I love JIL Widgets

Have you ever asked yourself, I need to learn JIL widgets? Why not, I certainly have. We have had a couple of requests to work with JIL widgets and did some research into what they are and what they aren’t.

Essentially, what JIL is is a widget platform which is slowly being adopted by Android, Blackberry, Vodaphone, etc. While there isn’t much documentation on JIL I can share with you what we do know. JIL is built upon common web technologies such as Javascript, CSS and HTML. If you can develop a website you can develop a JIL widget. Additionally the JIL libraries add access to the devices telephony capability, sensors, data stores, multimedia (for ability to play audio/video) apis, camera as well as many UNDOCUMENTED features. The key here is undocumented.

While the JIL.org website is comprehensive in its overview of features, there are limited examples. I suggest going becoming a registered vodaphone developer and going to their website to learn more about the platform.

JIL offers a custom eclipse environment for development, with a modified Android emulator. Good luck trying to run it though on anything less than a quad core processor. What we have found works is developing your non JIL essential components(i.e. the UI) in a server like WAMP and using a resized(to the specs of the device that you are developing for) browser, Chrome, Firefox and especially Opera will save you a lot of headaches. Once you have done that you can use the emulator to implement the JIL specific function calls. If you can avoid the emulator and develop directly on the device that is a bonus.

JIL is the latest flavor in widget technology and as we use it more I am sure that we will have more post. Stay tuned.

Filed under: Product Engineering | Topics: CSS, developers, html, Javascript, jil, jil widgets, platforms