1 YEAR UPGRADE BUYER PROTECTION PLAN Palm OS Ben Combee R. Eric Lyons David C. Matthews Rory Lysaght Foreword by Adam Tow Web Application Developing and Delivering PQAs with Web Clipping • Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating Palm Web Applications Using Web Clipping Technology • Hundreds of Developing & Deploying Sidebars, Security Alerts, and Web Clipping Code Explained • Complete Coverage of Design for Internet-Enabled Mobile Devices Developer’s Guide solutions@syngress.com With more than 1,500,000 copies of our MCSE, MCSD, CompTIA, and Cisco study guides in print, we continue to look for ways we can better serve the information needs of our readers. One way we do that is by listening. Readers like yourself have been telling us they want an Internet-based ser- vice that would extend and enhance the value of our books. Based on reader feedback and our own strategic plan, we have created a Web site that we hope will exceed your expectations. 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And be sure to let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help you get the maximum value from your investment. We’re listening. www.syngress.com/solutions 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page i 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page ii 1 YEAR UPGRADE BUYER PROTECTION PLAN Palm OS Developing and Delivering PQAs with Web Clipping Developer’s Guide Ben Combee R. Eric Lyons David C. Matthews Rory Lysaght Web Application 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page iii Syngress Publishing, Inc., the author(s), and any person or firm involved in the writing, editing, or production (collectively “Makers”) of this book (“the Work”) do not guarantee or warrant the results to be obtained from the Work. There is no guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the Work or its contents.The Work is sold AS IS and WITHOUT WARRANTY.You may have other legal rights, which vary from state to state. 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KEY SERIAL NUMBER 001 DJG4T945T5 002 AKLRT4MLE4 003 VMERL3N54N 004 SGD34B39UN 005 8LU8MU6N7H 006 NFG4RNTEM4 007 BWBVHTR46T 008 QPB9R565MR 009 83N5M4BKAS 010 GT6YH22WFC PUBLISHED BY Syngress Publishing, Inc. 800 Hingham Street Rockland, MA 02370 Palm OS Web Application Developer’s Guide: Including PQA and Web Clipping Copyright © 2001 by Syngress Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or dis- tributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ISBN: 1-928994-32-6 Technical Editor: Ben Combee Freelance Editorial Manager: Maribeth Corona-Evans Technical Reviewer: Calvin Swart Cover Designer: Michael Kavish Co-Publisher: Richard Kristof Page Layout and Art by: Shannon Tozier Acquisitions Editor: Catherine B. Nolan Copy Editor: Darren Meiss Developmental Editor: Kate Glennon Indexer: Robert Saigh CD Production: Michael Donovan Distributed by Publishers Group West in the United States and by Jaguar Book Group in Canada 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page iv v Acknowledgments v We would like to acknowledge the following people for their kindness and support in making this book possible. Richard Kristof and Duncan Anderson of Global Knowledge, for their generous access to the IT industry’s best courses, instructors, and training facilities. Ralph Troupe, Rhonda St. John, and the team at Callisma for their invaluable insight into the challenges of designing, deploying and supporting world-class enterprise networks. Karen Cross, Lance Tilford, Meaghan Cunningham, Kim Wylie, Harry Kirchner, Bill Richter, Kevin Votel, Brittin Clark, and Kent Anderson of Publishers Group West for sharing their incredible marketing experience and expertise. Mary Ging, Caroline Hird, Simon Beale, Caroline Wheeler,Victoria Fuller, Jonathan Bunkell, and Klaus Beran of Harcourt International for making certain that our vision remains worldwide in scope. Anneke Baeten, Annabel Dent, and Laurie Giles of Harcourt Australia for all their help. David Buckland,Wendi Wong, Daniel Loh, Marie Chieng, Lucy Chong, Leslie Lim, Audrey Gan, and Joseph Chan of Transquest Publishers for the enthusiasm with which they receive our books. Kwon Sung June at Acorn Publishing for his support. Ethan Atkin at Cranbury International for his help in expanding the Syngress program. Joe Pisco, Helen Moyer, and the great folks at InterCity Press for all their help. 