What’s happening in webOSland is a collection of interesting links to articles and conversations about webOS and webOS development. If you have something you think we might want to include in future postings, you can send it to us at pdn@palm.com or via twitter to @webosdev
In support of the just-released webOS version 1.3.5, Palm has released Mojo Software Development Kit 1.3.5. The new webOS version features the following user enhancements:
Complete details of the new webOS release can be found in the Palm Knowledge Base.
Here are the highlights of the new SDK release:
Learn more details about Mojo SDK 1.3.5 by reading the release notes.
Today we’re opening Project Ares to the developer community. Ares takes a radically new approach that brings mobile development right to your browser.
Ares is the first complete set of integrated mobile development tools hosted entirely in the browser. It features a drag-and-drop interface builder, a robust code editor, a visual debugger, and built-in source control integration. Ares dramatically lowers the barriers for web developers to jump into mobile development and makes building webOS apps even easier and faster than before.
Ares streamlines the entire app development process, from design, to coding, to debugging, to app submission. You can preview apps right in the browser, and—with the Palm Mojo SDK installed—it takes just one click in Ares to launch your app in the emulator or on a webOS device. When you’re ready to distribute your app, one more click lets you package and download your app for submission to the App Catalog.
A public beta release of Ares is now open to all Palm developers at ares.palm.com.
Ares interface builder showing the webOS Phone app in a browser.
Ares is a complete integrated development environment (IDE) for webOS development, running entirely in your browser. Ares supports Safari version 4 and higher, Chrome version 3 and higher, and Firefox version 3.5 and higher. Ares highlights include:
The heart of Ares is its visual drag-and-drop interface builder. The interface builder makes it simple to build complex layouts that adapt to orientation changes and support multiple webOS devices. The visual debugger in Ares goes far beyond the debugging tools previously available to webOS developers, and Ares’ code editor (based on the pioneering work of Mozilla’s Bespin delivers a great experience. Even in beta, we think you’ll find Ares to be the most complete and efficient environment for building webOS apps.
Project Ares and the Palm Mojo SDK complement each other and can be used together in whatever combination suits your needs. To get the most out of Ares, we recommend that you install the SDK, which includes the Palm Emulator and the drivers that support Ares’ ability to launch apps in the emulator or on the device.
With both Ares and the SDK available, you’re free to choose the tools that work best for you-for building apps, you may prefer to use Ares, the Palm Eclipse plug-in, or the editor of your choice in combination with the SDK’s command-line tools. Ares’ instant project upload/download functionality makes it easy to move between Ares and other environments as you work on a project.
If you’re already developing webOS apps using the SDK, you can upload projects to Ares and pick up right where you left off. You can even use the Ares interface builder to add scenes to existing apps. Older scenes can’t be edited in the interface builder, but you can continue to work on them in the Ares code editor-or you may choose to rebuild them in Ares.
Likewise, you can download an app you’ve been working on in Ares and continue editing it in your favorite desktop environment. You won’t have the Ares interface builder, of course, but you can edit your code and use the command-line tools or the Eclipse plug-in to launch your app.
The public beta we’re kicking off today is just the beginning for Project Ares. Our vision is to enable the next-generation mobile developer workflow, letting you move quickly and seamlessly from editing in a browser to debugging on a device and selling applications in Palm’s App Catalog or on the web.
We invite you to join us in Project Ares: try it out, build some apps, and give us your feedback as we work to make our vision a reality. To use Ares, you just need to register for a free Palm developer community account. Once you’ve registered, just log in at ares.palm.com and you’ll be off and running. You’ll also find docs and a tutorial there to help you get off on the right foot.
We hope you’re as excited about Project Ares as we are. We can’t wait to hear what you think, and we look forward to seeing your Ares-built apps. Happy developing!
What’s happening in webOSland is a collection of interesting links to articles and conversations about webOS and webOS development. If you have something you think we might want to include in future postings, you can send it to us at pdn@palm.com or via twitter to @webosdev
What’s happening in webOSland is a collection of interesting links to articles and conversations about webOS and webOS development. If you have something you think we might want to include in future postings, you can send it to us at pdn@palm.com or via twitter to @webosdev