2 Getting Started

This chapter provides you with a roadmap for the fastest way to get started with web clipping application development. The importance of getting off the right foot, be it in sports (ask any NFL cornerback) or in business, can not be stressed enough. There's a lot of information out there on web clipping—some of it good and some of it not so good—and it's easy to drown in the sea of information overload. Here are our steps to getting a great jump out of the blocks with web clipping application development:

Become a Palm Solution Provider
Get a Web Clipping Developer Account on Palm.Net
Join the PQA Developer Forum
Download Development Tools
Write Your First Web Clipping Application
Learn Web Clipping Design
Publish Your Web Clipping Applications

1. Become a Palm Solution Provider

If you are a new developer, the first thing you should do is sign up as a Palm Solution Provider. Palm Computing established the Solution Provider Program (SPP) to provide a unified system of marketing and development support for Palm developers. You must be a member of the SPP to receive developer technical support, as well as to have access to the Palm VII development tools. You can read about other benefits of being a Palm Solution Provider by visiting the Palm Solution Provider Program web page.

Signing Up

There is no cost for joining the Solution Provider Program. To sign up, go to the Solution Provider Web Site and sign up as a web content provider.

Applying to the Development Resources Seeding Program

Once you have become a Solution Provider, log into the Provider Pavilion with the username and password from your SPP registration. Next, apply for access to the Development Resources Seeding Program. You need to fill out and send some forms to Palm Computing. Once Palm has processed your forms (est. 2 weeks), you will be granted access to the Prototype Seeding Area, where you can download essential tools for Web Clipping development.

2. Get a Web Clipping Developer Account on Palm.Net

Web clipping applications receive a lot of coverage on the Palm.Net Web Site. If you would like to upload your applications to Palm.Net, you need to get a PQA Developer Account. Registering as a PQA Developer on Palm.Net is covered in depth within Chapter 8: Publishing Web Clipping Apps.

Solution Provider Account vs. PQA Developer Account

As a web clipping developer, you have to juggle between two different accounts with Palm Computing. First, to get access to the development tools, as well as receive technical support, you need to be part of the Solution Provider Program. Second, to upload your applications to Palm.Net, you need to have a PQA Developer Account on Palm.Net. One account does not provide you the benefits of the other, so sign up for both.

3. Join the PQA Developer Forum

The PQA Developer Forum is a mailing list sponsored by Palm Computing for developing web clipping applications.

Subscribing

You can subscribe to the list and receive individual messages or a periodic digest of recent postings.

Subscribe to the PQA Developer Forum (Message Format)
Subscribe to the PQA Developer Forum (Digest Format)
Unsubscribe from the PQA Developer Forum

Mailing List Archives

You can browse archived and recent articles within the PQA Developer Forum list at eGroups.com and eScribe.com. Browsing through the lists is an excellent way to speed up the development learning process. You'll be able to read what challenges other developers had to overcome in designing great web clipping applications.

Note:

If you are having development problems, you should first search the archives before posting your query to the mailing list. You will often find that your question has already been dealt with in a previous thread.

4. Download Development Tools

Many of the development tools for web clipping development can be downloaded from the Palm Computing's Web Clipping Development web page. Some of the tools, however, such as the Palm VII ROM, are only available to members of Palm Computing's Solution Provider Program. If you haven't done so already, sign up as a Solution Provider and get your paperwork into Palm Computing so you can have access to additional web clipping development tools. If you are waiting for your application to be processed and if you already have a Palm VII, you can quickly get started by downloading the PQA Builder software for Windows or Mac OS.

Palm OS Requirements

Here's what you need Palm-wise to develop applications for web clipping.

Palm VII ™ connected organizer: You can do plenty of development using the Palm OS Emulator for Windows or Mac OS, but nothing beats having the real device. Buy a Palm VII organizer from the Palm Computing Online Store or search for the lowest prices on mySimon.
OmniSky Palm V: OmniSky couples a web clipping-enabled Palm V organizer with a wireless CDPD modem.

Windows and Mac OS Systems Requirements

Here's what you need on your Windows or Mac OS computer to develop for web clipping.

Windows 95, 98, or NT, Mac OS 7.5 and higher
PQA Builder: The PQA Builder creates web clipping applications from your HTML source and graphics files.
Palm OS Emulator: POSE allows you to emulate a Palm VII organizer right on your Windows or Mac OS desktop. This is a very useful tool for web clipping development and testing.
Palm VII ROM: To emulate a Palm VII with POSE, you need to download the latest version of the Palm VII ROM. This is only available for Solution Providers who have access to the Development Resources Seeding Program.
Text editor: Use a text-editor to create and edit the HTML files that will comprise your web clipping applications. Examples include: Notepad or WordPad for Windows and SimpleText or BBEdit from BareBones Software for Mac OS.
Metrowerks Codewarrior for Palm Computing Platform: This is required if you wish to develop C applications that take advantage of the wireless feature set in Palm OS 3.2. The examples and tutorials used in this book were created with the Mac OS version of Codewarrior for Palm Computing Platform, Release 5.

The basics of using the PQA Builder and the Palm OS Emulator software will be covered in the next section. You can find more in-depth information in Appendixes A (PQA Builder) and B (POSE).

