install the SDK, an overview of the SDK tools and building a simple application. The webcast was recorded and has been posted by O’Reilly.
This webcast was based on Chapter 2 of the Palm webOS book, which was released last month and is now available on O’Reilly’s website as well as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and other sources for technical books. We haven’t scheduled any other webcasts at this time but we are interested in doing more on topics that most interest you. There could be some based on other chapters of the book or just on some specific webOS topics – let us know what you’d like to see.
Also a thanks to the readers who have taken time to email or submit comments and corrections to the book. We rushed to get the book into print and available as close to the SDK release as we could, but in doing so we missed a number of problems in the sample code and in the book copy. Those are all being corrected in a second printing of the book which O’Reilly is working on now and once available, there will be a simple change summary provided on the webOS book’s page on O’Reilly’s site.
I had a lot of great questions in the Q&A period, so I wanted to share them with other developers who may have similar queries:
Application Basics – Webcast Q&A
Q: How do I get access to the shipping applications, on the emulator?
Most of the Palm applications included on end-user devices are accessible from the emulator as well, and may be run from the webOS Launcher, just like on a real device. Because the emulator doesn’t currently support all device functionality, some apps (particularly the media apps) are not fully functional in the emulator. You can access application code by connecting to the emulator via Novaterm or SSH and browsing to /usr/palm/applications.
Note that carrier-specific applications (e.g. Sprint Navigation) are not available in the emulator. Nor is the App Catalog, so third-party apps cannot be installed from the catalog. Of course, you can use the SDK’s command-line tools to install any app for which you have source code or a package file (.ipkg), including your own applications and the SDK sample apps.
Q: Besides the emulator, what tools are there to test a webOS app?
The Mojo SDK includes a variety of tools that complement the emulator, including a terminal-based JavaScript debugger, a DOM inspector, and tools for viewing application log output. The SDK’s command-line tools can be used to install apps on physical devices as well, for real-world testing. Third-party tools are emerging as well – for example, Pivotal Labs has developed a library called Pockets for doing test-driven development for webOS. Pockets includes a version of the Jasmine test framework and is available from their gitHub repository.
Q: Are there plans to release additional tools for creating apps without using the command line?
Yes, we believe that it’s very important to have high level tools and are actively working on solutions. We don’t currently have any specifics to announce, but it’s a high priority for the SDK team. For now, besides Palm’s own Eclipse plug-in, a number of third-party tools integrations exist — check the webOSdev forums for more information.
Q: When will the 1.2 SDK be available?
The 1.2 SDK will be released as soon as webOS 1.2 itself is released.
Q: Can we use jQuery or other libraries?
Yes, you can use other JavaScript libraries and frameworks like jQuery. In some cases, however, there may be some constraints, or issues affecting interoperability with the Mojo framework and Prototype (on which the Mojo framework depends). This topic has been discussed in the webOSdev forums for some frameworks, including jQuery.
Q: When will the SDK support 64-bit Windows?
The latest SDK release (1.1.0.19) supports 64-bit Windows. However, note that this release contains an installer bug that affects upgrades. If you’re a new user, the 1.1.0.19 SDK will install correctly on 64-bit Windows. If you’re upgrading from an older version of the SDK, you’ll need to uninstall the old version before installing 1.1.0.19. This bug will be fixed in the next SDK release.
Do you have more questions? Join us on the developer forum and ask away!
(posting this for Mitch — chuq)
“There could be some based on other chapters of the book or just on some specific webOS topics – let us know what you’d like to see.”
Databases pretty please. Documentation is very limited so I am completely stuck. Thanks!