Blogs

Today we’re launching a new PhoneGap Facebook Platform Plugin. With more than 250 million people accessing Facebook on their phone each month, this is sure to be a popular plugin. Here’s the news:

PhoneGap Facebook Platform Plugin Polishes Log In Experience for Mobile Users

Vancouver, BC—August 30, 2011—Nitobi Inc., the creators of the popular PhoneGap mobile app development framework, announce today the launch of the PhoneGap Facebook Platform plugin. The new plugin makes it easy for developers building mobile apps with PhoneGap to simplify the log in process for apps that retrieve and use Facebook data.

The Facebook Platform lets users log in to a web page or mobile app using their Facebook login credentials. An example of a popular website that uses this single sign-on functionality is The New York Times. Users can log in to The New York Times website by using the “Login with Facebook” button, after which the application uses Facebook identity data to verify the user.

Facebook provides a JavaScript software development kit (SDK) that makes it possible for web developers to implement “Login with Facebook”. However, the SDK poses a challenge for PhoneGap developers because the Facebook sign on process uses the OAuth 2.0 standard, which doesn’t always translate gracefully for their apps.

“We got working on a Facebook plugin because we’re user experience advocates,” said Dave Johnson, CTO at Nitobi Inc. “The OAuth authentication workflow for a mobile app isn’t ideal so we created the PhoneGap Facebook plugin as a way to streamline that process and improve the experience for the end user.”

The plugin uses the same application programming interface (API) as Facebook’s JavaScript SDK. But, instead of replicating the workflow users are accustomed to in desktop web browsers it works with the native Facebook application installed on many iOS and Android smartphones. The end result is a more streamlined and graceful log in experience. Plus, it’s easy to implement. Developers wrap their web app in PhoneGap and this plugin, add one line of code, and single sign-on automatically works.

Creating a better user experience was the inspiration for the Facebook plugin, but the PhoneGap community’s enthusiasm for plugins drove the project. “The PhoneGap community is really behind plugins, which is why it was a major focus in the recent PhoneGap 1.0 release. Continuing to improve and expand PhoneGap plugins is a big part of the PhoneGap agenda,” said Brian LeRoux, Senior Vice President of Software Development and Director of Developer Relations at Nitobi, and PhoneGap Evangelist.

You can download the Facebook plugin for a PhoneGap app here.

About Nitobi
Nitobi is the creator of PhoneGap an open source development tool for building fast, easy, cross-platform mobile apps with HTML and JavaScript that take advantage of core features of Apple iOS, Google Android, HP webOS, Nokia Symbian, Samsung Bada and BlackBerry SDKs. The open source code has been downloaded more than 600,000 times and thousands of apps built using PhoneGap are available in mobile app stores and directories.

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Today we’re celebrating the launch of PhoneGap 1.0 at PhoneGap Day in Portland! Kudos to the PhoneGap community who has so generously contributed time and expertise to the project. We’ll be toasting you and all your efforts today!

PhoneGap 1.0 Released Today at First-Ever PhoneGap Day in Portland
Popular Open Source Mobile Development Framework Gets Upgrades Including More Access to Native Device APIs and Debugging Tools

Nitobi Inc., the creators of the popular PhoneGap mobile app development framework, releases PhoneGap 1.0 today at the first-ever PhoneGap Day in Portland, Oregon.

PhoneGap, an HTML5 platform, allows developers to use foundation web technology (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to create native mobile applications. Using PhoneGap, developers can write their app once and deploy it to six major mobile platforms and app stores, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada and Symbian. PhoneGap has been widely recognized as a game-changer for mobile app development. The open source code is downloaded approximately 40,000 times every month, more than 600,000 times in total.

Today’s major release puts the focus on accessing native device APIs, which is new ground for the web. Other improvements include:

* Overall API stability and “pluggable” architecture
* W3C DAP API compatibility
* Contacts API
* Remove debugging tools

Today’s release also includes a new unifying bridge interface that makes adding platforms and platform extensions easy. Plus, developers will be pleased to see that the plugin development process has been simplified.

“Most of these new enhancements come from our community,” said Brian LeRoux, Senior Software Engineer at Nitobi and PhoneGap evangelist. “For instance, PhoneGap developers were calling for a consistent way to make plugins that would run on all major smartphone platforms and this release does that.”

“The community built up around PhoneGap is its greatest asset,” says Nitobi CEO Andre Charland. “The PhoneGap community identifies common pain points and works together to overcome them.” Contributors include Nitobi, hundreds of individual developers and a team of senior software engineers at IBM whose commitment and contributions to PhoneGap development has been a major benefit to the community.

IBM isn’t the only Fortune 500 to show interest in PhoneGap. Earlier this year, Adobe integrated PhoneGap into Dreamweaver so that developers can package apps with PhoneGap and launch iOS and Android emulators directly from within Dreamweaver. Other companies to adopt PhoneGap and its cross-platform philosophy include IBM, Alcatel-Lucent, Sabre, Cisco, Logitech and Time Warner.

About Nitobi Inc.
Nitobi is the creator of PhoneGap (http://www.phonegap.com) an open source development tool for building fast, easy, cross-platform mobile apps with HTML and JavaScript that take advantage of core features of Apple iOS, Google Android, HP webOS, Nokia Symbian, Samsung Bada and BlackBerry SDKs. The open source code has been downloaded more than 600,000 times and thousands of apps built using PhoneGap are available in mobile app stores and directories.

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At Nitobi, we work in a mixed IT environment and use a wide variety of technologies like Ajax, Flash, Flex, Ruby, etc. We also use the Microsoft .NET Framework because more of our clients are investing in .NET these days.

