Development of mobile applications for windows phone and webOS

Abstract

The mobile environment has changed drastically in the past couple of years. Having the ability to carry around technology in our pockets was a big leap forward and it gave rise to some remarkable mobile devices including smartphones and tables. With more and more consumers buying these devices, it became clear that this is a good opportunity for developers to start creating their own downloadable applications. Developing an application can be a tedious task for beginners, but most companies offer tools (or integration with available tools) to ease this process. This project will focus on two mobile platforms offered by Microsoft Corporation and Hewlett-Packard Company, being Windows Phone 7.5 and webOS 3.0 respectively. The aim is to give an extensive background research and an analysis of the development process of these two platforms. An application is built for the two platforms as a proof of concept. First a general research on both platforms is given which includes details about versions' history, platforms' architecture and the tools used for development. The next step will be in showing how to set up the development environment to start developing the first application. Additional information is given on the deployment process, including debugging options available as well as ways available for deployment such as emulators and devices. The project will then focus on the development of an application that incorporates features available by the platforms. This application will be developed for both platforms and the main features include: storing data locally using a database and consuming a web service in a 2-tier distributed environment. In order to develop a complete application, additional features were used such as a splash screen and binding data to lists. For the Windows Phone 7.5 application, Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 was downloaded using Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and the Windows Phone Emulator. The web OS 3. 0. 5 SDK was downloaded for the webOS application using NotePad++ for the development and VirtualBox was used to emulate a webOS device. The framework used for Windows Phone was Silverlight, while Enyo was used for webOS. The database created consisted of a single table called Clients and records were shown by binding them to a list. The user also has the option to add, edit or delete records from the list. An illustrative web service was consumed having the functionality to add, subtract, multiply or divide two integers to prove correct distributed computing. For this, a calculator layout was designed using buttons and an output field. The final application was then deployed and tested on two devices: HTC 7 Trophy for the Windows Phone 7.5 application and the HP TouchPad for the webOS 3.0 application.