Writing mobile applications is not only about the UI. Apps also need content. Often times they fetch dynamic content over the network. This post introduces the basic mechanism for network access in Tabris.js: XMLHttpRequest. The post also explains how higher level networking API can be used. Tabris.js supports a subset of the W3C browser APIs. Part of that API is the XMLHttpRequest. You can use it...
Read MoreI'm happy to announce the availability of J2V8 2.2 (2.2.1 actually). This release adds two important features: 1) Typed Arrays and 2) 64 Bit Windows support. Typed Arrays In Javascript, most arrays are untyped. That is, you can create an array and add anything to it. [raw] var myStuff = []; myStuff[0] = 42; myStuff[1] = true; myStuff[2] = "Strings"; [/raw] A few years ago, the Javascript community realized the need for a more efficient...
Read More[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"] Image via CC from Sh4rp_i[/caption] Documents in Apache CouchDB are usually not really deleted but rather marked as such. In use cases with many document insertions and deletions, this considerably affects disc space consumption and performance. This post shows a practical way how to get rid of deleted documents and make your data base fast and efficient again. Deletion is not deletion Usually documents...
Read MoreIn this tutorial we will show you how to debug a Tabris.js application running on your Android phone using the Over the Air debug protocol. To get started you will need: A Tabris.js account The Tabris.js developer app deployed on your Android phone Eclipse and Eclipse Chrome Dev tools plugin 1. Create a Tabris.js Account Tabris.js is a platform for writing Native Mobile Apps, entirely in JavaScript. If you haven't signed up...
Read MoreWiki's and Readme files are the most common ways to document a build. While documenting a build is better than not documenting it, Wikis and Readme files have two flaws when used to describe a process: 1) they require humans to read them, and 2) they evolve. Of course the fact that Wikis evolve is often seen as their biggest strength. However, when trying to reproduce...
Read MoreTo create a rich interactive UI, the predefined widgets of your platform and corresponding toolkit are often not enough. You want to draw something yourself. Tabris.js provides just that - the Canvas widget for your own drawings. The Canvas is totally empty by default. To draw on it, you use a Context object with numerous drawing functions. These range from simple geometric shapes like rectangles, circles...
Read MoreContainer Dependency Injection (CDI) allows us to inject one or more components (or services) into a dependent object. Usually it makes the code cleaner, as it separates the creation of the injected objects from the component's own behavior. Recently I've made a simple RAP standalone application to play together with CDI without problems. First, let's create our RAP entry point class: [raw] public class HelloWorld extends AbstractEntryPoint...
Read MoreCreating an engaging mobile app is a challenging task. There are several best practice approaches to increase user delight and one of them is the use of animations. Animations can guide the user through the app, provide visual clues or simply give reassuring feedback. In this installment of the Tabris.js examples blog post series we will learn how to create widget animations with Tabris.js and...
Read MoreModeling is a great way to increase productivity by raising the level of abstraction and creating dedicated abstractions for specific cases. Models may serve several purposes, ranging from means for communication to acting as the single input for generating the entire executable system implementation. Therefore, as one might expect, modeling is very often a collaborative activity. When projects and teams are large, concurrent modification, differencing,...
Read MoreBumping versions is a topic that should be fully automated from my point of view. Doing it manually guarantees errors for sure. I experienced it so many times as well :) . Recently we have published a build service for Tabris.js which utilizes Apache Cordova to build Tabris.js apps. We wanted to leave the versioning up to you in order not to create pitfalls like silently...
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