N9 Developer

The Nokia N9 firmware upgrade rate has been rapid. Now is the time for developers to move their own application testing and verification from Harmattan PR 1.0 to Harmattan PR 1.1.

The original Harmattan software release (PR 1.0) is now in an ever-diminishing minority. Harmattan PR 1.1, the first update release (introduced on week 45) took over the installed base in less than two months. Now four weeks old Harmattan PR 1.2 release has continued in the same groove, or even faster.

Hence, we have initiated steps to change the principal test environment from Harmattan PR 1.0 to Harmattan PR 1.1 in the Nokia Store. If your application previously has been rejected on account of PR1.0-incompatibility, those issues are now automatically waived.

The SDK and corresponding sysroot in the Harmattan target is not (yet) updated from PR 1.0. In other words, you will still compile against Harmattan PR 1.0 sysroot for time being. Availability of a newer sysroot and instructions on how to take it into use will be announced at an appropriate time.

And if you have already updated your device to PR1.2, you can utilize the remote device access functionality or one of the multiple QEMU variants (now available with the update to the Harmattan target) to pre-verify your application's correct behavior.

We have published a new example application for Harmattan developers.

The application's source code is available on harmattan-dev. It can be built in Qt SDK using the enclosed project-file.

The application features several key elements in the Harmattan application programming interface, and thus provides a good starting point for learning about specific technologies and application development for N9 in general.

The initial version of the showcase application concentrates on Qt Mobility interfaces (ranging from maps, multimedia and messaging to visualizing the sensor data with a compass overlaid on camera input).

In the messaging area it provides insight how NFC is easily integrated into an application.

Feedback on the application are best given as comments in this blog entry.

This Developer Library and API reference update includes documentation for PR 1.2 features and documentation enhancements for existing features:

• Information on the new Instrumentation Dashboard, and how to use strace, latrace, swaplogger and mem-cpu-monitor with it.
• New section on Multimedia APIs which brings together the documentation of all multimedia-related functionality.
• New UX related materials: Gestures, Themes, Using Bottom Toolbar, Non-visual feedback and Using Shaders.
• New items on the List of path name exceptions.
• New section on Integrating account management to applications.

As always, your feedback about the Developer Library is very welcome!

We have released updates for both software development kits.

The Harmattan target for the Qt SDK can now be updated online, using the SDK maintenance tool. The additional functionalities concern mostly improved runtimes for testing. The Qt Quick Components in the Simulator have been upgraded to the same version as is used on the device, and the Simulator now supports both landscape and portrait orientations. Also, there are now three separate QEMU images - one for PR1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 each. The full release notes are available in harmattan-dev.

The Platform SDK is no longer tagged beta, though some usability issues remain, as described in the release notes.

The API baseline remains at PR1.0 (to ensure that all users can safely obtain and use the applications), but a few additional interfaces are now available as extensions: Frankencamera is supported in all Harmattan releases, Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol is supported only in PR1.2. The development packages containing the additional interfaces are available for download.

The Nokia N9 UX Guidelines site is now up to date, so go have a look. We've also improved the organisation of the site to serve UI designers and developers better. Improved linking between the UX site and the developer documentation means that it's easier to match what you want to do with how to do it.

However, the Chinese-language UX materials have not been updated at this point. If you are using them, we'd like to hear from you! Do you think it's useful having some material available in Chinese? Should there be more? Less? Different materials?

In November 2011, we opened a public Bugzilla to interact with the N9 user community and receive end user bug reports and enhancement requests. To this date, we have received over 1100 bug reports. We thank you for the active contribution.

At this point of the product lifecycle, we have identified the major issues to be addressed in the upcoming software updates beyond the PR1.2 release. While we will continue to address issues already reported, we are unable to accept any new requests in Bugzilla.

The Harmattan Bugzilla will remain as read only for some time. However, we will continue to process the bug reports already in Bugzilla.

We kindly request you to continue further Harmattan developer discussions, bugs and other topics under developer.nokia.com. We hope to receive your continued support and help us further improve the quality of N9 software.

PySide, the Python Qt binding framework used prominently in MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, has now finished migration from its previous standalone setup to Qt Project infrastructure.

Being a Qt Add-on provides PySide a permanent home and perfect alignment with Qt Frameworks. Furthermore, the project gets improved visibility, as well as a simple, carefully thought out meritocratic project structure. In addition to the wiki that is already hosted by Qt, the PySide mailing list and the bug tracker are also now hosted by Qt. More information on the Qt Project can be found on the project web site.

The PySide project now follows Qt Project's governance model. The Maintainer for API Extractor, Generatorrunner, and Shiboken is Marcelo Lira. The Maintainer for the PySide component is Hugo Parente Lima. Paulo Alcantara is an Approver for PySide. All other project roles are informal. Srini Kommoori has kindly volunteered to be the webmaster and wikimaster for the project.

To developers using PySide the migration is mostly transparent. PySide is still available under the same licensing terms, and the project facilities are still the mostly unchanged. Instead of having a separate Bugzilla instance, the PySide project now utilizes Qt's Jira bug tracker. Also the mailing list address has changed to pyside@qt-project.org.

