Let's discuss how we can use our existing web development skills to build native mobile iOS and Android apps using Appcelerator Titanium and JavaScript. Presented at Jazzcon.tech 2017 in New Orleans.

1. The Big Easy: Native Mobile Development
with Appcelerator And JavaScript
Adam Paxton
Jazzcon.tech
March 24th, 2017

2. Overview
• What is Appcelerator Titanium?
• Why use it?
• Pros
• Cons
• Tools Walkthrough
• Code Demo

3. Hello
• Adam Paxton
• Mobile App Developer
Polanco Media, LLC
Ft Lauderdale, FL
• condesa.io
• 6+ years working with Titanium
• TCAD, TCMD certified
• Titanium Titan User Group
• South Florida Titanium Meetup
Twitter: @adampax
Github: adampax
adampaxton@polancomedia.com

4. Presentation Notes
bit.ly/tijazzcon

5. We are:
• Web developers
• Companies with existing developer teams
• Startups
• Someone with an idea

6. We want to build:
• App for ourselves (or our community)
• App for our client
• App for our enterprise

7. What do we use?
• iOS - Objective C / Swift
• Android - Java
• Mobile Web - HTML5
• Windows Phone - C# / JavaScript

8. Another Option: Appcelerator Titanium
• Appcelerator, Inc - Based in San Jose, CA
• Started with desktop apps in 2008, began focusing on mobile in 2009
• Titanium 1.0 released March 2010
• Acquired by Axway in January 2016
• Enterprise Cloud integration and API management software company
• Based in Phoenix, AZ & France

9. What’s in a name?
• Appcelerator Titanium used to be one product
• Appcelerator and Titanium now informally (or formally? idk) refer to the paid and
free/OSS products
• Titanium: Core sdk - free!
• Appcelerator: additional paid services/features within the Appcelerator Platform
• Ti == Titanium Appc == Appcelerator
• Alloy is a MVC framework for developing Ti apps

10. Titanium
• Cross platform development environment for creating native mobile apps
• Program with JavaScript
• Free and open source
• Not a webview wrapper or app generator - builds native apps!
• Builds with platform SDKs
• Android SDK toolset required for Android apps
• Xcode (and a Mac) required for iOS Apps

11. What’s in Appcelerator?
• Everything in the free version
• Appcelerator Studio IDE
• Debugger
• LiveView / hot reload
• Arrow - API Builder, Backend Storage, push notifications, node.js hosting
• Analytics
• Test runner & crash analytics
• Hyperloop - Direct API access
• App Designer Beta

12. How does it work?

13. How does it work?
• Write your code in JavaScript
• Code is minified and packaged with with
Titanium APIs and JavaScript interpreter
(JavaScriptCore for iOS, V8 for Android)
• Ti SDK uses native SDK (Xcode, Android, etc)
to package it all up
• JavaScript interpreter executes your code and
builds connections to native objects using the
Titanium APIs
appcelerator.com/product/

14. Pros
• Maintain a single code base across multiple platforms
• 60% to 90% code re-use across platforms
• Use your or your team’s existing JavaScript skills
• Faster ramp up with JavaScript for new developers
• Native interface, native controls, native experience
appcelerator.com/titanium/titanium-sdk/

15. Cons
• Does not cover entire API for all platforms
• Over 5000 APIs are supported
• You can extend the API to access any additional APIs you need
• Extra layer of abstraction means more to manage
• New feature release / bug fix in iOS / Android — must wait until supported /
fixed in Titanium (This is getting faster, often same day as iOS release)
• Potential for bugs in Titanium

16. The Tools
• Titanium SDK
• Appcelerator Studio*
• Titanium CLI
• Arrow Cloud Services*
• Alloy MVC Framework
• Hyperloop*
*Paid

17. Titanium SDK
• Everything uses the SDK
• Updates usually released monthly
• Current version: 6.0.2.GA

18. Appcelerator Studio
• IDE used to build, test, package and
publish mobile applications across
platforms
• Based on Eclipse
• Requires subscription
• Runs on Mac, Windows, Linux
• Code completion, debugger and
breakpoints
• Wizards for configuring native SDKs,
creating new app projects

