A CASE Tool for Java Mobile Computing Applications

The market for applications developed for mobile devices is growing as the hardware capabilities increase while costs drop. At the same time, the inability to write code once becomes a noticeable problem resulting in the time consuming task of porting an application to a variety of mobile devices, which is true for languages like Java that have been designed to be portable across a range of hardware platforms. As a result, porting a Java application written for one device to another is often a tedious and time-consuming task for developers. This paper presents an intelligent CASE tool that assists the porting of Java mobile applications by automatically generating Java code fragments for the target SDK. SeqFinder automatically generates all minimal method invocation sequences that lead to an object of a specific type, thus relieving the programmer of manually searching the manufacturer-provided SDK Java archives. However, this tool is not applicable only to the Java ME platform and has been used as a fast type-browser for J2SE/J2EE applications.

Java ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition) Programming

Most client-side handheld programming uses either Java or C/C++. This chapter introduces Java ME (previously known as J2ME), which is a version of Java (Sun Microsystem Inc., 2004). Java ME is a collection of technologies and specifications used to develop a platform that fits the requirements of mobile devices such as consumer products, embedded devices, and advanced mobile devices. It creates a complete Java runtime environment tailored to fit the specific requirements of a particular device or market. Java ME includes user interfaces, security, built-in network protocols, and support for networked and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically. Compared to other client-side handheld programming languages, Java ME is light-weight and easy to learn, although this also means that Java ME may not contain as many features as other languages. Advanced Java ME programming will be discussed in the next chapter. Chapters 13 and 14 will discuss Palm OS programming, which uses C/C++.

Advanced Java ME Programming

Chapter XI introduced the basics of Java ME programming. This chapter will build on this, focusing on advanced Java ME programming. The following two major topics will be discussed: • Persistent storage: This refers to the type of storage embedded in handheld devices. Random access memory loses its contents when the power is off, but the contents of persistent storage are preserved even when the power is off. Flash memory, and very occasionally hard disks, are usually used for this kind of storage. • Network connection: Many client-side applications such as weather reports and location-based applications require a network connection. The generic Connection framework of MIDP can be used for this purpose. Although these two chapters, Chapters XI and XII, introduce Java ME programming to readers, it is not possible to fully cover Java ME programming in only two chapters. For a deeper understanding, readers can consult the section on Java ME References provided later in this chapter for more information.

Mobile Peer-to-Peer Collaborative Framework and Applications

This chapter presents the Peer2Me mobile peer-to-peer framework, Peer2Me applications, and discusses the experiences from using the Peer2Me framework. Peer2Me supports mobile collaboration utilizing Bluetooth and Java ME. The framework runs on standard Java ME-enabled mobile phones, thus enabling rapid development of various kinds of collaborative peer-to-peer applications. In this chapter, the author describes some of the developed applications and his experiences from implementing these applications, which include: a file-sharing application, a chat application, a quiz game, a face-to-face meeting scheduler, a real-time game, an automatic business exchange application, and a find the right person application. All of these applications were analyzed for their potential usefulness, and investigated to discover the limitations of the framework, and the underlying technologies. Finally, the author summarizes his analysis to provide a complete picture of the potential and limitations of Bluetooth and Java ME for implementing mobile peer-to-peer applications.