Appcelerator Titanium

Titanium SDK
Developer(s) Appcelerator, Inc.
Stable release
7.4.0 / September 17, 2018 (2018-09-17)
Preview release
/ September 30, 2018 (2018-09-30)
Operating system Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
Platform iOS, Android, Windows UWP, Windows Phone
Type Application framework
License Apache Public License v2, Proprietary software
Website www.developer.appcelerator.com

Titanium SDK is an open-source framework that allows the creation of native mobile apps on platforms including iOS, Android and Windows UWP from a single JavaScript codebase, developed by Appcelerator.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

In February 2013, Business Insider estimated that 10% of all smartphones worldwide ran Titanium-built apps.[7] As of 2017, Titanium had amassed over 950,000 developer registrations.[8]

The core component of Titanium is the Apache-licensed software development kit, Titanium SDK. Appcelerator also makes Alloy, an Apache-licensed, Titanium-based model–view–controller framework, and Appcelerator Studio a proprietary integrated development environment starting for free.

Architecture

The core features of Titanium SDK include:

  • A cross-platform API for accessing native UI components such as navigation bars, menus, and dialog boxes and native device functionality including the file system, network, geolocation, accelerometer, and maps.
  • Transparent access to native functionality covered by Hyperloop and native modules.
  • MVC-based framework Alloy

All application source code gets deployed to the mobile device where it is interpreted[9] using a JavaScript engine; Mozilla's Rhino is used on Android and BlackBerry, and Apple's JavascriptCore is used on iOS.[10] In 2011 it was announced that a port to Google's V8 JavaScript engine is in development which, when complete, will significantly improve performance.[11] Program loading takes longer than it does for programs developed with the native SDKs, as the interpreter and all required libraries must be loaded before interpreting the source code on the device can begin.

Titanium does much more than just build apps that run on multiple platforms. Its true power comes from how it helps in developing best of breed, native apps that take full advantage of the platforms on which they run. It enables:

  • Use of hardware-specific features, such as the Android menu button
  • Use of OS-specific controls, such as the Cocoa UI controls on iOS
  • Participate in the platform ecosystem, for example using platform-appropriate notification mechanisms

History

When it was introduced in December 2008, Titanium was intended for developing cross-platform desktop applications and was sometimes compared to Adobe Air.[12][13] However, it added support for developing iPhone and Android mobile applications in June 2009, and in 2012, Titanium Desktop was spun off into a separate, community-driven project named TideSDK.[14][15] Support for developing iPad-based tablet apps was added in April 2010.[16] BlackBerry support was announced on June 2010,[17] and has been in beta since April 2013. Tizen support was also added in April 2013 with the 3.1.0 Titanium Studio and SDK releases. The latest addition to the platform in 2016 has been Hyperloop, a technology to access native API's on iOS, Android and Windows with JavaScript.[18]

In April 2010, Appcelerator expanded the Titanium product line with the Titanium Tablet SDK. The Titanium Tablet SDK draws heavily from the existing support for iPhone, but it also includes native support for iPad-only user interface controls such as split views and popovers. Initially the mobile SDK only supported development for iPad, but support now includes Android-based tablets as well.

In June 2011, Appcelerator released Studio and Titanium Mobile 1.7.[19] Studio is a full open standards IDE that is derived from Aptana Studio which Appcelerator acquired in January 2011.

In June 2013, Jeff Haynie, Appcelerator's CEO, announced that the company had begun Ti.Next, a project to rewrite the Titanium SDK in Javascript for improved performance and to bring Titanium's end users, who write in Javascript, closer to the internal code.[20] In a blog post, he wrote:

We believe JavaScript should be the right language to build Titanium, not just apps on top of the Titanium SDK. With Ti.Next, we've created a small microkernel design that will allow us to have minimal bootstrap code in the native language (C, Java, C#, etc) that talks to a common set of compilers, tools and a single JavaScript Virtual Machine. We have found a way to make the WebKit KJS VM work on multiple platforms instead of using different VMs per platform. This means we can heavily optimize the microkernel (herein after called the "TiRuntime") and maintenance, optimizations and profiling can be greatly simplified. We're talking about ~5K LOC vs. 100K LOC per platform.[21]

In January 2016, Appcelerator was acquired by Axway, a global software company with more than 11,000 public- and private-sector customers in 100 countries.[22] Since then, the Indie plans have been made free again, including native API access with Hyperloop.[23]

References

  1. ↑ Brousseau, Christian (October 25, 2013). Creating Mobile Apps with Appcelerator Titanium (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 318. ISBN 978-1-84951-926-7.
  2. ↑ Bahrenburg, Benjamin (June 25, 2013). Appcelerator Titanium Business Application Development Cookbook (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 328. ISBN 978-1-84969-534-3.
  3. ↑ Ward, Trevor (October 2012). Augmented Reality using Appcelerator Titanium Starter (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-84969-390-5.
  4. ↑ Martin, Terry (April 24, 2012). Building iPhone Applications with Titanium (1st ed.). Wiley. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-470-66083-6.
  5. ↑ Pollentine, Boydlee; Ward, Trevor (February 2012). Appcelerator Titanium: Patterns and Best Practices (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-84969-348-6.
  6. ↑ Pollentine, Boydlee (December 16, 2011). Appcelerator Titanium Smartphone App Development Cookbook (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-84951-396-8.
  7. ↑ Julie Bort (1 February 2013). "Microsoft Might Buy A Startup That Powers 10 Percent Of The World's Smartphones". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  8. ↑ Appcelerator (7 May 2017). "Appcelerator". Appcelerator. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  9. ↑ http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/45001/is-appcelerator-titanium-mobile-really-a-cross-compiler
  10. ↑ Kevin Whinnery. "Titanium Guides Project: JS Environment". Appcelerator. Titanium runs your application's JavaScript using one of two JavaScript interpreters – JavaScriptCore on iOS (the interpreter used by Webkit) and Mozilla Rhino on Android and BlackBerry.
  11. ↑ Don Thorp (2011-09-07). "Platform Engineering: Android Runtime Performance Improvements". Appcelerator.
  12. ↑ "Appcelerator Raises $4.1 Million for Open Source RIA Platform". Techcrunch. 9 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2 November 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  13. ↑ "Appcelerator Takes On Adobe AIR with Titanium". eWeek. 9 December 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  14. ↑ Appcelerator Developer Blog - The Future of Titanium Desktop
  15. ↑ "Appcelerator enables iPhone, Android app dev". InfoWorld. 8 June 2009. Archived from the original on 21 November 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  16. ↑ "Appcelerator Simplifies iPad App Development". 5 April 2010. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  17. ↑ http://blackberryrocks.com/2010/05/06/appcelerator-announces-titanium-mobile-beta-support-blackberry-news/
  18. ↑ Jeff Haynie (11 August 2016). "Appcelerator Simplifies iPad App Development". Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  19. ↑ Perez, Sarah (14 June 2011). "Appcelerator Launches Titanium Studio: Mobile, Desktop & Web Development in One". ReadWriteWeb. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  20. ↑ Martin Monroe (10 August 2013). "Ti.Next: What's It All About? Appcelerator, Part 2 of 2". InfoQ. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  21. ↑ Jeff Haynie (3 July 2013). "Thoughts on Ti.Next". Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  22. ↑ Jeff Haynie (17 January 2016). "Axway Acquires Appcelerator—And Why This is Great News for All". Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  23. ↑ Brad Hipps (2 May 2017). "Appcelerator Indie Plans Are Now Free! And Wait, There's More…". Retrieved 5 May 2017.

See also

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