Opera Platform SDK - Not your momma's Ajax
Since starting at Opera about six months ago, I have written next to absolutely nothing about what I do here at Opera. Because it would have violated my NDA. The time has finally come to introduce you to the work my team and I have been doing. World, meet Opera Platform. Opera Platform, meet world.
What is Opera Platform?
The Opera Platform SDK is best described as three different parts.
The Opera Platform Application Player. This is a special version of Opera that runs in full-screen without any user chrome.
The Opera Platform Application player acts as a host for the Opera Platform Application Framework, an advanced JavaScript-based framework for writing client-side web applications. This framework is itself written in JavaScript, and provides:
- An application grid, similar to what you find on the phone, used for navigating between applications.
- A theming service, so end-users can choose pleasing appearance for all of their applications.
- Menus and dialogs that fit in with the theme.
- A messaging system for letting applications interact with each other.
- A permanent storage, so applications can store data.
Finally, we have Opera Platform Web Applications: These are advanced web applications installed locally on the phone. Extended functionality in the Application Player enables these applications to interact with the native functionality on the phone, such as the address book, calendar or messaging interfaces. In addition to interacting with the native functionality, Opera Platform Web Applications can also interact with web services, using commonly known technology, such as XMLHttpRequest.
The Opera Platform SDK runs on all Symbian Series60 devices. In addition, there are Opera Platform-enabled builds of Opera for Desktop available for use during development.
In order to use the Opera Platform SDK, you must first register. See the Opera Platform product page for more. Registration for evaluation purposes is free, and entitles you to five licenses of Opera Platform for Series60. We will be adding support for MS Smartphone in the future.
Screenshots
Update: I’ve added a few screenshots from the demo install. These are just samples — creating your own services is as easy as regular web development:
Comments
Comment from Ilya Birman on 2005-11-15 15:52
Is it ever going to work on Series40 devices such as Nokia 6230/6230i? Thanks.
Comment from Arve on 2005-11-15 16:17
Series 40 phones typically have too slow CPUs and too little memory to run an extended web browser (as the application player actually is), so I don’t this is going to happen.
Comment from Chris Hester on 2005-11-15 18:13
Utterly gorgeous.
Comment from Ilya Birman on 2005-11-16 14:12
Thanks for answer, Arve.
What do you mean by “typically”? Actually, 6230 and some other phones can play videos and stuff. Or it isn’t enough? Maybe you can make it work just on those Series 40 devices which can run it? However this can be pointless from the business point of view…
Actually this thing is so impressive, and I use 6230. So I’m like “oh why all this is happening without me” :-)
Comment from Arve on 2005-11-16 14:23
Ilya: I’m afraid you’ll have to get yourselves a Series 60 phone, then. :-)
Series 40 phones, or similar mid-end devices aren’t really targeted at this kind of use.
Comment from Chris Hester on 2005-11-18 17:56
Can it run Google Earth? :-D
Comment from Andy Scrase on 2006-04-20 23:55
Are there any supported devices where Opera Platform can communicate with a phone’s GPS? Makes sense for location based services.
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