Command Line Tools

The Palm® webOS™ SDK includes the following command-line development tools:

• palm-generate —Generates basic applications and scenes
• palm-package —Packages a Palm application before installation on the emulator or a device
• palm-install —Installs a packaged application on the emulator or a device
• palm-launch —Launches an installed application on the emulator or a device

Figure: Application Development Workflow

These tools run on any supported development platforms. To view a list of the tools installed on a Mac or Linux system (or Windows, with cygwin installed):

1. Open a Command Prompt window.
2. Type palm- and press TAB twice.

palm-generate

You can use the application generator palm-generate to create applications and scenes.

Syntax

The syntax is: palm-generate options

Options

These are the options for this tool.

Option	Effect
-f --overwrite	Overwrites existing files.
-l --list	Lists the available templates.
-p {property} --property= {property}	Defines properties to be used during generation. The {property} parameter contains a JSON object or key-value pairs in the format "key=value". In both cases, surrounding double quotation marks are required. In addition, single quotation marks are required around any value that contains a space character.
-t {template} --template= {template}	Uses the template {template}. If not specified, the default template new{{_app}} is used.
--help	Displays help information.

Examples

The following are examples of the palm-generate command-line tool:

• Create a new application in ~/projects/Ticker and set the application title to "Stock Ticker":

palm-generate -p "title=Stock Ticker" ~/projects/Ticker 

• Create a new application in ~/projects/Hello and set the title, id, and version:

palm-generate -p "{title:'Hello There', id:com.mystuff.hello, version:'2.1'}" ~/projects/Hello 

• Add a new scene named "First" to the application in ~/projects/Ticker :

palm-generate -t new_scene -p "name=First" ~/projects/Ticker 

palm-package

The application packager palm-package prepares an application for installation by converting the files in the application directory to an .ipkg file that can be consumed by the emulator.

Syntax

The syntax is: palm-package [ options ] application-directory

Where:

• application-directory must be specified. It must exist, and must contain a valid Palm application.

Options

These are the options for this tool. The package filename is automatically generated from the id and version properties in the application's appinfo.json file.

Option	Effect
-o {directory} --outdir= {directory}	Specifies the output directory where the package will be created. If not specified, the current directory is used.
--exclude= {pattern}	Excludes files with names matching {pattern}. The {pattern} is a name-matching string, and may contain the wildcards * and ?. Matching is case-sensitive unless the --ignore-case option is used.
-X {pattern_file} --exclude-from= {pattern_file}	Excludes patterns listed in {pattern_file}. The {pattern_file} contains one name-matching string per line. Each string may contain the wildcards * and ?. Matching is case-sensitive unless the --ignore-case option is used.
--ignore-case	Ignore case when matching names against patterns.
--no-exclude-eclipse	By default, palm-package will exclude meta-data files used by Eclipse plug-ins. Use the --no-exclude-eclipse option to include these files.
--no-exclude-hidden	By default, palm-package will exclude hidden files. Use the --no-exclude-hidden option to include these files.
--no-exclude-vcs	By default, palm-package will exclude meta-data files used by following version control systems: CVS, RCS, SCCS, SVN, Arch, Bazaar, Mercurial, and Darcs. Use the --no-exclude-vcs option to include these files.
--help	Displays help information.

Examples

The following are examples of the palm-package command-line tool:

• Create a package for the application in ~/projects/Ticker :

palm-package ~/projects/Ticker 

• Create a package for the application in ~/projects/Ticker and set the output directory to ~/packages :

palm-package -o ~/packages ~/projects/Ticker 

• Create a package for the application in ~/projects/Ticker, and exclude all text files and the tests directory:

palm-package --exclude="*.txt" --exclude="tests" ~/projects/Ticker 

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palm-install

The palm-install tool installs a packaged application on the device or emulator.

Syntax

The syntax is: palm-install [options] [package]

Where:

• [package] is the full path to the package ( .ipkg) file.

Options

These are the options for this tool.

Option	Effect
-d {device} --device= {device}	Specifies the device: tcp for the emulator. usb for a connected device. If not specified, the first device found is used.
-l --list	Lists the application IDs of the installed applications on the specified device.
-r {application} --remove {application}	Removes the application with the application ID {application}, which corresponds to the id property in the application's appinfo.json file.
--help	Displays help information.

Examples

The following are examples of the palm-install command-line tool:

• Install the package (on the default device):

palm-install ~/projects/packages/com.example.app_1.0_all.ipk 

• Remove the application (from the default device):

palm-install -r com.example.app 

• List the applications (on the default device):

palm-install -l 

• List the applications on the usb-connected device:

palm-install -d usb -l 

• List the applications on the emulator:

palm-install -d tcp -l 

palm-launch

The palm-launch tool launches (or closes) an application on the emulator or device.

Syntax

The syntax is: palm-launch [options] {application}

Where:

• {application} is the application ID, which corresponds to the id property in the application's appinfo.json file.

Options

These are the options for this tool.

Option	Effect
-c --close	Closes the application instead of launching it.
-d {device} --device= {device}	Specifies the device: tcp for the emulator. usb for a connected device. If not specified, the first device found is used.
-f --relaunch	Closes and relaunches the application.
-i	Runs the application with the Inspector.
-l --list	Lists the application IDs of the installed applications on the specified device.
-p {parameters} --params= {parameters}	Specifies launch parameters. The {parameters} parameter contains a JSON object or key-value pairs in the format key:value. In both cases, quotation marks are required.
--help	Displays help text.

Examples

The following are examples of the palm-launch command-line tool:

• Launch the application (on the default device):

palm-launch com.example.app

• Launch the application with debugging options:

palm-launch -p "{mojoConfig:true, debuggingEnabled:true}" com.example.app

• Close the application (on the default device):

palm-launch -c com.example.app

• List the applications (on the default device):

palm-launch -l

• List the applications on the usb-connected device:

palm-launch -d usb -l

• List the applications on the emulator:

palm-launch -d tcp -l

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Enabling Developer Mode

To install and test applications on a webOS device, you need to enable Developer mode on the device.

Enable Developer mode

1. In Card view or in the Launcher application, type the following:
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2. Tap the resulting Developer Mode Enabler icon.
3. In the application, move the Developer Mode slider to the On position.
4. Tap Reset the Device .
   When reset is complete, Developer mode is enabled.