Web Info & Tutorials

A lowercase over digit months after their initial start of Titanium, Appcelerator today followed with the “PR2″ promulgation of their open-source web-as-desktop-app run-time papers (i.e., an open-source competitor to Adobe AIR).

This promulgation adds hold for UNIX to their OS X and Windows versions and also provides a interface for creating stand-alone Titanium apps (the preceding edition relied on command-line utilities). This covering is a Titanium app itself and includes whatever original features, including a analyse of the Titanium group’s Twitter / FriendFeed streams and a candid unification to their IRC channel.

Appcelerator is also disagreeable to attain it as cushy as doable grapple absent on the Titanium papers without requiring the ingest of C++; they’ve additional a newborn power API that lets you ingest JavaScript, Ruby or Python in constituent to Bjarne Stroustrup’s spawn.

On a modify level, and of more plausible welfare to our community, the JavaScript APIs hit been greatly extended. Let’s study the File API in the prototypal promulgation of Titanium, which consisted of digit registered method (”read”) and digit unsupported method (”write”). In the PR2 release, it looks quite a taste richer:

copy ( to ) : boolean
    Copies a enter to added location.
createTimestamp ( ) : number
    Returns a timestamp of the file’s creation.
createDirectory ( recursive ) : boolean
    Creates a directory.
deleteDirectory ( recursive ) : boolean
    Deletes an existing directory.
deleteFile ( ) : boolean
    Deletes a file.
exists ( ) : boolean
    Checks whether or not a enter exists on the user’s system.
extension ( ) : string
    Returns the file’s extension.
getDirectoryListing ( ) : array
    Returns an clothing of files exclusive a directory.
isDirectory ( ) : boolean
    Checks whether the enter goal is a directory.
isFile ( ) : boolean
    Checks whether the enter goal is a file.
isHidden ( ) : boolean
    Checks whether the enter goal is hidden.
isSymbolicLink ( ) : boolean
    Checks whether the enter goal is a signaling link.
modificationTimestamp ( ) : string
    Returns a timestamp of the file’s terminal modification.
move ( to ) : boolean
    Moves a enter to added location.
name ( ) : string
    Returns the study of the file.
nativePath ( ) : string
    Returns the flooded distinction of the file.
parent ( ) : File
    Returns the parent directory where the enter resides.
read ( ) : string
    Reads the noesis of the file.
readLine ( set ) : string
    Reads a portion distinction in the file’s content.
resolve ( distinction ) : boolean
    Changes the enter or directory referenced by a File object.
size ( ) : number
    Returns the filler of the file.
spaceAvailable ( ) : number
    Returns to expanse acquirable on a user’s system.
toString ( ) : string
    Returns the file’s properties as a string.
write ( accumulation [, append] ) : boolean
    Outputs accumulation into a file.

Check discover the flooded API docs to intend a wager for the rest of the APIs; but existence an open-source project, Titanium’s newest APIs are ease in the maker only.

In cost of the run-time itself, they’ve updated their WebKit renderer to be rattling near to the stylish and large and it includes every of the newborn HTML 5 goodies that Safari 4 has.

Nolan Wright, Appcelerator CTO, has created whatever screencasts to exhibit soured whatever of the newborn features; here’s digit of them:

We’re rattling agog to wager Titanium agitated along!