This month, Microsoft is highlighting Nitobi’s use of .NET in a case study posted on Microsoft’s website. The article focuses on the work we do at Nitobi and discusses why and how we’re using .NET.

Here’s a short excerpt from the case study:

To meet its customer’s technology needs and help deliver rich Internet apps, Nitobi determined that adding Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.5 into its development mix as a way to handle some user interface (UI) technologies would help to improve collaboration and add value to customers already using the .NET Framework.

“Interoperability is something that our customers demand and developers need to boost performance. We felt that including .NET in our development arsenal would help to increase developer collaboration and business agility, which is critical for our success,” says Charland.

Read the complete case study…

Get in touch if you have questions about how we’re using .NET at Nitobi.

We’ve been fielding the question “What is PhoneGap?” more and more these past couple months. So we put together this short video to help explain it:)

Get the code and more at PhoneGap.com

Brian Leroux and Brock Whitten will be in San Jose this Sunday March 1st at the 360|iDev. They’ll be giving a full day seminar on PhoneGap starting with the basics in the morning and helping you build your own iPhone Apps and working on the framework in the afternoon.

What you will learn:

* How to get started building PhoneGap applications
* An overview of Objective-C, Javascript API and XUI framework
* How to overcome barriers to cross-device development
* How to build applications for web-enabled devices with open standards
* How to test and deploy an application to a mobile device
* How to quickly and easily convert web applications to a native mobile app
* Differences in capabilities across devices
* How to retrofit existing web applications to utilize phone features

For more info on 360|iDev or to register go here.

“Herman Wong will be presenting on PureMVC. PureMVC is a lightweight framework for creating applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept. Herman is a Flex / Air Developer for Nitobi.”

The event is Thursday at WorkSpace in Vancouver. Go here to register.

BlackBerry announced a new fund to encourage mobile applicationand development.

Research In Motion (RIM) (TSX: RIM; NASDAQ: RIMM), RBC (RY: TSX; RY: NYSE) and Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI; TSX: TRI; LSE: TRIL; NASDAQ: TRIN), today announced plans to launch the BlackBerry® Partners Fund, a US$150 million venture capital fund, to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms. The Fund is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.

Agnostic to both stage and balance sheet, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment. The Fund will be designed to advance the industry by fostering development and driving the entrepreneurial spirit to create the most innovative mobile offerings for customers.

There’s not much more than that. The have official site with a link to the press release and an email address. I sent them a message about a cool project we’re working on here but haven’t heard anything yet.

[Update] Rick from JLA (VC involved in the fund) they will support biz plans focused on any mobile platform and they are getting a lot interest, 845 msgs to date! I’m stoked Rick’s blogging about this, it just went from a weird big co blank page plus press release shutting me out to a human on the inside with a blog talking to me.

We’re pretty excited to be starting a new project that allows users to make low cost calls and sms with their existing phones over VOIP. The client is Verb Exchange another Vancouver startup that specializes in VOIP. They originally went down the .Net path but have now selected Flex/AIR for the user experience and platform portability.

Verb Exchange and Nitobi Partner on Tabrio; Application Built in Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR

With Tabrio, users choose from web, desktop or mobile access to place high-quality long distance calls or send and receive SMS text messages to anywhere in the world. It utilizes existing networks to provide best-of-breed call quality, while still offering VoIP’s significant cost savings. Additional features allow users to synchronize their contacts, send instant messages, and perform web searches from directly within the application.

“Tabrio targets the millions of people around the world who need a better way to stay in touch. Our goal is for those people to download Tabrio and understand it immediately,” says Christian Jensen, VP, Products and Services, Verb Exchange. “That’s where Nitobi excels. Their work will translate directly to more users, higher customer satisfaction, and increased profits.”

The interactive UI is being developed with Adobe Flex, a Flash-based rich Internet application (RIA) development framework, and the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a platform that enables RIAs to run on the desktop. Flex and AIR were chosen for the ability to deliver highly interactive applications that deploy consistently in all major browsers on Mac and PC.

I’m in a rush to get out the door to NY and Europe…but stay for more updates on this exciting app.

The Adobe on AIR Tour is Headed to Europe And I’m on board to talk up Ajax development in AIR, our Dreamweaver Extensions and some usability topics.
Here’s the schedule:

* Madrid - March 31
* Paris - April 2
* Amsterdam - April 4
* Brussels - April 7
* London - April 9
* Dublin - April 11
* Stockholm - June 2
* Berlin - June 4
* Warsaw - June 6
* Prague - June 9
* Munich - June 11
* Milan - June 13

Please let me if you’re in any of these cities and would me to buy you a beer;-) Also would love to get some recommendations of stuff to do an check out.

User experience you can take to the bank! VanUE » HSBC User Centered Design Group

HSBC is a global bank with over 100 million customers in 83 countries worldwide. As a global team dedicated to championing the needs of all of HSBC’s customers, HSBC User Centered Design (UCD) views the customer experience as one that has no borders. With user research and user interface design teams worldwide, UCD has the ability to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. UCD projects range from intranet designs and applications for internal staff to innovative engagements with ATMs and mobile banking. Join UCD as the team shares some of its memorable experiences setting the bar for the “World’s Local Bank.”

Sounds interesting. Some of the best talks on usability I’ve been have been from experts working directly for business or product as opposed to outside consultants (not trash talking, ’cause I’m one of em). I’m also very interested in usability and ux in the banking world since so many Nitobi customers are large financial institutions. Banks also have to deal with other issues like large data sets, privacy, security and accessibility more diligently than many businesses so it’s neat to understand how they balance everything. Incidentally many big banks were *very* early adopters of Ajax…before we even had this clever little term:)