/* jquery */ /* jquery accordion style*/ /* jquery init */

Appcelerator Titanium Development (part 2)

Today Micro Mart magazine published part 2 of my Appcelerator Titanium Development article in issue 1138.

This four page how-to article focusses on using Appcelerator Titanium for smartphone development, and the mobile API. All my examples are for Google's Android operating system, but Apple iOS development is also supported. Once again you can create native look-and-feel mobile applications using only JavaScript code.

This is the Christmas period issue, covering two weeks, complete with end of year reports and plenty of other interesting articles - but still only £2.

Here's an extract from the article:

Today's smartphone marketplace is dominated by Apple iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices. But iPhone development revolves around Apple's Developer Tools and their Objective C language, while Android uses the Java-based Android development kit. Blackberry development is different again.

Wouldn't it be better to forget all this complexity and create your great idea using open standard web development languages? Wouldn't it be better to use a standard cross-platform API, so that the same source code, with the odd small tweak, is applicable to the major smartphone platforms?

Titanium can do just this. Anyone with basic JavaScript skills can create a native look-and-feel smartphone application. And create it using their existing PC, whether that be Windows, Mac OS X or Linux – although due to Apple restrictions iPhone development requires access to OS X at some point.

In fact, Titanium can do more. As there's generic support for the iOS and Android operating systems, your creations can also be deployed on other mobile devices, such as Apple's iPad and the upcoming raft of Android tablets. With Titanium, your ideas can be fast-tracked by rapid cross-platform prototyping, leading to substantial leaps in productivity.

I've posted a PDF of this article on my sample PDF page.

Appcelerator Titanium Development (part 1)

Today Micro Mart magazine published part 1 of my Appcelerator Titanium Development article in issue 1137 (see the Sample PDFs page).

This four page how-to article introduces the Appcelerator Titanium platform and demonstrates how to create cross-platform, native look-and-feel desktop applications using only HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

It's an interesting product that uses WebKit technology and special JavaScript APIs to build a native applications from open standard web languages. The article explained this WebKit-based approach strategy, the Titanium Developer tool, suitable editors, an overview of API functionality and how to start creating your own desktop applications.

Part 2 of the mini-series will focus on smartphone development, still with the Titanium platform, but with the mobile API. All my examples are for Google's Android operating system, but Apple iOS development is also supported. Once again you can create native look-and-feel mobile applications using only JavaScript code.

Here's an extract from the article:

Titanium achieves all this flexibility through a design rather similar to Adobe's AIR product, but with a standards-based open source pedigree. The key component is a platform-specific, WebKit derived runtime engine to render and execute the web pages and scripts as a native application.

WebKit technology is not only very popular – it's found in Adobe AIR's runtime and many browsers like Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari - but it ensure developers can use the latest HTML5 and CSS3 standards, plus the powerful functionality offered by Javascript frameworks such as JQuery, Prototype, Dojo and MooTools.

Importantly, JavaScript behaviour and HTML/CSS rendering is consistent across all platforms, while still exhibiting an OS-specific look-and-feel. This is critical to achieving the best possible user experience on each platform - an important factor in gaining a high rating in the various mobile App stores and marketplaces.

I've posted a PDF of this article on my sample PDF page.