Mobile Application Development Getting started with Application development of the iPhone and Blackberry

Mobile Application Development

Getting started with Application development of the iPhone and Blackberry

Introduction

Hello I’m a Mac (iPod Touch), and I’m a PC (Blackberry Bold)

Sorry wrong commercial but technically correct iPhone SDK was designed to run on Mac OS X 10.5.7and Blackberry SDK was designed to run on MS Windows though it can sort of run on Linux

under wine.

A Tale of Two Phones How to build “Hello World” app on iPhone and Blackberry

Skills learned in 45 minutes you will leave knowing (I hope) how to get started on app

building for both platforms

WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration | December 8, 2009 | ***Program Title***

iPhone

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html 4.5”(H) X 2.4”(W) X 0.48”(D) Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams) Screen size: 3.5” Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi Input method: Multi-touch Operating system: OS X Storage: 4GB or 8GB Data standard: Quad-band GSM (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900) : Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0


http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

what it looks like

Apple iPhone


What I need

What is needed to get started Platform, equipment, registration

What is SDK What limitations are there

Storage, memory, energy, SDK What to do when things go worng What example. What do I do to get it from code to phone.

Prerequisites

In order to begin programming on the iPhone or iPod touch you will need:1. A copy of Apple’s iPhone SDK2. An iPhone or iPod touch3. An Apple iPhone Developers Licence4. An Intel-based Macintosh running 10.5.4 and >5. An available USB port6. An internet connection, and 7. A familiarity with some OOP

SDK

Download your copy of iPhone SDK from Apple’s iPhone Dev Center – http://developer.apple.com/iphone/

You must also join the developer program before you download

Current release Sept 21st, 2009 is 3.1.4

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/

iPhone/iPod

You do not need an iPhone or iPod touch since Apple does supply a simulator in SDK But you will need a unit if you are going to do some

serious code building and testing There is currently no tether less capabilities with the

iPhone so you have to use the supplied cable to install the software you built

ADP

Apple Developer’s Programme – http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program You need a licence to be able to sign your app, download

to platform, and to test and debug Program costs $99.00US/year for individual and

$299.00US/year for enterprises. The University is a member of the ADP and can register up

to 200 units per year.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program

Mac

SDK requires a Macintosh unit iMac, MacBook, mini, Intel-based 32 bit – why? Leopard Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6 At least 1G ram and lots of disk space

USB

At least 1 available USB 2.0 port Enables you to tether your iPhone to your computer for

transfers and testing

Internet Connection

Allows for testing with WiFi and EDGE

OOP

Object Oriented Programming Usually objective-C or objective C++ Objective-C is based on standard C with OO extensions Consult any objective-C or Cocoa books to get up to speed

SDK

The Software Developers Kit consists of several components: Xcode Instruments Dashcode Simulator Interface Builder Cocoa touch

Xcode

Most important tool in SDK Provides comprehensive project development and

management Source editing Documentation Graphical debugger Built around GNU tools – gcc and gdb

Instruments

Profiles how apps work under the hood Samples memory usage Monitors performance Provides graphical time-based performance plots which

shows resource use Built around Dtrace package from Sun Helps track down memory leaks Makes sure apps run efficiently on the iPhone

Dashcode

Creates stand-alone Web-based applications that run outside of browser environments Works like a browser with layout and debugging tools Web-based development approach

Simulator

Runs on Macintosh and enables you to create and test applications Does not need a connection to an actual iPhone or iPod –

as shown in the build example Offers same API as on the iPhone Runs x86 code natively on the Macintosh You need to recompile with ARM-based code used on the

iPhone

Interface Builder

IB provides a rapid prototyping tool Allows graphical layout of user interfaces Lots of prebuilt interfaces from Xcode You draw the interface using visual design tools and then

connect them to objects and method calls in your application

Cocoa touch

Consists of a library of classes provided by Apple for app development Large number of framework libraries such as windows text

and tables that help build graphical event-driven applications

Same as AppKit on the Mac OS X Main reason why iPhone apps are so small

Limitations

Storage Data Access Memory Limits Interaction Energy Application User SDK

Storage

Entire iPhone OS fills just a few hundred megabytes of space Provides an extensive framework library

Compact apps for telephony, audio playback, email, web browsing Just enough programming support to create flexible interfaces

