Nokia Developer News

Qt Quick Components make it easy to build beautiful UIs that reflect the native look and feel of Symbian and MeeGo platforms. In Qt Quick Components Deep Dive Rubén Rincón from Nokia covered Qt Components for Symbian and Meego devices from a programming perspective diving into topics like types of navigation among pages, dynamic creation of components in device memory, use of Model-View architecture and some common pitfalls and how to avoid them when implementing apps with the new components.

Rubén showed how developers can create their own components, or use pre-built components including those packaged in the Qt Quick components library. The library is currently installed automatically to Symbian devices via Smart Installer, and will be shipping pre-loaded in future devices.

Full documentation for Qt Quick components are online.The following two slides give you a taste of what's available:

 

Rubén also showed how to optimize performance by loading pages dynamically, how to use model-view architecture to best effect, and showed developers how to avoid "the parent trap" when replacing pages using PageStack.

If you did not get a chance to join Rubén at Qt Developer Days, you can attend his webinar on 10 Nov. at 1:00 PM Eastern Time (10am Pacific). 

The Qt Project is a big step forward for the Qt community, but it is not a big departure from the path we have been on since the very beginning.

All versions of Qt have been available through open source licenses since the Qt 4.0 release in 2005, and some versions of Qt have been available under open source licenses since the 1990s. All members of the Qt community, now over 500,000 strong, already have full access to source code for the Qt Framework and the Qt Creator development environment. Some members of the community also contribute code back to the framework in the form of bug fixes and feature enhancements, but for technical reasons it has been easier for developers employed by Qt and Nokia to influence the code base than it has been for other community members. That changes with the Qt 5 release and the Qt Project.

The Qt Project is now live,  just in time for Qt Developer Days in Munich, and the open governance model completely levels the playing field: developers employed by Nokia and our contractors will work on the code base with exactly the same tools and under exactly the same guidelines as everyone else. If you have the skill and the will to contribute, you can do so regardless of your corporate affiliation or lack thereof.

Daniel Kilhberg summarizes the goals on the Qt blog:

The Qt governance, roadmap and releases will be driven openly by the Qt Project – open to all the stakeholders willing to contribute. It will have an open governance model based on equal access to all discussions and tools, an open contribution process and meritocratic assignment of roles. We want Qt to excel by all measurements as a transparent, merit-based and participative open source community project. We believe this is the key to speeding up development and increasing the adoption of Qt.

There are fives roles under the new way of working, from a contributor who pushes suggested code updates to the open source repository to the Chief Maintainer who oversees the entire community. Most roles are associated with a particular portion of the code base and therefore individuals may hold multiple roles. For example, one might have been nominated and approved by the community as a Maintainer for a portion of code in the QtWebKit module and also be a contributor to the QML UI framework.

Infrastructure for the Qt Project includes a new code review system based on the open source gerrit project. As Lars explains in his posting on Qt Labs "We have invested some time and resources to integrate gerrit with the continuous integration system we at Nokia run for Qt. The CI system gives us automated regression testing of changes on our major platforms. As we move forward the goal is to enable any new Qt ports to hook themselves in there."

 

For more details on Qt Project and how it opens up the Qt framework to all those with the will and skill to contribute, check out:

• Lars’ and Daniel’s blogs focusing on the technology and motivation behind the project.
• Qt Open Governance Model wiki article with the latest explanation of roles and community decision-making processes.
• Qt Contribution Guidelines jumps right in and shows you how to get your code in the Qt framework

 

 

Nokia recognizes the environment where developers, for maximum business opportunity, need to deal with multiple mobile platforms. And we thereby want to ease the development pain and provide tools for developers to move easier between platforms. Qt, as cross-platform technology by nature, already as such provides good means for easy migration between platforms, as well as excellent support for maximal code reuse between Qt powered platforms.

Here on the Nokia Developer website, API mapping tools, documentation, code examples, and developer stories are available to help you efficiently port applications from platforms like Android, iOS/iPhone, and Windows Phone to Qt.

“We have now taken more measures to facilitate both Qt and Windows Phone developers so they can easily benefit from the Nokia opportunity,” said Daniel Kihlberg, Director, Qt Developer Experience. “Nokia will continue to support developers who are crafting both Qt and Windows Phone apps for Nokia devices.”

