Palm Developer Network Blog

Palm® just released webOS™ version 1.2, and with it the latest version of the Mojo™ Software Development Kit.

As always, the number one reason to update your SDK installation is to keep your development environment in sync with the version of webOS that’s running on end-user devices. The emulator ROM and Mojo Framework in the Mojo SDK v1.2 match the software that began rolling out to devices today via over-the-air updates.

Aside from staying up to date, there are plenty of other good reasons to get the latest SDK. Here are some of the highlights:

• Improved installation and development platform support. The Mojo SDK now supports Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Windows 7 Beta (32- and 64-bit), and Windows Vista 64-bit. We’ve also addressed a number of configuration and installation issues that you’ve reported – thanks for your help in tracking these down.
• New and improved SDK tools. Debugging your app should be much easier thanks to the new palm-log tool, which can display or tail your app’s log output including JavaScript syntax errors and runtime exceptions. The v1.2 SDK also includes a new webOS Resource Monitor (WORM) tool to help you monitor your app’s memory usage and an updated Palm Inspector with improved reload functionality and reliability.
• New and enhanced APIs. There are a handful of new APIs in the latest SDK, including perhaps the single most popular request: the new Download Manager API lets apps download and upload files over HTTP.

And, of course, we’ve updated the Mojo SDK documentation so you will know how to take advantage of the enhancements and new functionality.

For a complete list of Mojo SDK v1.2 enhancements, as well as known issues with the new release, go to the Release Notes. And, as ever, please go to the webOSdev Forums to let us know how things are working and what more we can to keep improving your webOS development experience.

I thought I’d pass along pointers to a couple of videos you might want to watch.

The first one is to the Engadget Show, where Palm’s CEO, Jon Rubenstein, sits down for a talk about Palm, the Pre  and webOS.

The other video is the second webcast by Palm’s CTO Mitch Allen, this one covering webOS Application basics:

For those getting started programming in webOS, it covers a lot of the ground to get you going and is well worth the time to view.

I’m happy to announce we’ve released a new version of the SDK and it’s now available for download.

This version is primarily aimed at fixing the installer issues that have been reported on Windows and Macintosh. The  “rollback” issue and the problems some people had with the installer on XP with DLLs being replaced improperly leading to BSOD problems are fixed, as is a problem installing on a Mac when the emulator wasn’t properly uninstalled first.

There are no changes to the Linux SDK, and no functionality changes to the SDK itself, so if you’re currently up and running, there’s no need to download and install this update. You can get more details in the Release Notes.

Downloads of this new release are available on the download page.

With the Pre now in customers’ hands and reports of webOS hacks in the news, we know that you are more anxious than ever to get access to the SDK and start developing for webOS.

We’ve been working very hard on the SDK and are eager to open access on a wider scale, but the software and the developer services to support it just aren’t ready yet.

Our goal is to make the SDK available to everyone by the end of this summer, and to get there in stages:

• Beginning immediately, we’ll accelerate the growth of the early access program, expanding as quickly as resources allow. Over the next few weeks, the program will grow from hundreds to thousands of developers.
• Simultaneously, we’ll begin publishing more content outside the early access program, and we’ll launch new confidentiality rules that will allow early Mojo developers to communicate more freely with the rest of the world.
• As soon as we can, we’ll open the SDK to all legitimate requests.

Until you have the SDK, we encourage you to explore other public webOS resources, including the Rough Cuts edition of Mitch Allen’s upcoming book and the sites run by our great community of enthusiasts.

We’ve also begun getting questions about Palm’s stance toward the webOS development “experiments” that have emerged outside the early access program over the last week. We’re focused on building a robust and easy-to-use Mojo SDK, and an ecosystem that benefits developers, end users, carriers and Palm alike. As on any popular platform, we recognize that some developers will experiment in ways that cross official boundaries, but we believe that our formal offerings – and community efforts built around those offerings – will provide the best experience for the vast majority of webOS developers and users.

Thanks again for your enthusiasm and support as we roll webOS out to the world!

It has been a week since we announced our expansion of the early access program for the Palm Mojo SDK, so I wanted to give you a quick update and thank you for your interest!

We’ve been thrilled and, frankly, awed by your response. As you may have seen on Twitter, @palm_inc recently tweeted that we’d received about a gazillion applications for early access, and that’s not far from the truth.

We let our first batch of developers in late last week, and another batch early this week. These folks are getting started, and we’re taking their feedback and learning from their experiences as we work to get the SDK ready for the rest of the world.

We expect to accept additional developers into the program each week. The SDK is still in active development, so we’re starting slowly — we need to make sure that our tools and support systems are ready before we scale. But we are eager to get the SDK into everyone’s hands, as we know that third-party applications will play a huge role in the success of webOS and Pre.