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page v Ben Combee would like to thank the following people for their support and contri- butions to the book: Thank you to Charles Wilson, John Wirth, and Anil Patel.To David Fedor, Danny Epstein, Peter Epstein, Ken Krugler, Keith Rollin, and the other helpful Palm employees that contribute to the online forums.To Neil Rhodes, Aaron Ardiri, and John Marshall for their work on free development tools for the Palm.To Vernard and Kim Martin, Charles and Heather Patisaul, and finally to Lamar, Rose, Cyndi, and Kaye Combee. Acknowledgments vi 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page vi vii Contributors David C. Matthews is an Independent Consultant located in Huntsville, AL. He has over 20 years of full life cycle software development experi- ence and currently specializes in wireless Web technologies. He has con- tributed to several books on developing PalmOS Web clipping applications, DHTML, and JavaScript. David has also overseen several development projects, including a voice-activated wireless Web interface for wearable computer control of an aviation maintenance management system, a Web-centric wireless GPS-based golfer PDA, and a Web-centric inventory management system with barcode support. An Instrument Rated Private Pilot, David is also an IEEE member and holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. He has com- pleted post-graduate work in Electrical Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Rory Lysaght is a Mobile Device Specialist at Ripcord Systems, a wire- less startup based in Seattle and London. At Ripcord, Rory put together one of the first wireless GSM iPAQs in Europe. He has worked in Web and wireless development in the US, Europe, and Japan. He has con- tributed articles to several online and paper publications, including Web Review and the EE Times. Prior to this, Rory worked as a photojournalist, publishing numerous documentary stories in magazines in the same three continents. He is a member of the WAP forum and the Palm developer network. He lives in Seattle,WA. R. Eric Lyons is a Palm OS Application Developer who designs and develops wireless stock trading and wireless e-mail applications. In addi- tion to these applications, he assisted with the design of the client toolkit for the Touchpoint 4.0 mobile enterprise platform. Eric’s background includes positions as Software Engineer for EASE CT Solutions and Application Developer at Syntellect. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree from 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page vii viii Clemson University and is a member of the Atlanta Palm OS Developer’s Group. In his spare time, Eric is a musician in the Atlanta Freedom Marching Band. Hari Bhaskaran is the Principal Software Architect for JP Mobile where he builds client-server solutions that connect wireless handhelds with JP Mobile’s server products. His Palm development work includes the award- winning OneTouch Mail (recipient of the 1998 Best Handheld Software award, Mobile Computing Magazine) and OmniSky products, as well as BeamLink. Hari has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from R.E.C Calicut, India. He currently resides in Richardson,TX. Hari would like to thank his wife, Suma, for her love and support. Hari would also like to thank his collegues Alex Farcasiu, Joan Garcia, and all his friends at JP Mobile for their help. 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page viii ix Adam Tow has been passionate about the handheld industry ever since he purchased his first handheld, the Apple Newton MessagePad, in September, 1993. Adam is currently the Manager of Technology at Palm, Inc., the worldwide leader of mobile computing, where he is actively involved in the company’s wireless initiatives. Prior to joining Palm, Adam founded and directed Foundation Systems, a mobile computing solutions firm, where he consulted with Palm and OmniSky on the release of two critically acclaimed consumer wireless devices, the Palm VII organizer and the OmniSky Palm V handheld. Adam has presented on Web clipping development at PalmSource and the Palm Developer’s Conference. In addition, his company’s software for the Newton and Palm OS platforms has been sold in over 22 countries and has been featured in publications such as Pen Computing Magazine, Mobile Computing, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been interviewed in Interface Magazine and on C|Net and ZDNN. He is the founding member of the Stanford Palm User Group. Adam received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in Symbolic Systems, with a focus in Human-Computer Interaction. His other passions include photography, digital multimedia, and online jour- nalism. Adam can be reached on the Web at www.tow.com/ or via e-mail at adam@tow.com. Foreword by 139_palm_FM 6/11/01 12:37 PM Page ix [...]