Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Cotopia open sources Project Darkstar client API for JavaME

I've done it again :) After some time of development I've decided to open source another of my brilliant endeavors:

Project Darkstar client API for JavaME together with a Darkstar management console (as a NetBeans plugin)

The project contains everything you need to take advantage of Project Darkstar in your MIDlets:

1. Web project template which serves as an HTTP proxy for a Project Darkstar client application

2. Mobile project template with all code required to connect to the Web proxy implements the Java ME HTTP based Project Darkstar API

3. A NetBeans based Project Darkstar server instance management console (under Tools-> Darkstar server menu) that enables user to start and stop server application instances without any need to mess around with command line

4. (Planned/not yet there) Java ME socket based Project Darkstar API will be available soon

All of this good stuff is packaged for NetBeans 6+ only. If you don't have NetBeans installed then stop being a loser and go get it. You have no business doing Java ME development without it anyway! :)

To give it a try download the sources from:
https://darkstarmobile.dev.java.net/

I'll answer questions via email, tutorial is comming soon.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Cool!

Please add an entry or two to the Project Darkstar projects Wiki (off the Projects button now) so everyone knows about what you've done!

Jeff

Zero Effort said...

I want to do a bigger roll-out of this once the tutorial is finished (50% done now) and a few bugs are fixed. Then I'll post on both DarkStar and NetBeans websites.

Emery said...

Hi,

How is the tutorial coming along? I'm taking a look at your project and don't understand how to get the Netbeans plugin installed and working. Several Netbeans subprojects exist in the package I downloaded from subversion and I don't understand the relationships.

Thanks,

Emery

Zero Effort said...

tutorial is here but it assumes you have binaries :(
http://wiki.netbeans.org/DarkstarSupport
I'll update it as soon as possible.

Emery said...

Do you mean the Darkstar binaries?

You've written in the tutorial "This can be done by downloading the .nbm file"

There are no .nbm files that I can find. Do I have to build them from one of your projects?

Zero Effort said...

Yes, you are right there are no NBMs there yet - however you can build them from sources using netbeans, you can check out sources from here:

https://darkstarmobile.dev.java.net/source/browse/darkstarmobile/

I have just finished some other work so i should be able to start moving forward on this project - advance the tutorial and perhaps build and post the NBMs.

Emery said...

I noticed you updated the project for NetBeans 6.1. Any estimate on when the tutorial might be finished? Thanks.

Zero Effort said...

I've been doing a bit of coding on adding the darkstar server instances etc. to the runtime/services tab so the docs haven't advanced much :( i'll take a look this weekend and i'll try to finish it of - i realize that lack of a tut. is holding those interested back since the project structure is quite complex

Zero Effort said...

I have updated the tutorial with instructions on how to build the NBMs from sources. The tutorial is not yet complete in terms of how to write a mobile client but that's coming soon.

Emery said...

I think you may have left out the actual creation of the .nbm files by right clicking on the project and selecting "Create NBM". There's a NetBeans tutorial describing this process.

Emery said...

Any news on the client tutorial? Sorry to bug you. I can do 3D, ai, gui and other logic, but unfortunately I try to stay away from network development when possible. I'd really like to hook up Darkstar with our JavaME clients. It's unfortunate that the Darkstar team doesn't have the resources for a JavaME client, but I understand.