An introduction to the Nokia Asha platform, it's developer offering, tooling overview a bird's eye view of the UX development options, and finally advices for application development and deployment on resource constrained devices

1. Developing for the
Nokia Asha
Software Platform
Attila Csipa @achipa
SmartDevCon2
Katowice, 14. 09. 2013

2. Contents
What is Nokia Asha
Developer Offering
Java ME apps
Web apps
Nokia Asha UX basics
IDE/Tooling
Nokia IDE for Java
Emulator
Performance optimization

3. Series 40 (which is not Symbian nor S60)
First device in 1999, the Nokia 7110
(but don’t worry, Linux is actually 8 years older)
A Coca Cola company delivery truck in Knoxville, 1909.

4. A few years later…
- 1.5 billion devices by January 2012
- 650 million active (plenty of even touch devices)
- Freemium and ads DO work
North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at Highbury, 1934

5. But the world changed…
Women on motorcycles in Great Britain, 1930s

6. New Nokia Asha
=
Series40 Hardware adaptation
+
Smarterphone middleware
+
Swipe UI

7. Nokia Asha UI

8. HARDWAREKEYS
HIERARCHICAL BACK BUTTON

9. The screen is optimized for mobility,
convenience and effectiveness.

10. UX paradigm
The Nokia Asha UX paradigm

11. Building the apps
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 1935.

12. Nokia Asha Developer Offering
Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 (Java ME)
Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0.0
Xpress Web App Builder 1.0

13. One 3rd PARTY app running at a time!
Roger Bannister becomes the first human to run a mile in under 4 minutes. 1954

14. Nokia Asha SDK 1.0
Oracle® based Java ME implementation
New Nokia Public APIs
New emulator
Bundled libraries instead of plugins:
Here Maps for Java ME
Nokia Notifications API
LightWeight UI Toolkit (LWUIT)
Tantalum
On-Device Debugging

15. Nokia Asha Software Platform 1.0
the Java ME story
• Java ME MIDP 2.1, CLDC 1.1
• Optional JSRs
• Nokia APIs
• Max JAR file size: 5 Mb
• Max Java Heap: 3 Mb
• Screen Size: 240 x 320
• Series 40 Binary Compatibility

16. Yes, this is a resource constrained environment
Which also means that it rewards GOOD code instead of SLOPPY one

17. JAD Editor
NOKIA IDE FOR JAVA
© 2012 Nokia Asha 2013 technical briefing v1.2 November 14, 2012 Attila Csipa
Device SDK Manager
Integrated SDK +
Toolchain
App TemplatesApp Templates
JAD Editor

18. Emulator:
The easy/cheap way to practice
Aerial gunnery training, World War I

19. Emulator:
What can we do with it?
- Speeds up development cycle
- Use for screenshots!
- Customize input
- Keyboard/touch (pinch)
- Sensors (accelerometers, network, location)
- Multimedia (webcam)
- Content is at -
C:NokiaDevicesNokia_Asha_SDK_1_0binStorage10000
- Needs emulator restart if filesystem updated directly
- The number will increase (10002, etc) if multiple
simultaneous emulators run

20. On Device Debugging – for the nastiest bugs
From Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer's log, featuring a dead moth:
the first bug, 66 years ago

21. The joy of the first successful run
Annie Edison Taylor
The first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, in 1901

22. 2
© Nokia 2013 LCDUI and LWUIT UI components in Nokia Asha.pptx v.1 2013-05-28 Jan Krebber
THE VISUALIZATION CHANGED,
BUTTHE APIS REMAIN LARGELY COMPATIBLE.

23. Platform approach
Over-the-air push-style updates
New SDK manager
Independent API/library updates
Full binary compatibility from Asha 1.0+

24. API offering: extending the platform
CLDC 1.1
(JSR-139)
MIDP 2.1
(JSR-118)
File Connection and
PIM API
(JSR-75)
Bluetooth and OBEX
API
(JSR-82)
Wireless Messaging
API 1.0
(JSR-120)
Wireless Messaging
API 2.0
(JSR-205)
Mobile Media API
(JSR-135)
Web Services API
(JSR-172)
SATSA-CRYPTO API
(JSR-177)
Location API
(JSR-179)
Mobile 3D Graphics
API v1.0
(JSR-184)
Content Handler API
(JSR-211)
Scalable Vector
Graphics API
(JSR-226)
Advanced
Multimedia
Supplements
(JSR-234)
Mobile Sensor API
(JSR-256)
com.nokia.mid.medi
a
com.nokia.mid.ui
com.nokia.mid.ui
frameanimator
com.nokia.mid.ui
gestures
com.nokia.mid.ui
locale
com.nokia.mid.ui
orientation
com.nokia.mid.ui
categorybar
Mobile
Internationalization
(JSR-238)
File Select API
Image Scaling API Network State API Phone Info API Contact API
Nokia Notification
API (NNA)
Nokia In-App
Payment

