Over the weekend, Shizzow rolled out the first version of their API. With the help of the totally awesome PhoneGap, I used the API to create a simple app for Android.
Right now, all it will let you do is post if it can find an already-saved place nearby.
Over the coming weeks, I hope to bring the functionality close to what’s available at m.shizzow.com. Eventually, I will need some testers. If you’re interested in helping out, please leave a comment.
Finally, because this is built using PhoneGap, porting it to the iPhone and Blackberry should be very simple. If you’re interested in seeing the app on those platforms, you should leave a comment as well.
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14 Comments
cool project! is it open source? i’d like to try it out on my G1. my own geo-location app is on github.com/donpdonp/icecondor-client-android.
I haven’t decided if it will be open yet or not. It most likely will be. Regardless, the code is very dirty PHP that I would rather not have anyone see. I need to do some tidying up first.
Any chance you’ll be writing a post-mortem and/or how-to on using PhoneGap. Would love to hear more about your experience using it.
I’ll be posting as I learn new things. I’m finding that there’s a lot of trial and error involved with the current version.
Thanks for letting me know, Matt.
One thing I haven’t been able to find out (tho, I’m sure after asking it’ll seem like an obvious one) is whether PhoneGap can be used/developed with on a PPC Mac? I’ve got a 12″PB as my main machine and would love to start developing with PhoneGap if it’s possible.
It probably depends on which phones you’re writing for. It doesn’t look like the Android SDK will run on PPC.
I was hoping to write for the iPhone… but I guess I first need the iPhone SDK (Intel only) in order to do anything related to PhoneGap, right?
Looks like I may need to upgrade sooner than I was hoping. Although, running for almost 5yrs on this PB has been great! :)
Btw… Just read you enjoy driving your MINI. We got our this past September. What a car. Love getting into it every day!!
You don’t really do any programming in PhoneGap itself. It’s just a way to connect a website APIs on the phone.
Do you read MotoringFile yet?
Hey Matt,
I thought there was more to it than that. Is it simply just a UIWebView wrapper? I’m confused now (even more reason for the documentation to be more plentiful). Hehehe.
Does PhoneGap provide any APIs to the device (ie: contacts, etc.)? I see it allows for Geolocation and Accelerometer. Any others?
MotoringFile? Never heard of it… I’ll have to check it out.
The JavaScript API is on the project’s wiki.
Your dealer didn’t tell you about MotoringFile? Shame on them.
(Full disclosure: I help to run the site. Regardless, it is the best place to go for MINI news.)
I’ll check out the API docs again. I just breezed through them the first time. Is PhoneGap just a wrapper for enabling an iPhone-launchable web app?
No… Dealer never mentioned it. Shame on them for real… I’ll definitely bookmark this site! Thanks for the link.
It’s more than just a wrapper, because it gives you a JavaScript API to access things on the phone that websites normally couldn’t.
And it’s more than just for the iPhone. You can deploy your apps to Android and Blackberry phones, too.
Thanks for the clarification. I thought there was more to it than just a simple wrapper, but wasn’t entirely sure. I’ll definitely be giving this a more thorough look!
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