Qt Project uses Gerrit for code reviews. Developers contributing code to PySide should do it using Gerrit from now on. Read-only access to the git source code repositories is still provided via Gitorious.

About PySide 

PySide is a Python Qt bindings project initiated by Nokia. PySide provides access to not only the complete Qt framework but also Qt Mobility, as well as to generator tools for rapidly generating Python bindings for any C++ libraries.

The PySide project is a Qt Add-on, sharing the same infrastructure and governance model as the open Qt Project itself. PySide is developed in the open, with all facilities you would expect from any modern open source project such as all code in a git repository, and an open bug tracker for reporting bugs.

Dear eager N9 developers!

We know that you are interested in updating your devices to PR1.2 as fast as possible, but we propose that you restrain yourselves to the fully productized and verified updating procedure.

The availability of the update is based on the variant of the Harmattan operating system on your device, and not the current operator or your physical location. See Harmattan version numbers explained (23-Jan-2012) for further details.

The over the air updates are rolled out on a per-variant basis. Some variants are released earlier, and others obviously later. The exact schedule depends on various aspects, including but not limited to variant volumes, time zones and e.g. network owner approval. Please have patience waiting for the update notification to appear on your device.

We recommend that you do not apply your skills or other voodoo in forcing the update from the terminal application. While manually tweaking the settings and trying to force the update may seem to work, you may also end up bricking your device or otherwise rendering the platform or applications to an unexpected state.

A variant release consists of packages that have dependencies to each other. Different variants have different packages and different dependencies. Additionally, apt-get is a component of full software delivery stack and using it directly is not advised. If a user e.g. forces an update of a variant on top of another variant by manually tweaking repository information, this may result in some packages not getting updated, and some being otherwise wrong.

To update your device, only use the over the air updates with device graphical user interface or the Nokia Software Updater.

Remember that great powers come with great responsibility: the warning of potentially losing your warranty when enabling developer mode is there for a reason. The terminal enables you to do plenty of impressive things, but it also enables you to mess up your device's configuration and contents in a spectacular fashion.

In addition, some users have experienced sluggishness on first boot after the update. That is to be expected and is a sign of ongoing cleanup and re-indexing. It should be fairly fast, only a minute or so for most users. However, the duration is dependent on the amount of data stored on the device, and thus the sequence may take significantly longer as well.

The upcoming MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan update (to version 1.2) features improved support for application updates.

The updated platform software will detect and announce updates to applications that are distributed through the Nokia Store.

And there was much rejoicing!

However, there are a couple of things developers need to be aware of when creating updates:

• Do not change the name of the content item or the package name, as the new version will not be displayed as an update (however, it will be visible in the Ovi Store client).
• Do not change the price point of the content item from free to non-free, please create a separate content item instead.

See the Nokia Publisher Guide for further details.

We have made more updates to the Developer Library. The updates are as follows:

• Font sizes in different Harmattan releases is a chapter about the Harmattan default font Nokia Pure Text, and the differences in the font between software releases.
• Example of updating event feed with a D-Bus call is a chapter on enabling communication between Events View and your application over D-Bus.

Remember that the Developer Library is also available for downloading in HTML and as a QCH file, which you can integrate into your Qt SDK.

Today, on 1.2, we have released an updated MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan target for Qt SDK 1.2. The target supports the forthcoming PR1.2 update of Harmattan. Any more "1.2"s in an announcement would probably cause a spontaneous rift in the space/time continuum, so it is better to stop milking this joke for any more laughs. 

Indeed, Qt SDK 1.2 is released today, and it includes a Harmattan target.

The changes in this version are far smaller than in the previous Harmattan target update (in 1.1.4 the Harmattan target got de-experimentalized), they are described in the release notes.

This time around the most visible changes are outside the Harmattan target. The installer now works without additional trickery on Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot. Qt Creator is updated to updated to version 2.4.1. Within the target, the QML debugging works again on the Harmattan 1.2 release (available only to N950 owners right now).

Happy Hacking!

As you may have noted in our earlier blog post (Heads up for Harmattan 1.2 beta developer release (16-Jan-2012)) we are now releasing the MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan 1.2 beta version number 3.2012.02-6_PR_RM680 for Nokia N950 Developer Device. The release is available as OCF (One Click Flasher).

Harmattan 1.2 comes with a number of user experience improvements making it appealing for consumers. Five new supported languages, face recognition, enhanced copy-paste, software update notifications for applications and games in Nokia Store, folders in application view just to name a few.

There are a few additional things for you to consider before taking this upgrade. Read on...

No downgrading to Harmattan 1.0 or 1.1(.1)

The N950 (or Nokia N9) software version cannot be downgraded. This unfortunately means, that it is not possible to go back and forth between different releases. Once you take an update you are stuck with that release until there is next version available. The challenge a developer is facing is that big portion of consumers are still running Harmattan 1.0 or 1.1 where personally one would always love to run the latest and brightest release.

