As Nokia strengthens its offerings for Series 40 consumers and developers, we are offering two new and improved tools to help developers create Series 40 web apps. Nokia Xpress Web App Builder, which guides coders and non-coders through a simple process of creating rich Web apps in minutes, has graduated from public beta to final release. Nokia Web Tools 2.3 offers new features that help developers create, test, package, and deploy Series 40 apps, including preparing them for distribution on Nokia Store.
A free Nokia Developer webinar, Introduction to Xpress Web App Builder for Series 40, will feature live coding demos that show you how to use the new Nokia Xpress Web App Builder to create a Series 40 web app in mere minutes. You will also learn how to import your web app into other Nokia tools for customisation.
Through live coding demonstrations of the new Nokia Xpress Web App Builder, this webinar will show you how easy it is to create a Series 40 web app from RSS feeds, social media content, and even clipped live web content. You will learn how to customise your app with a unique look and feel, advertising, and other features. You can also submit your resulting web app to Nokia Store for access to millions of consumers around the world.
Join Tapan Acharya, lead developer consultant and evangelist with Nokia. He will explain the architecture of the new Xpress Web App Builder and describe how it relates to the Series 40 web apps platform. Tapan will also demonstrate the tool as he creates and tests high-quality web apps.
Web apps created with Nokia Xpress Web App Builder are suitable for publication to Nokia Store without the need for further development. For developers who want to add features to web apps created with Xpress Web App Builder, Tapan will explain how to use Nokia Web Tools 2.0 to import the apps for customisation.
Today we proudly announce availability of the new Xpress Web App Builder—a new set of easy-to-use tools for Series 40 developers. These new tools make web app development even easier. With minimal effort, developers can create great apps for recent Series 40 devices, including the expanding range of Nokia Asha devices.
The new and enhanced Xpress Web App Builder tools are for Series 40 development only, and will replace the current app wizard tools.
If you have published Series 40 apps using app wizard, we recommend that you re-publish using new Xpress Web App Builder. The new tools offer more stylish templates, social media content and new ways to monetize web apps, without the need to write a single line of code. In addition, apps created with Xpress Web App Builder will be available as source code downloads that can be imported into Nokia Web Tools for further customisation.
Please find below some important dates as we transition from app wizard to the new enhanced Xpress Web App Builder tools:
From September 30, 2012, the app wizard tool will not be accepting new registrations. Series 40 developers are encouraged to start using the new Xpress Web App Builder tools to create web apps.
Until October 31, 2012, existing app wizard publishers can submit limited updates for existing app. We encourage developers to sign-in at appwizard.nokia.com to gather images, links, descriptions, and report data for published apps, and then re-publish these apps using the new Xpress Web App Builder tools.
Existing app wizard apps will continue be available in Nokia Store until the end of 2013. In the interim period, consumers will continue to be able to download and enjoy app wizard apps as usual. Simultaneously, Nokia reserves the right to remove select app wizard apps which have not generated significant recent download volumes.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the Nokia Developer team via developer.support@nokia.com.
Beta releases of Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java and Nokia Web Tools 2.0 are now available. These new Series 40 development tools are your route to realising the extended Series 40 opportunity created by the introduction of the Asha Touch phones.
Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java
In addition to the usual tools — documentation, APIs, and an emulator — the Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java contains our first full featured, customised IDE. Based on the Eclipse platform, Nokia IDE for Java will streamline your development activities, with features such as the Device SDK Manager, Nokia specific JAD attribute editor, and a range of code templates.
Listening to user feedback we know that in the past developers have been frustrated with trying to find the right SDK for Series 40 development. With Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java, we are introducing the Nokia SDK Manager. From within the Nokia IDE for Java you can now specify a phone, screen size, form factor, or feature and instantly get a list of the SDKs supporting your choice. The SDK or SDKs can then be installed immediately, right from within the IDE.
Among the code templates you will find one with everything you need to implement an app with in-app purchasing capabilities and the JAR attribute editor makes targeting you app package at Series 40 phones simple and straightforward.
Finally, there are a number of updates to the SDK that are designed to take advantage of new features being introduced in Series 40 Touch. There is an updated Nokia UI API that gives you features such as multi-point touch and an implementation of the Mobile Sensor API (JSR-234). The emulator has been updated too with an orientation simulator, the integration of Nokia Maps into the location simulator, and useful links built into the emulators menu.
Nokia Web Tools 2.0 Series 40 web apps are the best way to deliver great experiences to Series 40 users that leverage your existing web assets. With the release of Nokia Web Tools 2.0 you now have the ability to enhance those experiences with features such as file upload and download, password management, and the addition of in-app advertising to your web apps. In addition, there are several improvements in HTML and CSS support, enabling you to deliver richer UIs.
Nokia Web Tools 2.0 enables you to code web apps that take full advantage of these features, and test them on your computer — Nokia Web Tools 2.0 is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux. The Web App Simulator offers support for the full-touch screen resolution and has been updated to provide a more phone-accurate rendering of web apps.
Within the Web Developer Environment there have been a range of improvements such as enhanced validation — which is now tailored to Series 40 supported HTML, CSS, and JavaScript APIs. There is also a wider range of templates, examples, and code snippets to get you started with common web app content layouts and interaction paradigms, such as sharing on social networks and file transfers. While small, improvements such as keyboard shortcuts and incremental uploads will help speed up your development.
Series 40 represents the single largest opportunity for you to deliver Java and web apps to mobile consumers worldwide. The introduction of Nokia Asha Touch phones delivers these users a near smartphone experience and the updated tools enable you to take full advantage of this in your apps. With accelerating download rates, there has never been a better time to target Series 40.
Indiagames, Psiloc and Liverpool FC have already used these tools to create apps for the new Asha Touch phones and share their experiences in this video:
