Appcelerator Titanium Intro
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- Nic Jansma is a developer who previously worked at Microsoft and recently founded Wolverine Digital to develop high-performance websites and apps. - He used Appcelerator Titanium to build cross-platform mobile apps, including a LEGO Minifigure catalog app, allowing him to write code once and deploy to both iOS and Android. - While Titanium allowed cross-platform development, Nic still encountered platform-specific issues and the need to occasionally write platform-specific code, but found Titanium a good choice overall for his needs.
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Appcelerator Titanium Intro
- 1. Nic Jansma @NicJ //nicj.net
- 2. Who am I? Nic Jansma Spent 6 years as a dev at Microsoft - Win 7 & IE 9/10 Perf Teams Recently founded Wolverine Digital Developing high-performance websites and apps [email protected] @NicJ http://nicj.net http://github.com/nicjansma
- 3. First Two Apps (Native Android) Minifig Collector (free) TiskTasks for Todoist ($0.99) http://minifigcollector.com http://tisktasks.com
- 4. 3rd App • October 2011: Partnered with the author of the Unofficial LEGO Minifigure Catalog to create an interactive version of his book • Wanted to release on iOS and Android • Native? PhoneGap? Appcelerator?
- 5. Native Development Java Objective-C
- 6. Appcelerator Titanium Mobile • Titanium is a JavaScript runtime that gives you native access to the platform’s controls • You are not building a app via html/css/js (i.e. PhoneGap) JavaScript
- 7. How Titanium Mobile Works • You write code in JavaScript • At runtime, your application has 3 major components: o JavaScript source code (minified and inlined, but not compiled, into Java/Obj-C strings) o Titanium API implementation in the native OS o JavaScript interpreter (V8/Rhino for Android, JavaScriptCore for iOS) • The JavaScript interpreter runs your JavaScript code in an environment with proxies for the native objects (windows, controls, etc)
- 8. Getting Titanium Mobile Step 1: Sign up for Appcelerator • https://my.appcelerator.com/auth/signup • “App EXPLORE” plan = Free: Build, test, ship, sell for free • Additional plans available (more analytics, cloud, support): http://www.appcelerator.com/plans-pricing Step 2: Download Titanium Studio • http://www.appcelerator.com/platform/titanium-studio Step 3: • Profit ???
- 9. Titanium Studio • Eclipse-- (was Aptana Studio) • Editor • Formatting • Code-completion • Build • Debug • Release
- 10. App File Structure • I18n - Internationalization files • modules - Third-Party (or Appcelerator) native modules • Resources o app.js – Startup file o images - Generic Images o android - Android-specific images • imageshigh / etc – Android density/screen-size dirs o iphone - iOS-specific images • @2x files o lib, ui, whatever - your source file dirs
- 11. Hello World var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({ title: 'Hello, World!', layout: 'vertical', backgroundColor: 'white' }); var helloLabel = Ti.UI.createLabel({ text: 'Hello World', color: 'black', font: { fontSize: '20sp' }, height: '40dp', width: '250dp' }); win.add(helloLabel); var helloButton = Ti.UI.createButton({ title: 'Click me!', font: { fontSize: '20sp' }, top: '20dp', height: '40dp', width: '250dp' }); helloButton.addEventListener('click', function() { alert('you clicked me!'); }); win.add(helloButton); win.open();
- 12. Titanium Mobile APIs • AJAX / Web services • In-App Purchases • Geolocation • Camera • Media / Photo Gallery • Accelerometer • Maps • Analytics • Social Sharing (Facebook, etc) • Extensible with your own native iOS/Android packages
- 15. Future Platform Support • Blackberry • WinPhone7
- 16. Pros • One codebase for two platforms o You’ll (theoretically) spend less time than writing two native apps o Maintenance on one codebase should be easier in the long run • Native interface controls o Your apps can look just like native ones • Might be able to reuse your JavaScript in other parts of your project o eg., Web front-end, Node.js backend • Platform is open-source o https://github.com/appcelerator/titanium_mobile • JavaScript is fun!
- 17. Cons • Platform is young and still changing • Need to learn a new platform / SDK / quirks o Knowing the ins & outs of native iOS / Android will help • You’ll still have lots of if(iOS){} and if(android){} o LEGO Minifig Collector has 24 blocks of code that are Android or iOS specific • Performance isn’t 100% of a native app • SDK/API Documentation is weak (but getting better) • Q&A support forum is a mess (use SO instead)
- 18. Unofficial LEGO Minifigure Catalog • Took ~1 month to develop • http://minifigure.org/application • Releasing content updates via IAP • Got featured in iTunes Catalogs category for a week • Looking back, Titanium was the right choice for our product’s needs
- 19. Lessons Learned • I probably spent as much time learning Titanium and building my first app as I would have spent learning native iOS o Now I can build apps in Titanium quickly, but still need to learn native iOS o 2nd+ Titanium app will be a lot easier to build • It takes time to ramp-up on good JavaScript patterns o CommonJS modules, Crockford-isms, http://shichuan.github.com/javascript-patterns/ • I like JavaScript o Now I’m developing a game where JavaScript is the whole stack: Node.js websockets and HTTP server, frontend in HTML/CSS/JS, mobile version via Titanium • iOS simulator is a lot faster to test on. Android emulator is slow! • For community support, you’ll need to use a combination of the Appcelerator API Docs, Q&A site, videos and StackOverflow
- 20. Lessons Learned, continued • You’ll spend time adapting when they release SDK updates o 1.7.x => 1.8.x: Took me 2 days to find and fix bugs from SDK changes • You won’t double your sales just by releasing on both platforms 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 Units 2000 1500 1000 500 0 iOS Android
- 21. Good Reads
- 22. Links Appcelerator • http://appcelerator.com • http://docs.appcelerator.com/titanium/2.1/index.html • http://developer.appcelerator.com/questions/newest • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/titanium • http://vimeo.com/appcelerator Community Projects • Joli https://github.com/xavierlacot/joli.js/