New S60 Browser Development Opportunities
All about Symbian were quick to pick up on a new Nokia document detailing the new Open Source Software (OSS) web browser.
The browser is an ‘addition’ to the main Series 60 platform browser, mainly because it only supports HTML/XHTML and not WML. Nevertheless, the Nokia document demonstrates that there is a lot going on underneath of use to developers.
The new browser presents some new opportunities for mobile software development …
- A new Browser Plugin API based on the Netscape plugin API. This is available in the Series 60 3rd Edition SDK. Existing plugins include SVG an audio player and Flashlite. Plugins are likely to be used by companies who want to champion their own content type, for example viewing proprietary formats such as PDF. However, as with ActiveX on Windows devices, some people might use this to do some funky things from within the web browser.
- The Flashlite plugin allows playing of flashlite 1.1. content. It’s disappointing that this isn’t Flashlite 2.0.
- Javascript and XML can be used to run asynchronous (AJAX) applications.
- A Wireless Telephone Application Interface (WTAI) allows the making of calls and sending of DTMF from a web page.
The existing Series 60 browser control API is retained to allow you to embed and control HTML rendering in your own applications.
I believe (don’t actually know!) that Nokia have planned some other way that developers can use the new OSS browser. On the OOS browser web page it says…
"Stay tuned for future developments that will enable easy participation and contribution by developers to the Web Browser for S60stay tuned for future developments that will enable easy participation and contribution by developers to the Web Browser for S60"