So after you dream of that great app you want to create, why not check out the newly updated Nokia Developer Porting section to help you port that app back to Qt. With the enhanced porting library now also covering porting from Windows Phone to Qt, you can learn what are the important building blocks of Qt in terms of rapid UI and engine development, games development, and use of key mobile features. Porting library compares user interface models and layouts to suggest how to implement the UI in Qt to achieve best possible user experience.

The API Mapping Tool, updated with Windows Phone mappings, in turn helps you find the QML and Qt C++ counterparts to Windows Phone classes and methods you have used in your current application. It also provides direct access to API documentation for further implementation details.

Also check out our latest sample applications to see porting strategies of different kind of applications such as TicTacToe, SpaceBlok, Weekly Planner, Diner, and RSS Reader developed for multiple platforms.

As an example of how consistent you can make the look and feel of apps ported from Windows Phone to Qt, check out these screen shots of  Weekly Planner as rendered on Windows Phone (left) and Qt (right).

 

These sample apps come with full source code and porting documentation.

Start porting your apps today!

The full porting offering (from iOS/iPhone, Android and Windows Phone) is available now, including:

• Qt API Mapping tool
• Porting to Qt Library 
• Porting code examples  
• Developer experience videos

Got a porting question? Discuss with your peers now.  

 

I need to provide you with two fundamentals: the ability to make money, and platforms which offer you true scale and global reach. That’s how Marco Argenti, head of the Nokia Developer Organization, opened his keynote at Qt Developer Days 2011.

As Marco spoke to the crowd gathered for the opening keynote remarks this morning here in Munich, it was easy to appreciate the energy and excitement that filled the room – the opportunity for developing with Qt is truly palpable.  

“Nokia devices and our Nokia Store for apps and content are a real opportunity for you, both today and tomorrow,” Marco said.



We recently launched our Nokia N9 MeeGo device and we launched new Symbian smartphones with great UI improvements through the Belle update. At the same time, we have seen how the number of Qt downloads from the Store continue to increase. Combine this with Nokia’s new strategy – Qt is at the heart of this strategy – to connect the next billion consumers to the web, and then you can start to see this opportunity for yourself.

Need more proof? Let’s take a quick look at the numbers that Marco shared with us today:

• 2 Million: the number of Qt downloads expected in 2011.   
• 9 Million: daily downloads from Nokia Store, with many of the most popular titles powered by Qt.
• Over 100 Million: the number of Qt-enabled Nokia devices already shipped.

Now let’s dig into how Qt is key to delivering on Marco’s commitment to deliver 

The ability to make money, 

We understand that making money as a developer, as it is in any other business, is a matter of not just revenue. It’s revenue minus expenses. On the revenue side, a recent research study shows that the average application in Nokia Store was downloaded 160% more times than an average iOS application. On the expense side, improved tooling in Qt Creator and pipeline management in Nokia Store decreased the publication overhead for our community, resulting in a doubling of Qt-based apps submitted over the past few months.

and platforms

Qt 5.0 and the Qt Project are revolutionary releases that come from a natural evolution of Qt’s ethos from the very beginning. All versions of Qt have been available through open source licenses since the Qt 4.0 release in 2005, and some versions of Qt have been available under open source licenses since the 1990s. Transparency and meritocracy are the values of the Qt Project. Nothing short of the best code framework on the planet is the goal.

at scale.

We’re already at scale on the device side, with more than 100 million Qt-enabled Nokia devices in the field. We’re already at scale on the tooling side, with Qt Creator delivering productivity so developers can scale their business as well. And we will see this scale along with our strategy to connect the next billion, too.

One final comment from the “eat your own dogfood/drink your own Champagne” category. When we officially changed the branding from Ovi Store to Nokia Store, we also built the new store client for Symbian and MeeGo in Qt Quick. If you have downloaded the client you’ll notice right away the smooth UI functionality that QML delivers. If you have been using Qt Quick for your own development, you will certainly recognise how little source code variance there is between the Symbian and MeeGo platform releases.

You probably already know the power of Qt. You can see why it makes people like me – and the attendees here at Qt Developer Days excited to get to work. The energy in Munich this week is contagious. You catch it when keynote presenters like CNN discuss how Qt allows them to deliver mobile news on a global scale. You catch it in the Qt in Use sessions presented by global businesses like Cisco and Ricoh who rely on Qt to build new services. It’s even more contagious when you listen to people who literally built their company on Qt. I catch it as I meet, one at a time, members of the global Qt Community that is over a half million strong. I hope you will catch it, too.

