Developing with Blaast

Transcription

1 Developing with Blaast Kirsi Louhelainen

2 Let s get acquainted About me Geek at heart, business enthusiast Aalto CS alumni Blaast co-founder Responsible for 3rd party Blaast About Blaast Finnish mobile company Founded in 2010, idea was born 2 years earlier 40 people from around the world

3 The world is changing Different ways of speaking with God

4 Who s using the phone? Internet is going to be mobile

5 What is holding them back? Mediocre phones Majority of internet-enabled phones sold in emerging markets are feature-phones, not smartphones No apps Bad performance Bad network connections Latency High cost of data No apps De facto way to access mobile internet

6 Blaast makes any device a smartphone

7 Blaast brings apps to all phones Application platform that works on most devices Sleek, fast client that feels like smartphone All popular apps, possibility to create your own Apps work also offline All apps are free monthly subscription

8 Running on clouds App backend and Blaast services run on our cloud platform Keep apps and data always up-to-date and connected Minimize the client side of application Minimize the amount of traffic between phone and backend Update the client when connection works

9 Blaast Demo

10 Under the hood. A peek at the Blaast technology and platform

11

12 The platform, in words Blaast Client Runtime on mobile devices Minimized for easy download Multitasking, automatic updates, messaging, notifications and more. Proprietary, optimized js engine Server code hosted on the Blaast Cloud Downloading data from internet, compression Powerful computing tasks Node.js + npm Blaast Apps Downloaded on first run Javascript, styles, JSON

13 Network optimizations Designed for low bandwidth, unreliable delivery and offline usage Never download the same content twice Client side caching Example: Facebook on Blaast vs. m.facebook.com! Bandwidth usage for 5 newsfeed loads of 11 different entries. 40 KB 2.2 KB Blaast m.facebook.com

14 Semantic caching Allows applications to function even when the device is offline or the connection is bad After loading content once, it will be available locally on Blaast cache No developer action needed No caching of full content Application can specify individual pieces of content that are cached individually

15 Blaast cloud protocol Platform provides persistent connection between device and backend Responses for the active application are always scheduled first Message delivery is not guaranteed but resource requests are

16 Developing for Blaast ww.free-pictures-photos.com/clouds/cloud-c3a7.jpg

17 Welcoming all the developers Open platform for building apps Write once, run anywhere Develop with well-known web technologies JavaScript, JSON Free development tools Tools for testing and monitoring Easy start Register and download

18 Development community Open developer communities Support developers locally and online Support for building together Get rewarded of app use

19 Where will your app run? Target: 50% of the world s phones We are starting in emerging markets, but our apps will be available globally First target is the feature phones: lower-end smartphones follow (Android 2.2 etc) Sample supported phones Nokia C3-00, X2-01, 5130 Samsung B3210 Corby D-One DG578 Nexian NX-G

20 Who do I reach? Starting in SE Asia Indonesia Philippines Malaysia Global delivery Blaast Mini Global full client in 6 months Possibility for local content

21 What do I get? Slice from user monthly payments based on app usage The best app wins In-app purchases, premium apps

22 Development process α, production (in the presentation, we had a chart on how dev process goes and what environments devs may use) Rocket Build and test your apps Emulator, form factors UI inspection Resource inspection (memory, CPU) Network emulation, Multiuser testing Rocket mobile client Test against the Rocket backend See real-time logs, resource usage on device

23 Getting started App structure and components walkthrough

24 Views and controllers Views Defined as json files View can be defined in json file or in controller as javascript Controllers Javascript files Each view has corresponding controller View can be modified in controller

25 Controls and user input Handles to ui components: app object methods Define components var InputBox = require('ui').inputbox; Get a handle of a view item View.get( hello ); Handling input: see Hello main.js User controls and Custom controls Basic layouts: LinearLayout, CellLayout, Panels Basic controls: Control, TextView, ImageView, SceneView Example.TextAndImages app for custom controls. Layouts and controls can be extended

26 App lifecycle Start client runtime Download update, load from cache Execute bootstrap.js Make connection to the backend If app.on(connected) is present Backend is notified of connection app.realtime(connected) Open default view, execute associated controller Load event Resize event Active event

27 Application lifecycle: Events Active User navigates to the view Inactive User navigates away from the view Load On loading a view: once in a lifetime of an app Resized Keydown Keyup Keypress

28 Client vs Backend Blaast differs from smartphone development in having both client and backend counterparts Client runs in phone, backend in Blaast cloud platform It is possible to only have a client counterpart Then application will have no access to online content, no way to message to other users, etc. Normally not useful Using backend is simple Just call our messaging service to send a message to backend, and listen to server messages to receive data

29 Messaging Backend gets notified of conn with app.realtime Client to backend Client: app.msg( hello, {a:1, b:2}); Backend: app.message(function(client, action, content) { // action is hello // content is {a:1, b:2} }) Backend to client Backend: client.msg( hi, {a:1}); Client: }); app.on( message, function(action, content){ // action is hi, content is {a:1}

30 Handling multiple users Unique Blaast Id for users Client: app.user.id Backend: client.user.id In the backend, separate users with client parameter app.message(function(client, action, data) { if (action === 'setstatus { client.status = data.status; } }); Client object can be augmented Request() client method Rocket multiuser simulation

31 Games and graphics SceneView control Layers (may include other controls, TextView etc) Sprites and sprite sheets Background layers and tiling Graphic primitives (limited) and generated bitmaps Further information Example.SceneView Reference Animation setanimationloop

32 Peek at the future Upcoming libraries and features Phone APIs Publishing 3rd party libraries Messaging between apps App Planet and Game Center Global client for low-end feature phones Clients for smartphones Next in line: Android Blaast native client preinstalled in phones Provides app ecosystem to any phone

33 Blaast way or the highway Mobile apps will go towards lower end phones Lower end gets better Feature phones will join the app ecosystem Special care is needed to provide these users decent experience with the phone and network limitations

34 At workshop More on game building Rocket overview (console, more tips and tricks) Topics of interest

35 Try this at home. developer.blaast.com See you at the workshop