Gorkem Ercan

Nokia Java Runtime 2.0 for S60 (JRT 2.0) has been released for beta testing and now available from Nokia beta labs site. This is a package that upgrades the Java runtime on the phone (tested with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, and N97) with this new one. This is the first time we are testing the independent release/upgrades of Java Runtime from S60 releases. In the future this will allow us to deliver the latest and greatest JRT to older phones.

Some of the new features and improvements that will be noticeable (also listed on release notes) are one-click application installation, application launch user experience, and execution performance. I must tell about a feature that I am proud of and can be interesting to the readers of this blog. The Java installer in JRT 2.0 (the application that installs midlets) is itself a Java application. In fact, the UI(prompts etc. ) for the installer is developed using eSWT. I am very excited about the new installer because it proves that eSWT can be used to create native looking UIs, even ones that are integrated to the system.

As I have blogged on my earlier post, we are replacing the eSWT implementation on Nokia S60 with a Qt based one. As part of the port we have experimented with some new cool features. One of them is the CSS styling support.
Here is a video of a demo that is showing the feature. Some of notable things on the demo are linear and circular gradient backgrounds and rounded corners on all widgets. Also styles actually set a top margin to some of the widgets and that works perfectly together with GridLayout used.



Of course no eSWT demo is complete without running the same on mobile. Here is the same example application running on Nokia S60 SDK.


The current state of the contribution is it is submitted to Eclipse for IP check. We are hoping to make the code available as soon as that completes. In the meanwhile, we are looking for individuals and companies who are willing to contribute to the effort to complete the implementation to SWT level APIs.

I have posted the draft API for using eSWT widgets with LCDUI on a bug report. This is one of the features that I have blogged about on my earlier post and it has been a desired feature for LCDUI developers on MIDP platforms since the day Nokia started shipping eSWT. The API has a similar structure to SWT-AWT bridge API and allows embedding of eSWT widgets into LCDUI components.
This API not only aims to provide LCDUI based applications a path to gradually move to eSWT but also enables the platform vendors to gradually implement eSWT APIs on their plarforms as it hides the details of eSWT. 

I have been meaning to write about the future plans around eSWT for a long time. The recent announcements of Symbian Foundation roadmap and Nokia S60 Java Runtime roadmap has presented the perfect opportunity so here it is.

Let’s start with the major change. As stated on the Symbian roadmap, with Symbian^4 release, a Qt extension called Orbit will replace the existing Avkon UI library of the Symbian. Therefore, Nokia’s eSWT team had been working on an eSWT port using Qt for some time now. We now have full eSWT libraries implemented and running on several platforms including Linux, Maemo, Nokia S60 and win32 (probably runs on Mac too but it is never tested). We intend to make the implementation available as soon as we can on Eclipse eRCP CVS.

I know that there are many in Eclipse community interested on a SWT port on Qt. I have both good and bad news on that. The Qt implementation is done with a different approach compared to earlier eSWT ports. It is implemented in a very similar way to SWT ports rather than eSWT implementations. We have always considered that this implementation would be completed to extent full SWT APIs hence the existing code is suitable for extending to SWT. The bad news is, Nokia’s eSWT team will not do it. We would really like to complete it to SWT ourselves but our expertise and priority is on running eSWT on mobile devices. This does not mean we will not work with people who would like to contribute to a full SWT port. We also want to see a full SWT on Qt and will cooperate with contributors towards that goal. If you would like to contribute to such an effort please come forward and let us know.

A quick look at S60 Java Runtime roadmap reveals some of the features that are planned for eSWT. These features are going to be available on devices together with the Qt based eSWT. I will not go awfully detailed with all those features but rather introduce what is planned but expect detailed posts about them in the future here.

Improved MIDP interoperability: This work is divided into two areas. Improving the coding experience of MIDP developers by introducing new APIs. These APIs will hide some of the common tasks of developing eSWT based UIs by providing utilities.The second part enables the use of rich eSWT widget set within MIDP’s LCDUI components. This works in a similar way to SWT’s AWT bridge. Some of these APIs are drafted and will be open for comments this week on Eclipse bugzilla.

CSS based styling: E4 project is also introducing CSS styling to Eclipse as well. Current eSWT approach is different from e4, though. Current implementation is providing widget level CSS styling via the method Widget.setStyle(String css). I will be posting a demo video and more information about this. Stay tuned.

Animations API: At the moment, this is an early implementation of the SWT animation APIs drafted as part of e4 project. These are implemented using the Qt’s new Animation Framework.

Multi-touch and gestures: No mobile UI toolkit is complete without these nowadays. The details on these are sketchy at the moment. We are investigating several platforms and APIs to come up with an API that can be implemented on all platforms easily.

If you are willing to participate on any of the work that is happening around this new eSWT platform or any of the new APIs. You can contact and become part of the developer community from the eRCP mailing list.