Does anybody know if it's possible to use MoSync to create apps with a native UI?
From what I can tell all the UI/graphics is done with their own UI library and don't the the native ui elements.
Also, now that I'm creating a question anyway. Why does MoSync target specific telephones? Is it not possible to just create a generic install package for whatever platform you're targeting? (like .apk files for android). If it's possible it should make distribution easier.
The standard way up til now has been to create a custom non-native UI through the MAUI library. As of 2011-02-03 there is an experimental native UI framework for Android and iPhone. The user documentation is however rather non-existent, so you will have to check the source code for more information. I'll point you in the right direction, for accessing native widgets you use the maWidget* system calls defined in: maapi.idl. For a list of available widgets and properties see: Types.java. Note that this API is likely to change and be expanded.
A simple native UI example:
#include <MAUtil/Moblet.h>
#include <IX_WIDGET.h>
class NativeUIMoblet : public MAUtil::Moblet
{
public:
NativeUIMoblet()
{
// Create a screen
MAHandle mainScreen = maWidgetCreate( "Screen" );
// Create a 'Hello World' label
MAHandle helloLabel = maWidgetCreate( "Label" );
maWidgetSetProperty( helloLabel, "text", "Hello World!" );
// Add the label to the screen
maWidgetAddChild( mainScreen, helloLabel );
// Show the screen
maWidgetScreenShow( mainScreen );
}
void keyPressEvent(int keyCode, int nativeCode)
{
}
void keyReleaseEvent(int keyCode, int nativeCode)
{
}
};
extern "C" int MAMain()
{
MAUtil::Moblet::run( new NativeUIMoblet( ) );
return 0;
};
Presently, there is no emulator support available, so you will have to run it on a device or in a specific SDKs emulator.
The reason for targeting a specific phone is that there exists bugs specific to a certain device. But in the recent nightly builds of MoSync you can build for generic platforms like Android 2.1.
