Desktop Apps with PHP and Titanium

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

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

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

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

What is Titanium?

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

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

Who is Appcelerator?

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

How Appcelerator makes money...

So, why PHP on Titanium?

• 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)

Using Titanium Developer

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

Now, you have code!

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*

“Hello, World.”

<html> <head> <title>Hello, World!</title> </head> <body> <h1>Hello, World!</h1> </body> </html>

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;

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

Drop in external libraries

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

PHP in Titanium

JavaScript <script type="text/javascript"> var heading = document.getElementById("title"); heading.innerHTML = "Hello, World!"; </script>

PHP <script type="text/php"> $heading = $document->getElementById("title"); $heading->innerHTML = "Hello, World!"; </script>

phpinfo()

<html> <head> <title>PHP Info</title> <script type="text/php"> 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(); } </script> </head> <body style="background-color: white; padding: 10px;"> <script type="text/php"> $document->write('<pre>' . getPhpInfo() . '</pre>'); </script> </body> </html>

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

Are some of these bugs? Maybe.

Planet PHP Demo

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

Questions?

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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Desktop Apps with PHP and Titanium

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