--Daniel Kihlberg
Director Qt Ecosystem

 

The Hackathon will again be part of Nokia World, which this year takes place in London on 26 – 27 October. Developers will compete to win their share of more than 150,000 euros in cash and prizes. Working in teams of three, more than 40 Hackathon developers will have just 40 hours to compete. Their assignment: Turn the best of more than 150,000 concepts submitted by consumers to the Nokia Ideas Project into viable mobile apps for use on the latest Nokia phones.

This year the teams will also face a new challenge. They will need to submit their working apps for use on not just one, but three major platforms: Nokia with Windows Phone, Qt, and Series 40.

The top three applications developed during the Hackathon will be presented in live demos at the Nokia World finale on 27 October. Good luck to all!

Check out the Nokia World 2011 agenda.

Reggie Hutcherson oversees the developer programs at Nokia for Windows Phone, and he recently sat down with us to provide his insights about what developers can expect to see at Nokia World this week in London. In short, he calls it “the beginning of a new era.”



He points out that we will be unveiling how we see our future together with Windows Phone and inviting viewers to learn about all the new possibilities that will be offered.  

Reggie went on to note that, “Our main goal for Nokia World is to show attendees all the new things you can do to leverage Nokia with Windows Phone, why this opportunity is different than anything we’ve done before and how to get involved right now. And from this goal we chose the theme, ‘New. Now.’ to represent what Nokia World is all about. We think this new statement will really get everyone excited for what’s to come.”

What does the future hold?

“Developers have always shown to have this sixth sense of what’s coming next,” Reggie said. “They can predict how consumers will embrace a new technology or operating system. And at Nokia, we see developers as the key stakeholders of our future.”

If you won’t be able to join us in person at Nokia World this week, you will be able to see all the news from the show – including real-time comments and updates – that will be posted here on the Nokia Developer website. From keynote sessions to hands-on demos, we plan to make everything available to you online.   

You can also follow the action from Nokia World next week on Twitter via the hashtag #NokiaWorld – and be sure to follow @nokiadeveloper too.

If you are a web developer or designer who wants to focus on cutting-edge technologies, then W3Conf is for you. This two-day conference is coming to Redmond, Washington, on 15 – 16 November, and Nokia is among the Gold Sponsors. Seating will be limited, but the event will be webcast live with video streaming.
 
W3Conf will feature presentations by leading web experts on HTML5, CSS3, graphics, accessibility, multimedia, APIs, and more. The many speakers will include Rajesh Lal from Nokia and Rey Bango from Microsoft.
 
Attend W3Conf to learn new skills you can apply to documents, web apps, games, multimedia applications and more – across multiple devices and for diverse user communities.
 
Check out the W3Conf agenda -- and register to attend.

Why don’t I see my app on Nokia Store? How can I protect my content from being hacked? And when will I get paid?

These and seven other top questions commonly asked by app developers are answered in a new Nokia Developer document, ‘Top 10 Support Issues’.

To learn even more, you can also join the Nokia Developer discussion board’s updated FAQ thread to ask and answer questions with other app and content publishers.


Download the Top 10 Support Issues document.

Browse the updated FAQ discussion thread.

 

Windows Phone 7.5 (codenamed ‘Mango’) is here. To get a head start developing your dream app, attend an MSDN developer event this Thursday, 20 October, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. This highly interactive online event will deliver everything you need to develop, publish, and earn money from your Windows Phone applications.

Topics on the agenda include:

* A developer's overview of Windows Phone 7.5

* Building Windows Phone 7.5 applications with Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight

* Building games for Windows Phone 7.5

Scheduled speakers from Microsoft include Brandon Watson, senior director of Windows Phone product development; Kenny Spade, academic developer evangelist; and Matt Harrington, developer evangelist.

Register today to watch this live event!

Submit your best Series 40 Java or web apps in Nokia's Create for Millions contest, and you could win your share of cash and prizes worth 1 million euros. But don't wait: To be eligible, you must submit your entry before 1 November.