5. Write Your First Web Clipping Application

Your first foray into the world of web clipping will be a program many of you are very familiar with (or sick of seeing), Hello World. This app will introduce you to the basic process of creating any web clipping application.

Creating the HTML Source

The first step to writing your first web clipping application is to create the HTML file which will eventually become the app's home page. Remember, a web clipping application is like a mini-web site so it needs an root file. Without further ado, here's the contents of our first and only page in the Hello World web clipping app:

	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
		<TITLE>Hello World</TITLE>
	</HEAD>
	<BODY>
	Hello World
	</BODY>
	</HTML>

Create this file in your desktop text-editing software and save it as index.html.

Text Editor vs. WSYIWYG Editor

Because web clipping design is similar to normal web design, you may be tempted to use tools such as Microsoft Front Page, Claris Home Page, or MacroMedia DreamWeaver to create your HTML files. This is not a good idea for a number of reasons:

Feature Bloat: WYSIWYG editors allow you to add features that may be unsupported by the current version of web clipping, such as nested tables, JavaScript, and frames.
Overhead: These editors add all kinds of tags that are extraneous and wasteful in your web clipping app. Space is a premium.
Screen size: These editors were not made to create pages designed for the small screen sizes of handheld computers.

Building Hello World

The next step is to build the web clipping app using the PQA Builder application. The PQA Builder is the application that builds web clipping apps from raw HTML source and graphics. The software takes your home page file and converts it into a file suitable for installation on a web clipping-enabled Palm organizer, such as a Palm VII or an OmniSky device.

Follow these instructions to use the PQA Builder to build the Hello World application:

Go to the PQA Builder folder and double click on the QAB.exe (Windows) or Mac PQA Builder (Mac OS) icon:

The PQA Builder will load and display the file index window. Since there are no applications pending to be built, the window initially displays empty.
Choose File->Open Index. On Mac OS, choose File->Open. Navigate to and select the index.html that was created for the Hello World application. Once you have clicked on the OK button, you will see that the PQA Builder File Window has been updated. should now look like this:

Figure 3-XXX.
Choose File->Build PQA. The dialog box shown below is displayed:

Figure 2-XXX.
Enter the filename of the PQA. The file extension that you should use is .pqa. This will serve to differentiate your web clipping application from a normal Palm PRC application to the user. Call the web clipping application, Hello.pqa.
Click Build. The PQA Builder will then generate a web clipping application out of the files displayed in the File list.

Earlier we mentioned a web clipping app is similar to having a mini-web site on your organizer. The PQA Builder takes the file you specified as your index or root file and traverses it. The PQA Builder takes local links and graphics and places them into the PQA file. Remote links (i.e. links on your web servers) are not followed but placed into the PQA file as hyperlinks.

Because the Hello World application is very simple, the PQA Builder builds the PQA file out of the index.html file. There are not supporting pages, like help or links page, nor are there any graphic files to add. In later examples, we show how the PQA Builder handles local graphics and pages when building web clipping applications.

Note:

The PQA Builder offer many configuration options when building your PQAs. Please refer to Appendix A for a complete list of build options from within PQA Builder.

Installing and Running Hello World

The final step is to install and run our first web clipping application. You can either perform a HotSync operation to install the Hello World PQA onto your Palm organizer, or you can install the application onto an emulated Palm device. We will demonstrate the latter approach and leave the former as an exercise for you.

The Palm OS Emulator, or more commonly referred to as POSE, is a terrific application that all developers should have on their computers. POSE allows one to emulate a Palm organizer, be it the original Pilot 1000 or the Palm VII wireless organizer, right on one's desktop! You can install and run applications just as you would if you had the actual device in your hand. An excellent tool to use during the development cycle of your applications, POSE is also useful for testing third-party software before you install it onto your real, personal device.

Follow these directions to install and run the Hello World app in POSE:

Go to the POSE folder and double click on the Palm OS Emulator icon:
The first time that you open the Palm OS Emulator, you will be asked to create a new session.
- Device: Set to Palm VII.
- Silkscreen: Set to English.
- RAM Size: Set to 2048K (unless you want to pretend you are emulating a rocking 8MB Palm VII!).
- ROM File: This should point to your copy of the Palm VII ROM.
Click OK to create a new Palm VII emulator session.
Drag the Hello.pqa onto the emulator. It will automatically be installed onto the device.
Tap the Home icon in the upper-left hand corner of the Palm VII's silkscreen. This will open the Launcher.
Tap Hello.

Congratulations, you have just created and installed your first web clipping application!

6. Learning Web Clipping Design

You're a Palm Solution Provider, and you signed up as a PQA developer. Next, you have all the tools and you're reading the PQA Developer Forum mailing list religiously. Lastly, you succesfully have written your first web clipping application. Now it's time to learn how to develop great web clipping applications. Chapters 3-6 have all the details on creating great web clipping applications, with discussions on HTML, graphics, and web clipping design.

7. Publish Your Web Clipping Applications

Now, you're a web clipping developer and ready to unleash your web clipping applications to the public. Chapters 7: Business & Web Clipping and 8: Publishing Your Applications will delve into the details on how you can market and promote your web clipping applications.