Desktop Apps with PHP and Titanium (php|tek 2010)

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Desktop Apps with PHP and Titanium Ben Ramsey  TEK·X • May 19, 2010

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Hi, I’m Ben. benramsey.com @ramsey joind.in/1576

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DISCLAIMER: I’m not a salesman & I don’t work for Appcelerator.

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DISCLAIMER: I helped with the initial embedding of PHP in Titanium.

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What is Titanium?

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Four main parts of Titanium apps • The html/css/javascript code that makes up the core application logic and UI • The APIs that access native device/ desktop functionality, analytics or other modular functionality • The language-OS bridge that compiles web code into native application code • The run-time shell that packages the application for cross-platform distribution

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Contrasting with AIR... • Titanium is released under an open source license • Titanium provides access to native controls • Titanium applications are packaged for a target system: Windows, OS X, Linux

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Who is Appcelerator?

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Appcelerator’s role • Developed and own’s Titanium source • Licenses Titanium under Apache license • Support, training, and consulting • Analytics and tracking • Infrastructure for building and packaging releases of your apps in the cloud

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How Appcelerator makes money...

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So, why PHP on Titanium?

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• Titanium already had modules to support Python and Ruby development • PHP was on their roadmap • PHP is a natural scripting complement to other web technologies • It was cool and fun to do • I can now build desktop apps with PHP without using PHP-GTK (no offense to the maintainers of PHP-GTK)

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Using Titanium Developer

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• Fill out your application details • Click “Create Project” • Click the “Test & Package” tab • Click the “Launch App” button

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Now, you have code!

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Installation on Linux • There is a known issue with the GTK libraries for Titanium Developer on Linux • Until there is a fix, do this after installing Titanium Developer: •cd ~/.titanium/runtime/linux/1.0.0 •rm libgobject* libgthread* libglib* libgio*

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“Hello, World.”

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Hello, World!

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var mainMenu = Titanium.UI.createMenu(); mainMenu.appendItem(Titanium.UI.createMenuItem("File")); var menu = Titanium.UI.createMenu(); menu.appendItem(Titanium.UI.createMenuItem("Quit", function() { if (confirm("Are you sure you want to quit?")) { Titanium.App.exit(); } })); mainMenu.getItemAt(0).setSubmenu(menu); Titanium.UI.currentWindow.menu = mainMenu;

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Titanium provides APIs... • API • Analytics • App • Codec • Database • Desktop • Filesystem • JSON • Media • Network • Notification • Platform • Process • UI • UpdateManager • Worker

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Drop in external libraries

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Accessing these APIs and libraries • JavaScript • Python • Ruby • PHP

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PHP in Titanium

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// PHP code goes here

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var heading = document.getElementById("title"); heading.innerHTML = "Hello, World!"; JavaScript

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$heading = $document->getElementById("title"); $heading->innerHTML = "Hello, World!"; PHP

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phpinfo()

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PHP Info date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago'); ini_set('default_charset', 'utf8'); ini_set('display_errors', 'Off'); function getPhpInfo() { ob_start(); phpinfo(); return ob_get_clean(); } $document->write('<pre>' . getPhpInfo() . '</pre>');

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PHP caveats • echo does not work as expected • Titanium state transitions (links) do not send requests • Pre-processed scripts (.php) are processed at compile/build time • Cannot inject classes defined in .php into runtime code with include/require

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Are some of these bugs? Maybe.

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Planet PHP Demo

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Wrapping up... • Titanium allows web developers the ability to create desktop apps • It builds native applications that you can distribute for a particular OS • You can combine PHP with JavaScript (and Python and Ruby) to leverage the best of each language • Still some bugs to iron out, but that’s why they need lots of people using it

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Questions?

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Thank you! Ben Ramsey benramsey.com @ramsey joind.in/1576 www.appcelerator.com developer.appcelerator.com #titanium_app on Freenode IRC