Sessions at webOS Developer Day on Saturday 20th November

PhoneGap is an open source, cross-platform tool for writing a single code that runs on multiple mobile platforms using just HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. It is not a full OS toolkit and does not provide GUI widgets or high-level features. It’s simply a common API and set of build tools that give you uniform access to the browser and device services. JavaScript fans won’t want to miss this brisk walk-through of Nitobi’s popular PhoneGap project courtesy of lead architect Brian Leroux, creator of XUI and Lawnchair. Get tips on developing effective mobile web apps and learn how you can use your web programming skills to bridge mobile platform gaps.

There are different ways to develop and deploy cross-platform apps. Hybrid apps allow the developer to unlock the best of both browser interfaces and native mobile components. Using HTML5 and JavaScript, browsers can access a phone’s built-in features like contacts, camera, and calendar. The HP webOS PDK enables developers to use third-party engines and libraries to develop C/C++ apps for webOS and other mobile platforms. In this session, Ben Combee explains two options for cross-platform development and discusses the impacts and advantages of each. Engineers from Quickoffice and Airplay present case studies on how they leveraged their code and assets to bring rich immersive games and applications to webOS and other platforms.

You’ve developed a killer webOS app. Now what? Joe Hayashi reviews some guidelines, best practices, and recommendations for successfully taking your app to market. Joe also discusses some upcoming enhancements to the webOS App Catalog and how you can take advantage of them.

Ever wonder what makes webOS tick? Find out in this session as we review the browser and JavaScript engines that power webOS. Learn how those engines are configured on the device and how to optimize performance on webOS. Get tips for developing directly on our web platform.

A handful of our talented developers each showcase an app and talk about the experience of developing for webOS in five-minute lightening-round presentations.

• Jeremy Thomas: Creator of the exquisitely crafted Twitter client Bad Kitty
• Geoff Gauchet: Father of the webOS Foursquare app and a little idea he calls neato!, which allows users to send text from a desktop browser directly to many popular webOS apps
• James Harris: Quiz master extraordinaire of FlashCards
• Brian Haeffner: Master of productivity with Done!, Noted!, and Myles
• NiteOwl, winners of our Amped hack day cross-platform challenge in Atlanta last month. This mix of student developers and designers created a beautiful location-based app that solves the problem of finding late-night after-hours bars full of folks that just aren’t ready to go home yet.

Building a mobile app usually involves using one proprietary SDK that targets one platform. This ensures a native look and feel as well as full access to features specific to that device or operating system. Sometimes, however, you don’t need full device access. Sometimes you might want to code at a very high level using just web standards and be able to run the application on multiple operating systems. This is similar to coding a mobile website, except that as a local application your app can launch faster, work offline, and have access to local resources. This session presents unique insights into solutions to cross-platform fragmentation.

Though webOS ships with its own excellent Mojo UI toolkit, developers have the option to use any JavaScript toolkit they wish to develop rich cross-platform web and mobile applications. Some do it with no tool kit at all. This session takes you on a tour of three of our favorite Javascript toolkits including PhoneGap, JQuery Mobile and Jo and provides a landscape perspective on how to decide which one is right for you.

Get an inside look at webOS 2.0 using our Facebook apps as the case study on how they can be employed. Kevin and Gray take turns introducing some great new 2.0 platform features and discuss when and how innovations such as Just Type, Card Stacks and Exhibition can be easily implemented to improve the experience of any application.

Third-party services are an important new tool within webOS 2.0. This session covers basics of JavaScript services, including service interfaces, service lifecycle and a basic service example. Advanced topics include debugging, application packaging, and more node.js topics such as web services and file I/O. Learn how and when services should be used with their application, how services are packaged and distributed, and how node.js runs on webOS.

The next installment in the Rockstar series picks up where Rockstar graphics left off.Learn some of the most practical ways to create more engaging, robust apps by incorporating animation, sound, and trickery. The techniques demonstrated show how a little bit of JavaScript and some clever CSS3 can add some sizzle and make your apps more appealing to the end user.

This session offers a sneak peek of what's next for JavaScript development on webOS. Learn about the benefits of the next-generation framework and its impact on webOS developers. In addition to giving an overview of the framework and supporting tools, Matt will demonstrate applications built using this new technology.