19. Titanium Command Line Interface
• Node.js-based command-line tool for managing, building, and deploying Titanium
projects
• Don’t want to use Eclipse/Studio? Use the CLI with your favorite editor
• SublimeText, Atom, VIM, VS Code, etc.
• titanium build --platform android
• Appcelerator version:
• appcelerator run build --platform android
docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/guide/Titanium_Command-Line_Interface_Reference

20. Use Your Own IDE with Titanium
• Sublime: https://github.com/MattTuttle/sublime-ti-build
• Atom:
• Package: https://github.com/yomybaby/atom-titanium
• Guide: https://github.com/m1ga/titanium_with_atom
• IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans: https://github.com/navinpeiris/jsca2js
• VS Code: ext install vscode-titanium

21. Arrow Cloud and API Builder
• Collection of pre-built services for handling
Mobile Backend requirements
• Node.js hosting
• API builder
• ArrowDB, schema-less data store
• Integration with Studio, CLI
• Push notifications
• DB Connectors for Azure, Salesforce,
MSSQL, MySQL, MongoDB
appcelerator.com/product/arrow/

22. The Code - Titanium ‘Classic’
• Original syntax for Titanium code
• All UI, data, logic defined in js code
• Directly access Titanium API
• CommonJS modules
var win = Titanium.UI.createWindow({
title: ‘My Window’,
backgroundColor: ‘#fff’
});
win.open();

23. The Code - Titanium Alloy
• MVC Framework — Model, View, Controller
• Recommended for new projects
• Structure code into separate sections for
data, UI, logic
• Models— represent database records, API
queries, etc. Based on Backbone.js
• Views — XML to define UI objects, TSS
(like CSS) to style them
• Controllers - JavaScript containing logic —
what happens when a button is clicked?
etc.

24. Alloy
• Keeps your code cleaner, enabling re-use
• Can still use CommonJS libraries with Alloy. Popular libraries underscore.js,
moment.js already included
• Built-ins for conditional code
• TSS styling similar to CSS, easy to setup and re-use styling
• Widgets - UI libraries / customer controls, easily transportable
• A lot more features

25. Hyperloop - New!
• Direct access to every iOS and Android API using JavaScript
• Incorporate 3rd party native libs, pods
• Run Java, Obj-C, Swift alongside Titanium code.
• Don’t need to pre-compile modules
appcelerator.com/mobile-app-development-products/hyperloop/

26. App U - Even Newer!
university.appcelerator.com

27. Community Tools
• TiShadow - tishadow.yydigital.com - OSS reload for Titanium, very useful!
• TiSlack - tislack.org - community driven Slack channel, 1400 members
• Gittio - gitt.io - search engine for Titanium modules and Alloy Widgets
• Ticons - http://ticons.fokkezb.nl/ - Generate app icons and splash screens for
iOS and Android (as of Ti SDK 5.x this is built-in)

28. Final Notes
• Use Titanium for faster mobile development
• Use Alloy for faster Titanium development :)
• Try Appcelerator Platform here: http://www.appcelerator.com/signup/
• Or get started w/ Open source:
• [sudo] npm install -g titanium alloy
• titanium setup
• Documentation: docs.appcelerator.com
• Help: tislack.org

29. The Big Easy Code Demo
• http://docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/guide/Titanium_Compatibility_Matrix
• Node and npm installed
• Tip: Use a node version manager like n or nvm!
• Xcode Installed (open at least once to verify it works, accept T&C etc)
• Android SDK download and install
• http://docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/guide/Titanium_Command-Line_Interface_Reference
• [sudo] npm install -g titanium alloy
titanium setup
ti create --type=app --id com.polancomedia.tijazzcon --name TiJazzCon --
platforms ios, android --url http://polancomedia.com
cd tiJazzConn
alloy new

30. Thanks
• adampaxton@polancomedia.com
• @adampax
• Presentation notes: bit.ly/tijazzcon
Show some code: github.com/adampax/TiJazzCon