25. New Nokia Asha Java APIs
ContactFile selectNetwork state Phone settings
Moving from Service APIs to a PUBLIC PLATFORM OFFERING

26. What if your app is not running/awake?
Before alarm clocks were affordable,
'knocker-ups' were used to wake
people early in the morning.
UK, around 1900

27. Nokia Notifications API - NNA
Public API
Push notification service
Shared connection
Custom payload

28. Nokia in-app payment
Device range
Reach
Security
Simplicity
Sign up to the invitational beta:
http://developer.nokia.com/Distribute/In-app_payment/

29. Largest range of devices

30. Broadest reach
• Operator billing live with
- 158 operators
- in 59 countries
Live Operators
■ Full Country coverage
■ Partial Country coverage
(status in April 2013)

31. Internationalization – JSR238
• Strings AND binary data
• Format data (date, currency)
• Compare
• Sort

32. 3
© Nokia 2013 LCDUI and LWUIT UI components in Nokia Asha.pptx v.1 2013-05-28 Jan Krebber
THE VISUALIZATION CHANGED,
BUTTHE APIS REMAIN COMPATIBLE.

33. Java UI development approaches
Canvas LCDUI LWUIT

34. Canvas
Completely custom
You OWN every pixel
Fastest
Best suited for games

35. The key is a native look and feel
3© 2013 Nokia DevelopingForTheNewAshaPlatform.pptx v. 0.2

36. LCDUI

37. LCDUI
High-level components
Nokia UI API
Asha look & feel
No customizability
(except CustomItem)

38. LCDUI is based on few view types
3
© Nokia 2013 LCDUI and LWUIT UI components in Nokia Asha.pptx v.1 2013-05-28 Jan Krebber
Displayable
ScreenCanvas
With chrome Full screen Alert List Form TextBox
Choice
Group
Date
Field
Text
Field
Gauge String
Item
Image
Item
Custom
Item
Spacer
Implicit choice Exclusive choice Multiple choice

39. LWUIT
More components
More customization
Asha look and feel
Animated
Custom theming
(branded look and feel)

40. LWUIT for Nokia Asha Software Platform 1.0
• New port of LWUIT, targeting specifically new Asha platform
• Based on the LWUIT for Series 40 v1.0
• Adds Nokia Asha Software Platform 1.0 Theme
• Adds 8 new components
• Changes and adaptations of existing components to new Asha platform
• Improved performance especially in themes memory usage.
• 24 Examples in SDK
• Double-check you’re including the right JAR!

41. Nokia Asha web apps - Tools
Xpress-Browser powered
Requires a data connection
Web apps != HTML5 (!!!)
Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0
Backwards compatible with Series 40 web apps
Simulator support for Nokia Asha 1.0 devices
USB deployment of web apps on Nokia Asha 1.0 devices

42. TESTING IS BEST DONE ON
(SOMEBODY ELSE‘S) DEVICE
Testing a bullet proof vest c.1923

43. Remote Device Access
• Free for Nokia Developer users
• Deploy & Test apps
www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Remote_device_access/
• Now with the Asha 501(s)!

44. Performance optimization
A bicycle with 12 rockets mounted on the back wheel. ~1930s

45. Why Optimize
Most of the development tasks for the typical mobile
application can be done in many different ways.
Different implementation techniques lead to different
application performance and essentially different
responsiveness of user interface.
Responsiveness of UI is one of the important factors for
application success.