For those of you who have already applied, we thank you for your patience as we come up to speed. As noted in the program FAQ, we can’t provide status updates on individual applications, but we’ll do our best to give frequent public updates on this blog. If you haven’t applied yet, it’s not too late — you can submit your application here.

Thanks again!

Gray Norton
Product Manager, Palm Mojo SDK

We are happy to announce our new early access program for developers interested in creating applications for the Palm webOSTM. The early access program is an opportunity for developers to test-drive and provide feedback on the Palm MojoTM SDK prior to its public release.

Admission to the program is by application – we’ll admit a small group of developers to start and gradually increase the size of the program as the tools mature. We’d like to let everyone in, but we want to make sure that we can provide a solid development experience and attentive developer support before we scale up. We are eager to get the SDK into developers’ hands and will expand the program as quickly as we can.

The program will continue until the SDK is officially released to the public, at which point any developer will be free to download the SDK. No, we’re not announcing the date that will happen yet.

If you wish to to apply to the early access program, complete and submit this application form. If you want to learn more about the program, we have a page of common questions and answers you can read.

If you’re admitted into the program, you’ll be able to download the Mojo SDK, which includes the tools you need to develop and test apps for the webOS platform. You’ll also have access to the early access program portal, where you’ll find documentation, sample code, and community forums where you can share experiences, tips and tricks with fellow early access developers. Because this is early access, all program participants will be required to accept an SDK Agreement which will require you to maintain confidentiality until the end of the early access program.

We are very excited about the expansion of access to the SDK, and can’t wait to see what you are going to build.

We had a few requests for the slides to the Developing Applications for WebOS webcast. I’ve uploaded them to Slideshare, and they’re now available for those that wanted them.

I’m happy to announce that the Developing Applications for webOS webcast is now available from O’Reilly for online viewing.

You can view this either from O’Reilly’s webcast page or from their YouTube channel.

If you weren’t able to see the webcast list, now’s a great time to go and take a look.

If you have questions about developing on the Palm webOS that weren’t answered during the webinar, please leave a comment here and ask them. We might not be able to answer every question right away (for instance, we know you’re going to ask “When?” and “How much?” and we can’t answer those questions yet) — but we will answer as many as we can, and keep track of the rest and answer them later.

Also, we’d love to hear what you thought about the webinar. Please post a comment here telling us what you thought liked about it, and tell us how we could make it better next time. Your feedback will help make future events better!

A couple of days ago we asked for your feedback and questions on the Webinar, and we got a lot of both! Thank you all, and keep it coming!

Here’s the first set of answers to some of the questions that were asked. We’re still working on answering more of them, so stay tuned.

First, we had a lot of questions on the documentation, when it’ll be available, and what will be in it. The documentation will be available at the same time as the SDK. We decided to release the rough cuts chapter and hold the webinar to provide a preview to the sdk but there are no plans currently to release more information ahead of the sdk.

Q:  I was hoping to get clarification on a passage in the first chapter of the book about uninstalling applications,

This includes removing it from the launcher and any local application data, plus any data added to the Palm application databases such as Contacts or Calendar data.

A: Yes, that was unclear and we’re working on revising it. The current draft of the revision is:

The user can opt to remove an application and its data from the device. When the user attempts to delete an application, the system will stop the application if needed and remove its components from the device. This includes removing it from the launcher and any local application data, plus any data that the application might have created in the Palm application databases such as added Contacts or Calendar records.

Q: Will the (HTML/Javascript/noncompiledwhatever) source code for all client-side applications be available for any device owner to see?

A: Mitch discussd this during the Q&A of the webinar and we don’t have anything more to add at this time.

Q: It would be great if webOS had some sort of certificate check when trying to install app and warn the user if it is not certified but still leave it up to the user to install it. This way you would have a sort of disclaimer that proceeding with non-certified apps is at users’ risk but at the same time allow in-house and experimental/beta development, test and distribution
of the apps. This will also allow third parties to promote their apps directly.

A: Applications installed on a webOS device will be signed with a digital certificate that will identify it and its publisher. The details of this program are not final and we’ll go into more detail on the process at a later date.

Q: Should we have a business (with an ID number) for selling applications on your Applications Store? Or will be freelancing is enough? I need to know if I should open a business now?

A: We are not ready to disclose the business elements of the application catalog, and these may vary by geography and over time.

Q: The SDK (especially the emulator) will run on what OS? Mac? Windows? Linux?

A: The development environment will run on MacOS, Windows and Linux.

Q:  I love jQuery. Please let us know if it’ll work.

A:  jQuery should work fine. We’re still evaluating which libraries and framework will be formally tested with webOS, and once that’s final we’ll document that.

Q: What localization support is built into the OS? will there be built-in support for BiDi (RTL) languages such as Hebrew, Arabic ?

A: WebOS has internationalization and localization support but beyond that we are not yet announcing when specific languages or locales will be supported.