To enter the Create for Millions contest, submit your Series 40 entries in any of four categories: In the Know, Fun & Games, Emotional Closeness, and Access to Knowledge. The Create for Millions contest has also added regional contests with local prizes in China, Indonesia, the Levant, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, and selected regions of Africa.

Winners of the Create for Millions contest will receive cash, free user experience (UX) consultations from Nokia, support from a design agency for banners, and more. Special cash prizes will also be awarded to the best use of Location API, best touch feature, and best Series 40 web app.

But remember, you must submit your Create for Millions entry by no later than 1 November. And good luck!


Check out the Create for Millions contest and enter today.

To help users migrate user interfaces across Symbian and MeeGo platforms, Nokia Developer’s Design and User Experience Library has added two new sections of comparative tables:

- UI migration from native S^3 to Qt Quick components: compares the native Avkon style of native S^3 applications with Qt Quick components for Symbian. Component groups include menus, lists and grids, notes and indicators, and more.

- UI migration from N9 to updated Symbian style: compares UI elements and patterns of Meego 1.2 Harmattan with the updated Symbian style. Elements include headers, list items, menus, dialogs, and much more.

On both pages, the tables contain links to appropriate design guidelines and code documentation.

View the S^3-to-Qt-Quick tables.

View the N9-to-updated-Symbian tables.

 

Today Nokia announced the Nokia 603, a powerful, colorful, affordable smartphone with Symbian Belle software* and built-in NFC capabilities. Adding to the previously announced line-up of Nokia smartphones that feature Symbian Belle software, this device comes preloaded with the latest social networking apps and games.

We anticipate this phone will appeal to first-time smartphone buyers, as well as those upgrading from older products, particularly current users of Nokia smartphones who will be interested in a device that shows off the latest technology and features in a package that is uniquely Nokia.  

What can you expect from the Nokia 603? This Qt-powered smartphone features a compact design with 3.5" TFT capacitive ClearBlack touch display optimised for use in sunlight; 5 megapixel full focus camera with LED flash; On Demand WebTV; internal Radio antenna; A-GPS with Nokia Maps; up to six customizable home screens and dynamic live widgets for improved personalisation of your content.

The phone’s NFC functionality allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled accessories such as the Nokia Luna, a new in-ear Bluetooth headset that we also announced today. If you want to get started using NFC, you can now order an NFC device kit for testing purposes. And if you want to know more about NFC in general, you can visit our NFC developer pages.

For those of you who are planning to develop content for this new phone, interfaces include Qt 4.7, Java Runtime 2.3, Bluetooth 3.0 and Flash Lite 4.0.

Using Qt, Qt Quick and the ready-made Qt Quick components you can easily create engaging applications with a native look and feel and provide a faster and better user experience. The Qt Connectivity module will allow you to develop on NFC and Bluetooth.

Using Qt, you will not only reach new users of Symbian Belle smartphones like the Nokia 603, but you will continue to reach myriad Symbian users around the world today, as well as the many more Symbian devices that we plan to ship in the future and of course the recently shipping Nokia N9. And, as we have stated previously, Nokia will make Qt core to bringing applications to the next billion, too.  

Get information about the online update for Qt SDK 1.1.3; as well as information about porting apps from Android to Qt and from iOS to Qt.

Priced at EUR 200, the Nokia 603 is available in black and white with a choice of back covers in six different colors: black, white, fuchsia, green, yellow and blue. The phone is expected to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011. For more information about the Nokia 603, please have a look at the device specifications page or visit: www.nokia.com/603

*As a reminder, Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of updates that began with Symbian Anna (currently being delivered to in-market Symbian smartphones) and will continue into next year. Nokia has committed to provide software support for Symbian until at least 2016, so those who buy Symbian smartphones over the next few years do not need to be concerned about support ending for their phones.

 

Marketing your application effectively is a key to your success in Nokia Store. We understand how important this is to you, and we are actively working to support your marketing activities. One such way is through the Nokia Spotlights, a promotional opportunity that can significantly enhance your application’s visibility and downloads in Nokia Store. An important pre-requisite when applying to be featured in a Nokia Spotlight is to have a complete set of marketing assets (including banners) uploaded to Nokia Publish. If you don’t have the marketing assets, you can’t gain exposure through spotlight.

