Archive for May, 2012

Create KML documents using Google Maps

In the previous post, the sample KML document was one I edited by hand.  I could have saved some time by using Google Maps to generate the KML for me.  Here’s a quick guide on how to use Google Maps to generate a KML document very similar to the one in the previous demo. Read more…

Mobile Mapping with Keyhole Markup Language (KML)

I’ve added an implementation of a Codename One mapping points layer to the Vase API for populating a map using data from a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file. Currently only basic KML support is implemented, but I will add better support over time.  Play the video below to see some of the supported features in action.
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Open Navigation

I recently installed some free GPS apps on my Android device, because I wanted offline maps when I’m out of the country.  The roaming data charges from my mobile service provider are killer!.  Namely, the apps I installed are NavFree world, and NavFree USA edition (I don’t understand the separation).  The software is quite impressive, and very professional.  My main complaint with NavFree is all the teaser features – where you click a button and it says ‘that’s coming in the next release’. If they were to remove those, the app would appear very feature complete. Read more…

More Mobile Device Simulator Skins…

The simulator skins tutorial was quite popular, 57 likes on the first day, wow!  I finished up the rest of the skins mentioned in that post, and they can be found in the Vase API SVN.  Here’s the current full list, and some screenshot samples:

BlackBerry Bold 9790

(I reviewed this physical device recently)

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Touchscreen, QWERTY, 480x360, 2.45 inch display, ~245 ppi pixel density, BBOS 7.0, optical trackpad, physical back/menu buttons

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multipart/form-data: Uploading files from mobile devices to the cloud

Uploading files from mobile devices to the cloud requires only a few lines when using Codename One.  I’ll demonstrate here by uploading to the webapp created using Spring Roo in the previous post.

The Mime-Types value seen on the webapp side are passed from the mobile app.  I’ve added a new MimeTypes utility the Vase API to handle this. It uses the public domain mime-type registry hosted by the Apache httpd project for mapping known file extensions to associated mime type ids.  For parsing the mime file, I also implemented a BufferedReader for the Vase API since it’s not available in J2ME.

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Accepting File Uploads in your WebApp in 10 Minutes or Less

Preamble

In a project I’m currently working on, I have a requirement for handling user-uploaded images.  The project uses Spring Roo for rapid development of the webapp, and the choice for cloud plaform service provider has been narrowed to either VMWare’s CloudFoundry, Amazon EC2, or Google App Engine.  The example in this post should run on CloudFoundry and EC2, but to run on AppEngine, there will be some tweaks required to prevent attempts to access the filesystem.  I may revisit this post later to discuss changes required for running on Google AppEngine in more detail.

Prequisites

In this post I will assume the reader is somewhat familiar with Spring Roo, so I won’t be explaining much about Roo itself.    To get up to speed, I suggest visiting the Spring Roo website.  If you’re already a Spring Roo user, please ensure you’re using the latest version, 1.2.1 at the time of this writing, because some of the features I discuss here where very recently added to Spring Roo. Read more…

My story, and I’m sticking to it…

One of the Codename One guys, Shai Almog, recently posted a rebuttal to another posting on devzone, which he ended with the following:

A friend recently told me: “The only reason anyone ever does cross platform is to save money”.

Unfortunately that’s usually true, but my response was: “They shouldn’t. They should use cross platform to provide a distinct experience and more features.”.

Why do I use Codename One for cross-platform development?  In a roundabout way, my story follows… Read more…