46. • 0.1 second is about the limit for having the user feel that the system is
reacting instantaneously, meaning that no special feedback is necessary
except to display the result.
• 1.0 second is about the limit for the user's flow of thought to stay
uninterrupted, even though the user will notice the delay. Normally, no special
feedback is necessary during delays of more than 0.1 but less than 1.0
second, but the user does lose the feeling of operating directly on the data.
• 10 seconds is about the limit for keeping the user's attention focused on
the dialogue. For longer delays, users will want to perform other tasks while
waiting for the computer to finish, so they should be given feedback indicating
when the computer expects to be done. Feedback during the delay is
especially important if the response time is likely to be highly variable, since
users will then not know what to expect.
Miller, R. B. (1968)
Response time in man-computer conversational transactions.
Proc. AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference Vol. 33, 267-277

47. User Experience Studies
Helmet test, ca 1912

48. Can looks deceive?

49. Can looks deceive?

50. THINGS ARE AS YOU PERCEIVE THEM

51. Resource constrained environments
Cheese “sandwich” served on the Sao Paolo – Manaus TAM flight

52. Perception of speed
• Responsiveness – what you believe is more important
than what you actually see
• Visual updates to acknowledge input
• Draw when you can, not when ready
• Speed != throughput

53. Parallelize! (concurrency)
• 1 core != 1 system
• Threading is needed to unleash maximum potential
• You need to do it Right TM
• Typical failure to do so: slow, unresponsive Uis
• On Ashas, you will want 4-5 threads, depending on use-
case

54. Threading pitfalls
- Too many long running threads
- Hard to debug
- Complexity
The last four couples standing in a dance marathon. Chicago, c. 1930

55. NETWORK operation feedback
• Feedback throughout the download cycle
• (but we can do even better!)

56. NETWORK operation feedback
• User feedback throughout the DL
• GET ->
DOWNLOAD ->
PARSE ->
CACHE WRITE

57. File io: make it a habit
Write files as you go
…in a Worker thread…
…flush occasionally...
…don’t do it byte by byte
(do outputStream.write(byte[] buffer)
Don’t wait for it to pile up (especially for cases of
destroyApp())

58. That pesky 5mb jar size limit
• Obfuscate. Always.
• Reduce image quality/size
• Use large(r) images and clip them (w Sprite class)
• Keep text strings in separate files – they compress better
• Keep data in RMS
• Treat your store JAR as an online installer (runs on it’s
own, maybe bundle with first few levels, download rest as
needed)
• Silver lining:
Small JARs mean less failed DLs
User gets to interact with your app sooner

59. Architecture Changes
• Carefully consider architecture of your drawing loop and
user input loops and decouple them whenever possible.
• Explore WeakReference introduced in CLDC 1.1 for
memory management.

60. How much memory do we REALLY need?
• 1024 items
• 1KB per item
• Minimum memory required: 1MB
8KB!

61. WeakReference object Caching
• Best pattern for using all available heap memory, but never running
into the dreaded OutOfMemoryError.
• CLDC 1.1 WeakReference
• When an object is referenced by a WeakReference, and not using
traditional Object pointers, this is a signal to the garbage collector
that is has permission to collect the object if memory is running low.
• You have to maintain own HashTable of Objects
• To understand this pattern better look at Tantalum Mobile:
• https://github.com/TantalumMobile/

62. Treat the garbage collector as a friend, not
as a slave
• Pay attention to scoping
• Set variables to null manually when they are no longer
needed
• Be careful with hidden references (inner classes on EDT or
workers)
• If you are calling System.gc(), you’re doing it wrong

63. Render Caching
• One of the common performance needs is to make your
application paint, in particular scroll, smoothly and quickly.
• You can paint items each into their own Image, keeping that
pre-painted Image in a cache, and reusing it as the object
moves around the screen. Essentially, WeakReference cache of
pre-painted Images.
• To understand this pattern better look at Tantalum Mobile:
• http://projects.developer.nokia.com/Tantalum

64. File System (Flash Memory) Caching
• Flash memory is slow, but faster then Web.
• Cache downloaded data from previous session. Improve startup time
of app, by loading from disk cache instead of new Web requests.
• RMS and File System (JSR-75) same speed, but with RMS no security
prompts.
• Underwater stones: still remember, Flash memory is slow.
• Architect your application to use asynchronous loading /saving of
data from / to disk cache.

65. Performance summary
•Work with your interaction designer to
find and/or make cheat zones
−Hide activity not just behind splash screens, but also
dialogs, alerts
−Predict user activity to appear “instant-ready”

66. Summary
• Huge untapped market, plenty of devices even if you
count only touch enabled ones
• (Surprisingly?) Java ME with Canvas, LCDUI or LWUIT UIs
paired with a reasonable amount of APIs allows for rich
functionality
• Coding for Asha will make you more aware of resources,
UX, and thus make you a better developer for all the
other platforms, too

67. http://developer.nokia.com
Nokia developer resources

68. Thank you!
Questions?
Attila Csipa
@achipa
All images were from @HistoricalPics or WikiMedia Commons under CC BY-SA