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Web Widgets on Android

Web Widgets on Android. MobileMonday Developer Day, Dusseldorf, 23 February 2010. Status Quo: Ecosystem View. Android is not YAMP! (Yet Another Mobile Platform) Pervasive, rich, attractive, (mostly) open Enjoys wide industry support

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Web Widgets on Android

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  1. Web Widgets on Android MobileMonday Developer Day, Dusseldorf, 23 February 2010

  2. Status Quo: Ecosystem View • Android is not YAMP! (Yet Another Mobile Platform) • Pervasive, rich, attractive, (mostly) open • Enjoys wide industry support • Shipping 60,000 cell phones per day (but still competing for market share) • Used increasingly in non-mobile verticals, such as smart home • Paradigm shift for mobile Java

  3. Status Quo: Developer View Porting for and within Android ecosystem is a full time job! Android is YAMP in their portfolio! Requires new porting efforts, knowledge, testing, devices, marketing Avalanche of versions (1.0-2.1) in just two years! OEMs & operators customize UI, features, APIs to bring value and differentiate Different features and screen sizes to be addressed

  4. Q: What happens in 2-5 years?

  5. Hopefully not! Source: abcnews.go.com

  6. Can web apps help?

  7. Mobile Web App Ecosystem Browser Web Server Web Server Web Server

  8. Traditional Approach to Mobile Web Apps Disadvantages: • No integration with phone functions, like location, messaging, PIM, address book, etc. • Data bandwidth • No offline mode • Web page lifecycle doesn’t feel like native app Advantages: Easy, easy, easy! Common web technologies, portable, variety of tools Lots of web developers  Apps in the cloud easy to update

  9. How about webwidgets?

  10. Web Widgets (for Mobile) Define web widget: Application, written using common web technologies (HTML, JS, SVG, Flash, etc.) Deployed as a single package file into the end user's browser Processed and interpreted as a set of locally-hosted web pages Obeying lifecycle, security and networking requirements Lifecycle feels like a native app Originally developed by Opera and called Opera Widgets: http://widgets.opera.com Evolved further into W3C Widget specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/

  11. Web Widget Anatomy <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <widget version="1.0“ xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" id="http://acme.com/MyFancyWidget" width="240" height="320"> <name>My Fancy Widget</name> <icon src="icons/icon.png"/> <content src="index.html"/> </widget> Example: config.xml Packaging format: single zip file, .wgt extension Mime type: application/widget Configuration (manifest) file: config.xml Entry point: index.html or custom file Content: HTML, JS, any resource, any mime type recognized by the browser (Flash, SVG, video, etc.) Security and networking enforcement Signing

  12. Web Widget Ecosystem Browser Widget Web Server Web Service xyz Server

  13. Web Widgets (for Mobile) Disadvantages: • No integration with phone functions, like location, messaging, PIM, address book, etc. Advantages: Easy, easy, easy! Common web technologies, portable, several SDKs Lots of web developers  Works in offline mode Lifecycle feels like a native app

  14. What about JIL/BONDI/WAC?

  15. Beyond W3C Widgets BONDI“uses web technologies and builds upon them to provide new APIs to the key mobile phone functionality like Contacts, Calendar, Messaging & Location” JIL will “enable different widgets and applications to run seamlessly on different handset platforms and operating systems across different mobile operators, while safeguarding customer security, data privacy and billing systems” Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) “aims to unite a fragmented marketplace by involving players from all related industries to create a community based on openness and transparency to the benefit of all” Translation please: cross-platform app model, based on W3C Widgets, extended by built-in JavaScript APIs for device access

  16. Use Cases • Sticky GeoNotes • Paper notes are so lame  • Leave a text/voice/video message for your family and colleagues • Based on your current location • Social Address Book • Contact list from the native address book • Existing Facebook friends automatically detected • Direct access to the friend’s wall • Messaging editor with merged SMS and Facebook history • Buttons to initiate a voice/video call

  17. Enriched Web Widget Ecosystem Browser Widget Web Server Web Service xyz Server Messaging Location PIM Gallery Camera File

  18. Why Should You Care? But beware of these pitfalls: • Browser-specific workarounds • Screen sizes and orientation • Large amounts of business logic and networking code in JS may not be too much fun Too many BIG players pushing for it! JIL devices shipped in 2009 BONDI devices shipping in 2010 Cross-platform apps easier to develop!

  19. Beyond JIL/BONDI/WAC (Problem solved! What else can we ask for?)

  20. Beyond JIL/BONDI/WAC Wouldn’t you like to: … expose your own services to widgets? … write business logic in Java rather than JavaScript? … write networking code in Java rather than JavaScript? … leave the widget code to UI designers and developers? You’d be out of luck nowadays: current implementations don’t provide means to extend the device APIs

  21. Mobile OSGi But there are efforts in that direction based on mobile OSGi: • OSGi used on mobile, embedded, smart home, enterprise platforms, and spreading • Mobile OSGi (JSR 232) deployed on a wide variety of mobile platforms (Android, Symbian, WM, BREW) • Enables dynamic code deployment and update, dynamic service wiring, code reuse, versioning and more: http://www.osgi.org/About/WhyOSGi • OSGi complements, not replacesAndroid platform http://www.osgi.org/About/Technology

  22. Mobile OSGi + Web Widgets Browser Widget Web Server Web Server Web Service xyz Server App Service Messaging Location PIM Gallery Camera File Mobile OSGi

  23. Remote OSGi Services Mobile OSGi and Web Widgets? So, how does it work: Step 1: Design and implement your service in Java public interface MyService { public void doSomething(String param); } Step 2: Register in OSGi as “remotable” service MyService instance = new MyServiceImpl(); Properties props = new Properties(); props.put("org.osgi.remote.publish", Boolean.TRUE); bundleContext.registerService(MyService.class.getName(), instance, props);

  24. Using Services from Widgets Step 3: Use Remote Service Registry JS API to bind services and get a proxy service object var so = RSR.bind(“MyService”); Step 4: Invoke a function on the proxy service object so.doSomething(“param”); Easy enough!

  25. Conclusion • Web Widgets increasingly seen as a cross-platform app model with huge market potential • Android-based devices supporting Web Widgets are shipping now • Web Widgets are empowered with rich device access capabilities • Mobile OSGi offers a middleware solution to allow dynamic APIs for Widgets

  26. Thanks Sinisha Djukic s.djukic@prosyst.com Additional resources: www.prosyst.com dz.prosyst.com mobileosgi.blogspot.com

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