Data access

Every app is sandboxed Cannot access from other apps or folders including

onboard iTunes library. Can access any data freely available over the internet

Memory

TIGHT Memory management is critical

Does not support disk-swapping virtual memory When you run out of memory the device reboots

Random reboots are not what the user wants Too many high resolution images or audio files will bring your app into

auto terminate zone Use PNG images as your preferred image format since SDK has

an app called pngcrush that optimizes the image file

Interaction

No need to fret about losing physical input devices Multitouch allows for a screen size larger than the actual

physical reality you hold in your hands Autocorrecting onscreen keyboard Accelerometer to detect orientation Focus app design efforts on easy-to-tap interfaces

You can only use one window at a time

Energy

You cannot ignore energy limitations SDK helps in design of apps to limit CPU use Suspend programs when not in use

Some programs when left running produce high levels of waste heat – so much so that the device becomes hot to the touch

The camera app is one such example

Application

Strong “one-app-at-a-time” policy Cannot run in the background like Apple’s mail and Phone

utilities Each time the app runs it must clean up before passing

control onto the next app Cannot leave daemons running

An “Open SDK” created by users exists which bypasses this limitation but these apps cannot be added to or sold by the iPhone store

Does support push data from Web services

User

Must design your app around short interaction periods Must be prepared to be cut off (i.e. when the user puts the

device back into their pocket) Save your app state between sessions and relaunch

quickly to the state the last time the program ran

SDK

SDK has limitations Garbage collection is non existent – you are responsible

for retaining and releasing objects in memory Many libraries are only partly implemented

You cannot use some proprietary classes

Public SDK frameworks are not as varied as private ones – i.e. Those from the open SDK jailbreak world

debugging

Shark Code profiler can help optimise performance

Dtrace Comprehensive dynamic tracing framework created by

Sun for trouble shooting kernel and application problems in real time

D programs are awk like in structure Instruments

Dtrace GUI

Example

Start Xcode Create new iPhone/iPod “hello World” Project Build and run app Status bar Setting the background Idle timer Using Xcode assistant Using Xcode console and printf review

Start Xcode

Apple provides a tool named Xcode as the Apple Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, for both Mac OS X and iPhone development. Here you will startup Xcode.

1. Click on Finder, which is at the bottom left of the screen on the Dock. This opens Finder, showing your disk and files on the disk.

2. Near the top left of the Finder window, find the word Devices.

3. Under the word Devices, observe the word Macintosh HD.

4. Click on the Macintosh HD, and observe the Folder named Developer.

5. Double-click on the folder named Developer.

6. Look for the folder named Applications.

7. Double-click on the folder named Applications.

8. Look for the icon labeled Xcode.

9. Double-click on the icon named Xcode.

10. After a moment you should observe Xcode running, as shown by the top-level menu saying Xcode.

Create new iPhone/iPod app

In this step, you will create a new Xcode project named helloworld.

1. From the Xcode menu, select File > New Project.

1. Click on iPhone OS Application category (if not already selected).

2. Click on Window-Based Application.

3. Click on Choose button.

4. Enter the name helloworld.

5. Click on Save button. The result of the above steps is that Xcode will create a new project named helloworld that

includes template files to start your development.

Build and Run helloworld

Here you will build and run helloworld, observing the results of the default build.

1. In Xcode, find the icon in the top tool bar labeled Build and Go.

2. Click on the Build and Go, which will build your project, and start it, running it in the iPhone Simulator.

3. NOTE: If the iPhone Simulator is already running, you may get an error in Xcode saying it cannot startup the iPhone Simulator. If you get this error, press “Command+Tab” key until you select the iPhone Simulator, and then exit the simulator.

4. Observe the helloworld App running in the iPhone Simulator, making note of the top-level Status Bar, and the all-white window.

5. Press the Home key on the iPhone Simulator (at the bottom of the iPhone) to stop the helloworld app and return to Home on the iPhone Simulator.

