WRT Tools discussion

[mbierman]

Hi,

We hope you are all enjoying the WRT plug-in for Aptana Studio beta. I thought I'd drop a note to kick off some discussion and get some input from all of you on what you'd like to see in future releases.

Specifically, I am wondering how would you like to see the preview evolove? The three options currently under consideration are:

1. Continue to show the full range of devices in the device selector and add the specific device skin to the preview so that you would see the widget very much like it will look on the actual device.

2. Simplify the device selector to show just the unique screen sizes and show a generic device for the preview (like we do now). This would shorten the menu considerably.

3. Leave the device selector with the phone images and the generic device preview as it is now in the beta.

Please let us know if you have any thoughts on this.

Cheers!

--
Michael Bierman
Nokia, Sr. Product Manager WRT Tools

[marcenglund]

Hi,

A bit late, I know, but here are my thoughts:

I'd much prefer alternative 1. This way, you get a much better feel for how it will actually look, and perhaps realize other useful things ("oh, this model has no buttons..."). Perhaps one option is to provide skins for a few 'representative' devices, and use the unskinned version for the others?

However, two other things top my wish list:

1) Better API emulation; return dummy data for service API calls, e.g getLocation()
2) Use WebKit - some CSS is missing/different on Firefox, e.g -webkit-border-image, and there are some other incompatibilities as well.

Without these the usefulness of the preview is really a little limited for me right now.

Also, I'll take the time to mention a minor gotcha: 'deploy' should IMHO automatically do 'package' - I deployed about 5 times before realizing it was deploying the old package (the first 'deploy' did not require a 'package'). But maybe that's just me ;-)

Anyway, keep up the good work - the Aptana plugin is mostly great despite my nagging :-)

Best Regards,
Marc

[bryanrieger]

A bit later to this discussion, but here's my £0.02.

I think #1 makes the most sense:

1. Continue to show the full range of devices in the device selector and add the specific device skin to the preview so that you would see the widget very much like it will look on the actual device.

It would also be nice if the device panel only dropped down when the tab (green arrow) is clicked on - as it animates everytime I have the preview on an go to interact with the app menu or toolbar.

I'd also like to second Marc's suggestion that 'deploy' should actually be 'package + deploy' as it also took me a few times to realize I was actually looking at an older package of the widget on my device. Lastly I completely agree regarding his comments on using WebKit instead of FireFox and better API emulation required within the Aptana plug-in.

Lastly, I've been unable to get the 'Deploy to Emulator' feature working (Aptana deploys and nothing happens) and have had to resort to simply opening the *.wgz file within the Emulator to install and test.

[marcenglund]

It would also be nice if the device panel only dropped down when the tab (green arrow) is clicked on - as it animates everytime I have the preview on an go to interact with the app menu or toolbar.

Yeah, this annoys me to!

And while we're talking about improving the preview, here is one more issue to think about: the Nokia 5800 has a 640x360 display, which means I have to hide the console (lower) panel in Aptana to see the whole phone. Scrollbars would partly solve this, but ideally the preview should be scaled - my 5800 is really not that big IRL ;-)

Best Regards,
Marc

[bryanrieger]

...the Nokia 5800 has a 640x360 display, which means I have to hide the console (lower) panel in Aptana to see the whole phone. Scrollbars would partly solve this, but ideally the preview should be scaled...

+1 Having the display cut off at the bottom of the screen and not be able to scroll or reposition to view is extremely annoying. Hiding the console doesn't even fully fix the problem on my laptop.

Also, any possibility of simply turning off the animation (in a preference?) of the screen changing sizes? It's cute the first time, but I'd simply rather have it change immediately.

Lastly, any possibility of the 'Deployment Settings' remembering other devices I might be testing with? Everytime I have to again search for devices, and select the one I want. It would be nice if the settings could remember the list of available devices, even if only for a given session.

[hp3]

I think deploy to emulator should actually directly copy the decompiled widget files into the emulator's widget folder instead of installing a .wgz another area of the private folder.

Developers will want to immediately test the widget in the emulator instead of having to go through the process of installing the .wgz through the emulator.

Also I think there should be an option when saving a project that developers can also save files directly into the emulator folder containing the decompiled version of the widget for immediate testing, instead of copying a file from the project folder into the emulator folder.

Maybe do one or the other but there should be a way to save files directly into the decompiled folder so we do not have to copy files into the emulator folder for testing.

Also I am finding bugs in WRTKit and would like to know where to report these.

[bryanrieger]

Lastly, any possibility of the 'Deployment Settings' remembering other devices I might be testing with? Everytime I have to again search for devices, and select the one I want. It would be nice if the settings could remember the list of available devices, even if only for a given session.

The more I use the WRT plug-in for Aptana the more I find myself having to constantly search for the various devices I'm deploying to and testing on - which eats up an awful lot of time. Having Aptana remember found devices (at least within the same session) would be extremely helpful.

Another nice feature would be the ability to select multiple devices that you wish to deploy to so that it would be possible to simply package + deploy to multiple devices with one click (assuming you've paired the devices to receive files without prompts). No having to first select 'package', then 'search' and 'select' which device specifically, then 'deploy' only to that device - then having to repeat the process.

I often find myself testing with 3-4 devices at a time (different versions of WRT, different screen sizes, etc) and being able to simply packaging and deploy widgets with one click would save me LOTS of time.

[uptian]

Also I am finding bugs in WRTKit and would like to know where to report these.

hi, feel free to post it in this discussion board, we will pick it up from there... not the most elegant way but it serves the purpose...

[jpwb58]

I am new to WRT development.

I am using Nokia WRT 2.1 in Aptana Studio Standalone 1.5

Is it possible to deploy a .wgz to a PC folder from where the .wgz can be manually copied to a device using Ovi Suite ?

Or is it possible to deploy via Ovi suite direct from inside the Widget Deployment settings ?