So, how do you create high-quality spotlight banners that will appeal to consumers? Photo-editing tools are expensive and hard to master. To deliver a professional banner, you may have to spend a lot of your valuable time in the design and creation of the materials. Hiring an external agency or a freelancer is also a costly and time-consuming affair.  

Today, we are excited to offer you a great solution to this challenge - the new and improved Simple Nokia Asset Creation (SNAC) tool. This free online tool will help you create crisp-looking banners that place your application front and center in a matter of minutes.  You start by entering the Nokia Store URL of your application or content (e.g. http://store.ovi.com/content/59360). The tool then automatically picks up details such as the name, category, price and icon. Almost instantly, the tool then generates a live preview of your banner, as shown below.



You can customize your banners using the 'Options' column of the tool. For example, you can modify the language and the content of the text in the banners – the tool supports 11 languages. Furthermore, you can showcase your application on one of more than 90 Nokia phones, ranging from classic feature phones to touch-based smartphones.

Most important, you can create banners in many different sizes including the standard Nokia Store spotlight formats (both desktop and mobile) and other advertising industry certified formats (e.g. IAB and MMA). The resulting banner files can be downloaded to your computer for re-use, or you can  let Nokia host these files for you, and you simply use the generated embed links to point to the banner.

Your new spotlight banners should be uploaded under the 'Content Item' tab > 'Spotlight & Promotion' area in the Nokia Publish tool. (For more details, please refer to the 'Spotlight Content' section of the Nokia Publisher guide).

Using the Simple Nokia Asset Creation (SNAC) tool will help you to promote your Nokia Store content, whether on your own website or elsewhere online. Additionally, it will help Nokia’s decision-makers to know that Spotlight banners about your content are available and ready to go.

What are you waiting for? Try the SNAC tool today, and see how easy it is to create professional looking banners to promote your applications and content in Nokia Store.

Nokia has introduced an upgraded, Qt Quick-based version of the Nokia Store client for its new Symbian smartphones, such as the Nokia N8, as well as the Qt-powered Nokia N9, delivering improved user experience and performance. In addition to the new branding to “Nokia Store”, features of the enhanced Nokia Store client include:

• Improved user experience and usability
• Improved client start-up time, and improved page-loading times and general UI performance
• Permanently visible navigation elements, and support for the new Belle UI style
• Next-generation payment checkout flow

Using the Qt SDK to develop the new Store client provided an easy-to-use, developer-focused environment that allowed for more time to create the app, and less time learning how to use the tools. “This was a great way of creating the application,” said Bill Bonney, Senior Systems Architect, Client UI for Nokia. “With Qt Quick there is no rigid UI framework and you have a lot more freedom to realize the experience that you want.”

According to Ashwini Bharadwaj, Senior Software Engineer at Nokia, developing the new Store client with Qt made it easy for the team to write the code once and compile it on different platforms. The Qt-based client was written for the Nokia N9 first, and then compiled for use on Symbian smartphones. “This saved us quite a bit of time,” said Bharadwaj.

The new Qt Quick -based version of the Nokia Store client will be offered for all of Nokia’s new Symbian phones, including those with Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle. This upgrade will be available in all markets globally, except for staggered deployment in certain countries.

It should also be noted that a new version of the Nokia Store client for Nokia Series 40 phones is also being introduced at this time.

Take a look at the new Qt-based Nokia Store client, and learn more about how it was developed: 

For individuals, this update to the Nokia Store client should arrive on smartphones any day now - users will be prompted to make the update when they open the app - but for those that can't wait, there is a beta version of the Store QML client in Nokia Beta Labs now.

Learn more about developing with Qt Quick.

 

Are you interested in transferring your existing Android application to the latest version of the Qt platform for use on Symbian phones and the Nokia N9? Porting will be a breeze with the Qt API mapping tool that has recently been extended to include Android to Qt API mappings. You can easily find QML and Qt C++ counterparts to Android classes and methods you have used in your current application. This new tool also provides direct links to Qt classes, methods, elements, and properties for further implementation details. Learn about porting your Android apps to Qt.

In addition to the API mapping tool, make sure you visit our Porting Library for more useful comparisons and tips about porting from Android to Qt. 

And, as a reminder, details about porting your iOS apps to Qt were published to Nokia Developer in September. And, Windows Phone mappings are expected later this month – we’ll let you know as soon as they become available.