... (INetLib), which is used to develop native C/C++ Palm OS applications that access the Internet.Whatever your reason, Palm OS Web Application Developers Guide: Including PQA and Web Clipping will serve as your guide in demystifying the Web design process on the Palm The Contents In short, this book details how to create Web applications for the Palm OS using the Web clipping technology that is found on many Palm... of the Web experience as possible, redefine and package some components to perform better on Palm OS devices, and discard the rest.The biggest difference between Web clipping applications and standard World Wide Web applications is that Web clipping applications are started by launching an application database file installed by the user onto the device instead of typing a URL into a Web browser A Web clipping... Palm OS applications are installed Web clipping applications can be added to a Palm VII by using the Install Tool application on a desktop computer and performing a HotSync operation with the device Chapter 1 Introducing Web Clipping Introduction What Is Web Clipping? Loading Web Clipping Applications on Your Device Running the Install Tool Performing a HotSync Operation on Your Device Loading Web Clipping... saving transfer time ,Web clipping applications appear as icons in the Application Launcher alongside the Address Book, MemoPad, and other Palm OS applications Because a user has learned how to launch a standard application from the Application Launcher, the user already knows how to launch a Web clipping application as well www.syngress.com 139_palm_01 6/8/01 3:47 PM Page 5 Introducing Web Clipping • Chapter... 1 The primary disadvantage to Web clipping technology is that the static components in an application are not updated unless the user downloads and installs updates to the application Content of a standard Web application is usually downloaded each time the application is referenced .Web clipping application developers should be prepared to support all revisions of an application, because developers... introductory and provide a glimpse into the philosophy and technology behind Web clipping: s Chapter 1, Introducing Web Clipping, introduces you to the concept of Web clipping and the thinking behind its development s Chapter 2, Building a Simple Web Clipping Application, takes you step-by-step in creating your first Web clipping application www.syngress.com 139_palm_fore 6/12/01 xxviii 9:30 AM Page xxviii... Users and Sessions, explains how you can maintain state within your applications s Chapter 9, Locating Mobile Users, shows you how to use the unique features of Web clipping to create location-based services for your handheld Web applications Developers looking to better integrate their Web applications with the built-in and third-party applications on the Palm handheld should be excited to read the final... following advanced topics: s Chapter 10, Integrating Web Clipping with Palm OS Applications, outlines how your Web clipping applications can integrate and interact with other Palm OS applications on your device s Chapter 11, Using the Internet Library with Palm OS Applications, details how to add Internet capabilities to your existing C/C++ based Palm OS applications And lastly, the Fast Track Appendix... devices It’s up to us to define and create the wireless Web Let’s get to work! —Adam Tow, adam@tow.com www.syngress.com 139_palm_fore 6/12/01 9:30 AM Page xxx 139_palm_01 6/8/01 3:47 PM Page 1 Chapter 1 Introducing Web Clipping Solutions in this chapter: s What Is Web Clipping? s Loading Web Clipping Applications on Your Device s Loading Web Clipping Applications on the Palm OS Emulator s Using Clipper... Clipper Calling iMessenger from Palm OS Applications Determining if iMessenger Can Be Called Specifying a New E-Mail Message Sublaunching iMessenger to Edit and Send E-Mail Returning from iMessenger Unwired Widget Application About Box Example Calling Palm OS Applications from Web Clipping Applications Launching Applications Using palm URLs Activating Helper Applications Using palmcall URLs Passing . Writing Simple Web Pages 18 Running the Web Clipping Application Builder 19 Load Web Clipping Applications on Your Device New Web clipping applications can. Adam Tow Web Application Developing and Delivering PQAs with Web Clipping • Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating Palm Web Applications Using Web Clipping