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

The Web is a vital part of our daily lives, and as we begin using the Web for tasks traditionally performed on the desktop, such as word processing, software as a service (SaaS) and software + services models are becoming more important. Web developers are caught in the cross hairs of these merging industries. They have the know-how of web development but, often, none of the skills for traditional desktop or mobile development.

Enter Titanium. Appcelerator Titanium is an open source platform for developing native desktop and mobile applications using the web technologies you’re already familiar with. Now, web developers can use their skills to develop for both the Web and desktop/mobile platforms. Ben Ramsey will demonstrate how to create a simple application in Titanium Desktop, showing examples using JavaScript and PHP working together in the Titanium run time environment to power dynamic desktop applications that communicate easily with external web services.

Transcript

1. Desktop Apps with
   PHP and Titanium
   Ben Ramsey

   TEK·X • May 19, 2010
   

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

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

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

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5. What is Titanium?
   

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8. 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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9. 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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10. Who is
    Appcelerator?
    

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12. 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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13. How Appcelerator makes money...
    

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14. So, why PHP on
    Titanium?
    

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15. • 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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16. Using Titanium
    Developer
    

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

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22. Now, you have code!
    

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23. 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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24. “Hello, World.”
    

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26. 
    
    Hello, World!
    
    
    Hello, World!
    
    
    

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

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32. Drop in external libraries
    

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

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34. PHP in Titanium
    

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35. <br/>// PHP code goes here<br/>
    

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36. <br/>var heading = document.getElementById("title");<br/>heading.innerHTML = "Hello, World!";<br/>
    JavaScript
    

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37. <br/>$heading = $document->getElementById("title");<br/>$heading->innerHTML = "Hello, World!";<br/>
    PHP
    

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38. phpinfo()
    

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39. 
    
    PHP Info
    <br/>date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');<br/>ini_set('default_charset', 'utf8');<br/>ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');<br/>function getPhpInfo() {<br/>ob_start();<br/>phpinfo();<br/>return ob_get_clean();<br/>}<br/>
    
    
    <br/>$document->write('<pre>' . getPhpInfo() . '</pre>');<br/>
    
    
    

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40. 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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41. Are some of these
    bugs?
    Maybe.
    

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42. Planet PHP Demo
    

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43. 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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44. Questions?
    

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

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