Hello World Code

1. Create a new iPhone project of the “View-Based Application” type.

2. Open HelloWorldViewController.m in the “Classes” folder, uncomment the ViewDidLoad method on line #35 and add this code to it: - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; UILabel *helloLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(100, 30, 100, 30)]; [self.view addSubview:helloLabel]; helloLabel.text = @"Hello World"; }

3. Hit the “Build and Go” button and watch the magic


This is what you get


Enhancing the helloworld app

While the default helloworld is a good start, we can enhance the application as follows:

1. Hide the Status Bar.

2. Make sure background of window is always white.

3. Disable timer so that display does not turn off after a short delay of non-use.

Status Bar

Since we want as much light as possible from the helloworld, it makes sense to hide the Status Bar that is at the top of the Window. Follow these steps to create the code to hide the Status Bar, followed by a rebuild and a re-run in the iPhone Simulator:

1. Press the Command+Tab keys until you return to Xcode.

2. Looking at the Xcode, on the left you will see a window named Groups & Files. 3. Under the Groups & Files, you will see helloworld. 4. Under helloworld, you will see a folder named Classes. 5. Click on the Classes folder. 6. After clicking on the Classes folder, you should see two files listed under File Name on the right side of the screen:

o helloworldAppDelegate.h

o helloworldAppDelegate.m

7. Click on helloworldAppDelegate.m.

8. Observe the helloworldAppDelegate.m code shown on the lower right portion of the Xcode screen, looking for a line of code that looks like this:

o - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application

9. This method, applicationDidFinishLaunching:, is called at the end of your application launch.

10. At the end of the line, notice the application parameter. This parameter gives you access to the application object that is the heart of your iPhone application.

11. Observe the line of code that looks like this:

o // Override point for customization after application launch

12. This is a comment, and it tells us to add code below this point to customize the helloworld application after launch. This is indeed what we want to do, i.e., we want to hide the Status Bar after our application launches.

Cont.

12. At the line below the comment, start typing the following code, but instead of pressing the return key at the end of the line, press the ESC key to display the list of choices at this point in your code:

o [application

14. To repeat: you should type [application, and then press the ESC key. This will show you all the choices you can enter next in your code.

15. With the list of choices displayed, use your mouse to scroll down until you find the choice named setStatusBarHidden: (observe that the : is part of the name).

16. Double-click on setStatusBarHidden:, and you will see the following line of code in your helloworldAddDelegate.m:

o [application setStatusBarHidden:(BOOL)

17. Observe that “(BOOL)” is highlighted, and if you immediately type YES, the (BOOL) will be replaced by the YES, resulting in your line of code looking like this:

o [application setStatusBarHidden:YES

18. Complete the line of code by adding the closing ] and a semicolon:

o [application setStatusBarHidden:YES];

19. Make a mental note of what the above line says: “Send the message named setStatusBarHidden:, with the argument YES, to the object referenced by application”. This line of code is Objective-C, which is a super-set of the C programming language.

20. Again, make sure you know how to “say” the line of code above: “Send the message names setStatusBarHideen: with the argument YES to the object reference by application.”

21. Once again click on Build and Go. 22. Assuming you did not have any errors from the previous step, you should see the helloworld App running in the iPhone

Simulator with the Status Bar hidden. 23. While in the iPhone Simulator, press the Home button to stop the helloworld application, returning to the home screen.

As a review, in this step you used the Objective-C message passing syntax to send a message to the application object, telling it to hide the Status Bar.

Setting the background colour

Although the window background is set to white by default by the template, in this step you will set the window to a white background under program control. Along the way, you will temporarily set the window background to red, to confirm that you indeed have control of the window background.

1. Press Command+Tab to return to Xcode.

2. The helloworldAppDelegate.m code should still be visible from the previous exercise. If not, click on the helloworldAppDelegate.m name to make the code visible in the editor.

3. Under the line of code you added in the previous exercise, start typing the following code, including the “.” at the end of the word window, then press the ESC key:

o window.

4. After pressing the ESC key, you should again observe a pop-up window, showing you choices.

5. Using your mouse, scroll to find backgroundColor. 6. Double-click on backgroundColor, which results in your code looking as follows:

o window.backgroundColor

7. Continue typing the line so that it appears as follows, once again pressing the ESC key at the end of the text:

o window.backgroundColor = [UIColor

8. After you press the ESC key, you will see the window of choices, and use your mouse to select redColor:

o window.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor

Cont.

9. Then go ahead and add the ending ] and ; to complete the line:

o window.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];

10. The line of code you just entered says to do two things:

1. Send a message named redColor to the class named UIColor.

2. Set the window property named backgroundColor to the results of the [UIColor redColor] message.

11. Click on Build and Go.

12. Assuming there are no errors from the previous step, you should see that your window now has the background color of red.

