HP webOS Developer Blog

This past weekend (April 20-21) fellow Developer Relations member Roy Sutton and I were proud to represent Enyo at the RVA Hackathon in Richmond, VA. This was a free, 24 hour event for developers of all kinds to come together and work on various projects. The event started on Friday evening and lasted throughout the night and into the next evening.

On Saturday morning, we teamed with Arthur Thornton – a name familiar in the Enyo community and creator of several popular webOS apps – to take on the task of helping him create an audio identification app. The goal for the day was to create an Enyo-based application that would successfully run on the TouchPad and could be easily packaged for multiple platforms.

Things got started as Arthur began setting up the server required to perform the back-end audio fingerprinting/matching, while Roy and I worked on the core functionality. By lunchtime we had the server responding to service calls, local databases created, and much of the core functionality working. After some chicken tacos, we powered on for a few hours: adding missing features, fixing inevitable bugs, and chugging copious amounts of Red Bull. A couple hours before the event was officially over, we had an app that could record audio, match the audio fingerprint, and save that item to your history.

The only real technical issue we experienced was with the free audio-fingerprinting service that was used, which failed to match as many songs as we expected. However, there are other paid audio-fingerprinting services available that promise more success, so this issue could be resolved without too much of a headache.

When it was all said and done, we had a working proof-of-concept that took around eight hours to complete. I’m once again surprised by how quickly an Enyo app can come together. So, what are you doing with your day?

As April draws to a close we are pleased to share more code for Open webOS. This month’s scheduled release includes support for Node.js as well as updates to Enyo and Ares.

In addition, we are pleased to announce early delivery of the System Manager Bus (which was originally scheduled for July) and a release of three policy components based on our Platform Portability Layer. We’re happy to be ahead of schedule in getting this component of the Open webOS platform into your hands.

Node.js is a JavaScript platform for deploying event-driven applications. It also forms the backbone for writing services in Open webOS. The code available from this release includes the bindings necessary to access the System Manager Bus.

The System Manager Bus, also known as Luna-service2, implements the Inter-Process Communications (IPC) mechanism used by Open webOS. Included with the release are utilities for monitoring and debugging. More information is available here. We were pleased to have this piece ready ahead of schedule so we’re making it available to the community.

The three system policy components included in this release are Powerd, Sleepd, and Storaged. Each is implemented using our Platform Portability Layer and demonstrates how to interface to system devices. More information is available on the Systems Policy Components page.

The Enyo team has been hard at work. This latest release of Enyo includes a number of new features including the new List widget. Also, the Ares 2 repo is now public. Head over to enyojs.com for more on both Enyo and Ares.

Finally, as with other Open webOS components, you can find all the source online and detailed information at the project Web site. Keep the feedback, pull requests, comments, and ideas coming. Open webOS is already a better platform from the contributions the community has made!

A few astute developers may have noticed a couple of new features in the My Apps section of the Developer Center Web site. This last weekend we rolled out some changes to make it easier for developers to monitor their apps and generate promo codes.

The first change allows developers to see app reviews for their apps within the Developer Center. Developers can view the reviews by version, date, or rating. With this new feature developers will be better able to monitor user sentiment and quickly determine if updates are producing the desired effect.

The second change allows for shorter promo codes. These new ‘printable’ promo codes are easier for users to type than the traditional ‘secure’ promo codes. Developers can now choose the type of promo codes they generate depending upon how the codes will be distributed.

We continue to work on the Developer Center to improve the usefulness for developers. We know how important good tools are for engaging and retaining customers. We look forward to introducing even more features in the future. If you would like to discuss the new features please visit this post in the forum.