Upcoming Features

December has been pretty busy with the release of 2.0 but January will probably be MUCH busier since we have a major backlog of features requested by enterprise and pro users. We are already well under way with quite a few interesting features but most of them won't be landing for the next couple of weeks since we need the trunk to remain stable for now.

Before I get started, if you are interested in Socket support for Codename One and native interface's you should check out the work Steve Hannah did on a socket library for Codname One. Its also a great reference implementation on how one would write a native library implementation!

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With 25m Device Installs, Mobile Development Platform Codename One Announces Version 2.0

Tel Aviv, Israel - Mobile development platform Codename One is announcing the release of its 2.0 version on Wednesday, December 25th. In the 7 months since the May release of 1.1 Codename One has reached profitability, quadrupled its paying subscriber base and was downloaded by 500,000 developers.

Codename One is a one of a kind solution that allows Java developers to build native applications that work on all mobile devices seamlessly. It combines an open source client architecture that integrates seamlessly with all major Java development environments: Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJ IDEA. To leverageits one of kind cloud build system. This unique architecture enables Java developers to build iPhone applications without owning a Mac or Windows Phone applications without a Windows 8 machine.

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Release Notes For Codename One 2.0

We will release the full Codename One 2.0 in a couple of days in the meantime here are the release notes covering the changes for this version.

Highlights Of This Release

• Support for IntelliJ IDEA
• Support for Google Play Ads on iOS/Android
• Support for 3rd party libraries using the cn1lib format
• Major improvements to the Windows Phone 8 port making it far more reliable
• Fine tuned performance on iOS optimized garbage collector behavior
• Extensive code migration to use Java 5 features and collections, generified some core interfaces
  
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Deeper In The Renderer

When Chen initially drew up the proof of concept for LWUIT he copied the concept of list renderers from Swing, this was one of the most hotly debated issues between us. Whether we should aim for familiarity for Swing users or simplify what has always been an API that novices wrestle with. We eventually went with the familiarity approach, a decision we both agree today was short sighted.

Unfortunately changing the renderer API isn't practical at this stage but we simplified a lot thanks to the GenericListCellRenderer which powers GUI builder list renderers. We simplified this further with the MultiList component which has a default renderer that's pretty powerful to begin with.

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Codename One LIVE Updated & Android Changes

We finally got around to updating Codename One LIVE! and in the process also added a How Do I? video guiding you thru the process of using it.

If you didn't use Codename One LIVE! in the past its a really cool tool that allows you to instantly preview the design you build within the GUI builder right on the device. This works seamlessly for all devices although for iOS its difficult to get an app like that thru itunes and it requires a jailbroken device (unlike regular Codename One apps). 

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New HTML Developer Guide & How Do I

We have a couple of new "How Do I" videos covering versioning and crash protection. The code freeze has been in full effect this week and no new features are coming in (although some bugs were squashed), we plan to make a second release candidate which will include some critical bug fixes for 2.0.

We now have a new HTML based developer guide and as usual a downloadable PDF, the HTML guide was generated using pdftohtml.net which did a pretty decent job except for our logo. We now removed the scribd document and are only maintaining the guide here.

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New How DO I, IDEA Launch & Expanded Developer Guide

If you haven't checked the How Do I? section recently check it out now. Its completely redone with a filter tool and every video now has the ability to accept comments right below it which you can use to give out tips to other community members about the usage of a specific feature. There is also a new video covering the include sources feature and how to debug a Codename One iOS application on xcode with the native device/simulator.

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Adding Google Play Ad's

We are officially code frozen so only critical bug fixes should be resolved until the actual release. The very last feature to make it in is support for Google Play Ads on iOS/Android. We currently only work with the Admob SDK as we move along we might add additional options.

To enable mobile ads just create an ad unit in Admob's website, you should end up with the key similar to this: ca-app-pub-8610616152754010/3413603324

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Using The New Facebook API

We recently introduced a new Facebook API to allow native integration since Facebook has stated their intention to no longer accept OAuth logins from applications. This is very much work in progress so some things will change as we move along especially related to elevated permissions for posting.

If you just want something in the form of a "share button" we suggest you refer to the builtin share button which uses native sharing on both iOS and Android.

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