13. Click on the iPhone Simulator Home key to exit helloworld. 14. Return to Xcode, and change the redColor to whiteColor:

o window.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];

15. Click on Build and Go.

16. Assuming there are no errors from the previous step, you should see that your window now has the background color of white.

17. Click on the iPhone Simulator Home key to exit helloworld. As a review, in this step you learn how to set the background property of the window object. You also learned

how to send a color message to the UIColor class.

Idle timer

As a review, in this step you disabled the idle timer by sending a message to the application object at program startup. You also sent another message to the application object to re-enable the idle timer at program termination.

Hint - use [application setIdleTimerDisabled:(BOOL)

Xcode research assistant

In the previous step, how did I know about the applicationWillTerminate: message? The answer is that I used the Xcode Research Assistant, and in this step you too will find how to make use of the Xcode Research Assistant.

Hint - Double-click on UIApplicationDelegate to select the complete word

Using the Xcode menu, click on Help > Show Research Assistant

A bit of debugging

Although helloworld is a graphical app for the iPhone, you can send status and/or debugging information to the Xcode console by using the printf() function. In this step, you will put printf() functions in the helloworldDelegate.m code, so you can see when the application starts, and when it ends.

Review of Key Skills

As a review, you have learned the following skills during this example on constructing a helloworld App

How to setup a software development environment for the iPhone.

How to use Xcode to build an iPhone Window-Based Application.

How to hide the iPhone Status Bar.

How to change the background color of an iPhone window.

How to disable and re-enable the iPhone idle timer.

How to use the Xcode Research Assistant.

How to use the Xcode console to view output from printf().


From Xcode to iPhone

You have to sign your app Best place is to go through the developers site and obtain

a certificate. Then build for the device

Summary

Briefly Covered iPhone app development Limitations Example 3.1.x unjailbreaks – so far can only run 3.0.4 or

2.2.4

References

http://developer.apple.com http://cydia.saruk.com Numerous books on iPhone,

http://developer.apple.com/

http://cydia.saruk.com/

Blackberry

The Blackberry Bold uses the Marvell "Tavor" PXA930 624 MHz ARM Architecture based - XScale processor

Multimedia built-in GPS and Blackberry maps QWERTY keyboard Half-VGA (480x320 pixel resolution) 65,000-color display Quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g) Bluetooth 2.0 with full A2DP support Measures: 4.5" (H) X 2.6" (W) x 0.5" (D) Weighs: 4.7 ounces.


What it looks like

Blackberry Bold


What I need

What is needed to get started Platform, equipment, registration

What is JDE What limitations are there

Storage, memory, energy, JDE What to do when things go worng What example. What do I do to get it from code to phone.


Platform

You will need: Computer running Windows 2000 SP1, Windows XP,

Windows Vista, or Windows 2007 The more RAM and CPU speed you have, the better For all Blackberry development tools such as free

downloads, developers knowledge base, etc., head for: http://www.blackberry.com/developers

You will need to download two development environments Blackberry Java Development Environment (JDE) Blackberry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse


http://www.blackberry.com/developers

JDE

Fully integrated stand-alone environment Need JDK installed first Everything is included

Writing code with built-in editorDebugging with array of device simulatorsBuilding and signing your application

To load your application onto a Blackberry device directly from your computer (i.e. without uploading to a server and download via a wireless connection) Need to install Blackberry Desktop Manager which include

the device drivers for the blackberry


Getting Code Signing Keys

You need to get code signing keys from RIM if your application: Uses persistent store Cryptography APIs Embeddable web browser A set of code signing keys costs $20.00 More info at:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/javaappdev/codekeys.jsp https://www.blackberry.com/SinedKeys/


http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/javaappdev/codekeys.jsp

You need to remember

Limited CPU and memory Java as the Native API

Always in a garbage-collected, bytecode-interpreted environment without real-time access to the hardware

Limited screen real-estate Largest screen measures 3.25” and has a 360 X 480

resolution User input

The Storm has a touch screen – other devices don’t Many different devices


Create a BlackBerry device profile

In the BlackBerry® Smartphone Simulator, double-click the fledgelauncher.exe file.

In the drop-down list, select Create a new simulator profile. In the Software version drop-down list, select the software version. In the Handheld model drop-down list, select the BlackBerry® device you

want to use. In the Profile name field, type a name for this profile. Click Configure. In the Edit simulator profile dialog box, on the Hardware tab, specify the

hardware settings for this BlackBerry Smartphone Simulator. On the Network tab, specify the network settings. On the Advanced tab, specify advanced settings such as LCD timeout, and

add command line arguments for the BlackBerry Smartphone Simulator. Click OK.


