Getting started with the widget development tools
As already reported, Forum Nokia has updated the Aptana plug-in and released new plug-ins for Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Visual Studio to enable development of WRT widgets. The Aptana plug-in offers significant new features that enable practical testing of the S60 Platform Services APIs within the Aptana preview or an external browser. The new plug-ins lack this feature; delivering similar functionality to the original Aptana plug-in.
In addition to the tools themselves, Forum Nokia has posted a series of ‘QuickStart’ guides to accompany the release. ‘QuickStart’ may be a little of a misnomer in this case, as each document provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide to just about everything these plug-ins can do. The guides also assume that the reader has no particular experience of any of the supported tools. If the release of these tools has given you the incentive to start developing widgets, these guides are a great starting point.
The QuickStart guides are available as downloadable PDFs and can be obtained on the following links:
FleaC Licensing
Following May’s feature on FleaC news has been received that there has been a minor update to this simplified API for Symbian C++ (FleaC now stands at version 2.0.1). While the functional changes are presumably small, the latest release is accompanied by a significant change in pricing. FleaC is now available at €189 per developer to enable device builds using the API (building to the emulator remains free). In addition licences can now be purchased from the FleaC web site.
Haptics API
A superficial glance at the press release regarding Immersion joining the Symbian Foundation might have suggested it contained nothing of interest to developers. However, it announces the availability of the TouchSense API that enables developers to control the haptic effects exhibited by a device using Immersion technology. This API can be thought of as a vibra API on steroids, so rather than simply being able to activate a devices vibrator, the Immersion API allows control of the vibration characteristics, such as envelope, frequency, and texture. This should open up a number of possibilities, the most obvious of which are in games – to offer, for example, different feedback on different game controls. However, the availability of the API would depend on a Symbian device manufacturer licensing the Immersion technology. Read the full press release here.