The Opera Widgets solution for T-Mobile

Opera Software has created a widget solution for certain T-Mobile handsets that includes:

• A Widget runtime
• A Widget manager
• A Widget repository
• A developer portal
• A pre-installed set of widgets

The runtime is an extension of the Opera Widgets technology and includes extended APIs to enhance and ease development. The APIs include:

• Mobile DOM APIs allowing access to native functionality of the handset.
• Integration with the idle screen of the handset through Living icons.
• Integration with the soft key menus of the handset.
• Handling of offline mode for widgets.

The solution also offers additional APIs between the handsets and the repository server, covering for example widget updates.

The T-Mobile Opera Widgets architecture looks like so:

Mobile DOM APIs

The runtime supports access to the native functionality of the handset, available through JavaScript APIs in widgets. The following features are supported:

• Contact list
• Managing and sending messages
• Todo-list
• Calendar events
• GPS positioning
• Launching native applications
• Network interface status

Living Icons and Idle screen integration

The idle screen (sometimes called home screen or phone top) is the front page of a handset. It typically provides shortcuts to information and functionality.

The Widget runtime offers integration with the Idle screen, giving the user one-click access to widgets. The docked mode of a widget may be displayed on the idle screen as a Living Icon. The widget developer can update the appearance of such icons to give the user information at a glance; for example you can show alerts, notifications and the like.

Soft-key menu-integration

A handset will typically have menus that are activated by the soft-keys on the keypad. The widget solution offers integration with these — a widget can generate menus for configuration, alerts and payment information. These menu items will then be available in the right soft-key menu. Clicking them will cause the widget to generate a special page using web technology.

Handling offline usage

When the handset goes offline, or the user disables network access, the navigator.onLine property changes and an offline event is dispatched on the document. This is based on HTML5 and can be used to prevent polling and to give the user status information when the widget is offline.

The Developer SDK

The T-Mobile Developer SDK is a collection of documents, guidelines, tools and example widgets for developers making widgets for T-Mobile handsets. This SDK extends the Opera Widgets Developer SDK. It contains, among other things, a tailored Widget Emulator that is adapted to the T-Mobile handset environment, and the implementation of the runtime.

The SDK is made available under a specific set of Terms and Conditions set forth by T-Mobile. You will need to agree to the Terms and Conditions before you are permitted to download the SDK package.

Go here to download the T-Mobile Developer SDK.

Widget emulator

The Widget Emulator in this SDK is similar to the standard Widget Emulator, but with some extensions. For example it has:

• Emulation of T-Mobile handset chrome
• Docked mode and Living Icon emulation
• Mobile DOM APIs
• Soft key menu-integration
• Setting the online or offline state for the widget

The emulator also provides a set of T-Mobile handset devices by default, making it easy to test widgets on a variety of platforms.

Documentation

The SDK documentation contains among other things:

• Feature descriptions
• API references for the mobile DOM
• Style guide and developer guidelines

JavaScript libraries

Certain JavaScript libraries are included, most notably the Lively library, which is used to manipulate Living Icons.

Distributing widgets for T-Mobile handsets

Widget developers can publish their widgets on T-Mobile’s Developer Portal; contact T-Mobile for access to this site. The site is localized to various languages such as English, German, Austrian and Dutch, and Widgets can be published for one or more languages and regions.

To publish widgets within the T-Mobile ecosystem, you need to follow the T-Mobile developer SDK guidelines and make use of some of the libraries available in the SDK.