Priviledged API

[siliconverse]

In smartphone/pocket PC there is a concept of privileged API for which we need to take certifications from some authority. Do we have similar set of APIs in nokia/symbian sdk.

1. What privileged APIs are available for Nokia symbian SDK S60 ? Is there any documents on the same available in the public domain?

3. What is the latest level & version of privilege API available for nokia/symbian series 60 API.

2. How can we get this privileged certificates ?

[mtg101]

The current versions of Symbian (all prior to 9.0 including s60v1 & s60v2) don't have any form of privilaged API. Not all the headers/libraries are released to 3rd parties, but if you get hold of headers/libs you can use them without the OS stopping you.

Come Symbian 9.0 (s60v3) this all changes and apps will need to be verified and signed before accessing certain capabilities of the system.

There are docs on Forum Nokia about the s60v3 security model if you want to read up on it, but until the s60v3 SDk is released (hopefully sometime before the N91...) we won't know the full story.

[siliconverse]

Thanks for reply.

how can one get hold of those libraries/headers which are not released to 3rd party you talked about.

What special functionalities I will be able to perform if i have access to those undisclosed libraries.....

[petrib]

Originally posted by siliconverse
Thanks for reply.

how can one get hold of those libraries/headers which are not released to 3rd party you talked about.

What special functionalities I will be able to perform if i have access to those undisclosed libraries.....

By your employer/company first becoming (qualifying as) a Symbian Platinum Partner (http://www.symbian.com/partners/platinum.html), then a Symbian OS DevKit (most of Symbian OS sources included) licensee, and if you need more, a Series 60 Competence Center after that (http://www.series60.com/product_crea...Type=-1&c_id=6).

[siliconverse]

Great..

So for what functionalities I should look for privileged APIs...is there any document which says...if you become a platinum member you will have access to following more stuff and or functional control.

[mtg101]

You don't get any extra functionality from becomming a Platinum Partner or Forum Nokia Pro member. In fact you get very litte:
- marketing contacts
- can put logos on your website
- invitation to frankly embaressingly bad training courses which are of no use to anyone developing anything more complex than a platform game

What membership does give you is the ability to request to buy additonal header/library files (it's amazig how much money Symbian et al will extract from you for trying to develop for their platform...).

So if you want to can pay thousands of euros to become a member of these schemes, and then pay more thousands of euros to get hold of extra functionality, but it's very expensive if you don't know if you need the additional functionality.

I'd say you're best off developing your app, and only paying all this cash if you find you absolutely have to. A lot of things can be worked around and accessed through other ways, and you'll find details of that on this forum as well as at newlc.com

[stenlik]

Hi,

so as I understand it if we'll become Symbian Platinum Partner we will receive some trifles like "can put logos on your website" and chance to pay extra money for getting additonal header/library files??? Is this correct? Information about Platinum membership on Nokia pages is quite unclear....

Can any of you put here list of such libraries/header files and prices to have rough idea what the normal developers cannot access? I never seen such list...

This policy is really something strange...

Bye
STeN

[petrib]

The Symbian Platinum membership is not a Nokia thing, but a Symbian Software Ltd thing:
http://www.symbian.com/partners/platinum.html
http://www.symbian.com/partners/platinum_details.html

As the Symbian OS can be licensed in source code, but because it is not an open source software (OSS) product, Symbian has some criteria as to who gets access to sources.

The Platinum Partner membership + so called "DevKit" (OS source code et al) licensing mechanisms and related agreements/contracts are how it is handled/managed.

Individual Symbian OS headers/libs, etc., are not licensed (as far as I know); there's just the public SDK that anybody can get for free, or the "non-public" DevKit" for a fee (for Symbian Platinum partners).

Ask Symbian for more details/info: platinumprogram@symbian.com

[jkekoni]

Symbian is lacking programs (both free and commercial) and developers and is trying to solve the problem by closing down the platform more tightly and extracting mandatory fees and certification from developers.

Smartphone without 3rd party software is just an big expensive phone.

Am I the only one who fails to see the logic?

[petrib]

All stable APIs are published in the free/public SDKs. Compatibility from release to release is only guaranteed/managed through such APIs (anything else can change without warning to developers).

As there are already thousands of Symbian applications (native C++ or Java based) available on the market, this approach (that lower-level, internal, unstable APIs are not published for everybody) doesn't - to me - seem to be a very limiting factor for most develelopers.

[stenlik]

Hmmm,

I think you both are true. There are many application, but there should be more if Nokia will be more open then it is. I personally know about some projects, which were closed because of lacking proper API...

Bye
STeN