A majority of all users are already running Harmattan 1.1 instead of 1.0. The penetration of Harmattan 1.1 over 1.0 is steadily growing as more and more people are updating their devices, and factories are pushing new devices with latest software. And in China, all (003 variant) devices are running minimum Harmattan 1.1 as we never shipped Harmattan 1.0 there.

This means that you as a developer, should always ensure your app is running smoothly on both Harmattan 1.0 and 1.1, depending on your target demography. If you have only one device on your possession you have a dilemma. Will you update to Harmattan 1.2 and enjoy all cool new stuff but simultaneously risk missing a glitch on 1.0/1.1, or will you stick to Harmattan 1.0/1.1 for now?

Naturally you can buy a stock of Nokia N9’s for your testing needs. But if that is not working for you then you can rely on the Remote Device Access (RDA) service as well as the SDK QEMU tool.

Upgrading your N950 to Harmattan 1.2 beta

Due to the above reasons, the upgrade from Harmattan beta 2  (same as 1.0) or 1.1 is not offered as over the air SSU on N950. A developer needs to make a conscious and informed decision to go and flash the device with latest software.

While at it, the OCF will erase the device, you can use backup-restore from Harmattan 1.0 (1.2011.34-2) and 1.1 (2.2011.39-5) but not from beta 1 (1.2011.22-6 or older). Sorry for the inconvenience.

Included fixes, limitations, known issues and so on

We have listed the most significant bug fixes in release notes and marked the fixed items in bugzilla. We excluded a long list of fixes e.g. on localization / terminology. Also, we put together information about known issues, limitations and differences between Nokia N950 developer Device and Nokia N9 for your convenience in the Release Notes. Suggest you read it carefully.

Key links

• Harmattan 1.2 beta for N950 (3.2011.02-6) OCF download 
• Release Notes
• Bug fixes in Harmattan 1.2

We have updated the Developer Library once more. Here is a list of the updates:

• List of path name exceptions now contains more directories where data storage is allowed. This section will continue to be updated in the future.
  
• Accessing protected X server interfaces is a new section about an upcoming Harmattan platform security feature. Use these instructions if you are developing a special application that needs to access protected X server interfaces.

Remember that the Developer Library is also available for downloading in HTML and as a QCH file, which you can integrate into your Qt SDK.

There has been numerous questions and some misunderstanding on Harmattan version numbering so we thought it would be the right time to share some light in to the topic. It should be interesting and good to know information for developers.

A typical version number is formatted as XX.YYYY.WW-#_PR_VVV where XX is the GSM Software Version Number (SVN), YYYY build year, WW build week, # release candidate serial number on that week, and VVV variant configuration code.

For Nokia N9 the SVN number 10 stands for Harmattan 1.0, 20 for Harmattan 1.1, 22 for Harmattan 1.1.1 (Arabic) and 30 for Harmattan 1.2. For Nokia N950 Developer Device the first SVN number 1 stands for Harmattan 1.0, number 2 stands for Harmattan 1.1 and 3 stands for Harmattan 1.2 beta.

A variant configuration within a release consists of same software code line but some application data, modules or applications them self may be in or out between variants. E.g., typical space consuming regional variable in devices is the pre-loaded maps data. The VVV variant codes are as following: 001 Europe, 003 China, 005 SEAP, 006 Arabic and 009 Europe-2 which is in fact almost identical to 001. Additionally to these listed variants, there are numerous country and operator specific variants with differences e.g., in selection of preloaded applications or operator specific needs.

The version number 3.2012.02-6_PR_003_RM680 can be read as ‘Harmattan PR 1.2 (beta) for Nokia N950 that was built week 2 of 2012, 6th release candidate during week 2, production image, Chinese variant for RM680 where RM680 is production code for Nokia N950’.

Released public software versions for both N950 and Nokia N9 are as following, in release order:

• Harmattan beta 1 for N950: 1.2011.22-6_PR_RM680 – Not supported and should not be used any more
• Harmattan beta 2 for N950: 1.2011.34-2_PR_RM680 – Equivalent to Harmattan 1.0 001 variant for Nokia N9
• Harmattan 1.0 for Nokia N9: 10.2011.34-1_PR_### – 001, 005, 009 and other variants, no 003 or 006 variants
• Harmattan 1.1 for N950: 2.2011.39-5_PR_###_RM680 – Equivalent with 001 Harmattan 1.1 variants for Nokia N9
• Harmattan 1.1 for Nokia N9: 20.2011.40-4_PR_### – 001, 003, 005, 009 and other variants
• Harmattan 1.1.1 for Nokia N9: 22.2011.44-2_PR_### – 006 and other Arabic regional variants, not available for 001, 003, 005, 009 and other equivalent variants
• Harmattan 1.2 beta for N950: 3.2012.##-#_PR_RM680 - Available soon, release # not disclosed yet.
• Harmattan 1.2 for Nokia N9: 30.2012.##-#_PR_### - Available later on all variants, release # not disclosed yet.

Edit: Typos fixed