Launching Blackberry Simulator

In the BlackBerry® Smartphone Simulator directory, launch fledgelauncher.exe.

In the drop-down list, select Launch a simulator. In the Profile list, select the profile. Click Go.


Hello World

I want to show you how to create a simple Blackberry application in Java. Of course since this is Java, we will be typing way more than it is logically necessary. For example, a simple Hello World application requires no less than two classes, with a full complement of boring boilerplate code. If you are a long time Java programmer you probably just went “Only two? Phew! I thought it was worse”.


Hello World

Our first class is basically there just to hold the main function, because that’s what you do in Java. You create a class, then you declare your main function, and then you writhe your procedural code inside:



Import net.rim.device.api.ui.UiApplication; public class HelloWorld extends UiApplication {public HelloWorld(){ pushScreen(new HelloScreen()); } public static void main(String[] args) {HelloWorld instance = new HelloWorld(); instance.enterEventDispatcher(); } }

Hello World

There are two things here that might require explanation. The pushScreen method takes an UI container as a parameter and then paints it on screen. In our case this container is going to be a class extending net.rim.device.api.ui.container.MainScreen – I will show you how to create one in just a second.

The enterEventDispatcher method enters the main loop and handles capturing and dispatching events. The rest should be self explanatory.



Now for the actual GUI container:import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.LabelField; import net.rim.device.api.ui.container.MainScreen; public class HelloScreen extends MainScreen {public HelloScreen() {super(); LabelField applicationTitle = new LabelField("My First Applicaiton"); setTitle(applicationTitle); LabelField hello = new LabelField("Hello World!"); add(hello); } }

Hello World

As you can see, blackberry apps are built just like any other Java GUI apps. You initialize container, label, field and button objects, you add them to each other creating hierarchies. There are some layout classes that can help you out and if you need to capture events you attach a listener to an object just like you would do it in Swing app. This is how our app looks like in the emulator:


Building Your App

With all of the components in place, we're ready to build and deploy your application to your BlackBerry device. From within the JDE, select Debug | Go to start the build process. The progress of the build will appear in the status window at the bottom of the JDE.

Once the build process has completed successfully, the client simulator will open and display your application

You can use the simulator to test your application and ensure that the program runs as expected. In this example, you should be able to use the controls on the simulator to scroll to your program icon and use the return key to launch it. It should display the text "Hello World" on the BlackBerry screen. To exit the program, use your mouse to click the Escape button on the side, or use the [Esc] key on your keyboard.


Deploying Your App

Since we've developed this application using the BlackBerry JDE, deployment is pretty easy. When you build your application, the development environment builds the .JAD (Java Application Descriptor) file that is required to distribute your application, along with the required .COD files.

The easiest way to distribute these files is to make them available on a Web server that your BlackBerry users can access. Before you can publish these files, you'll need to do some configuration on the Web server to make this happen. On your Web server MIME settings, you'll need to ensure that you have the following settings:

.JAD text/vnd.sun.j2me.ap-descriptor .COD application/vnd.rim.cod

You can then give users a URL that points to the .JAD file. When they browse this file from their BlackBerry, it will trigger the installation of the program you've created.

This is a very simple application example—given that the Blackberry uses Java, you can develop just about any application that you can imagine.


This is what it looks like


An Actual Tutorial

http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/blackberry_tutorial.html Created by a student in the tetherless computing lab

WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration | December 8, 2009 | Mobile Application Development

http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/blackberry_tutorial.html

http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/blackberry_tutorial.html

References

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/

Beginning Blackberry Development, Apress, ISBN 978-1-4302-7225-0-53999


http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/

Blackberry versus iPhone

A comment I found to spark the debate: And how do they stack up? Frankly, I've concluded it's

time to bury the BlackBerry. A revolution in its time, thanks to its ability to provide instant, secure e-mail anywhere, the BlackBerry has become the Lotus Notes of the mobile world: It's way past its prime.

Numerous websites on comparisons between the two devices


Conclusion

Saw courses on app development are available Both blackberry and iPhone


Documents

Mobile Application Development Getting started with Application development of the iPhone and Blackberry