If you have followed our widget samples series, you should have a good idea of what the JIL/WAC APIs can do for you, and how to use them in your code. The samples have covered a selection of JIL features like using the accelerometer, playing audio files, getting and displaying maps and location, and using the PIM APIs to display contacts from the address book.
As well as JIL-specific topics, the samples have also covered more general topics like how to structure a widget, and how to create dynamic overlays and multi-page widgets.
If you have looked at the code, you'll also have seen that the samples are a great resource for understanding real-world widget code techniques. So to round off the series, we've pulled out some specific examples we hope you will find useful when writing your own code, all drawn from the samples, and formulated as general tips for writing good widget code.
To give you a quick heads up, these are the tips:
- Tip 1: Avoid global variables
- Tip 2: Store local references to non-local objects
- Tip 3: Use JavaScript's dynamic language features
- Tip 4: Use JavaScript's functional language features
- Tip 5: Pass functions as references not strings
- Tip 6: Don't get hung up on classes
- Tip 7: Use the power of URIs
- Tip 8: Escape external HTML
- Tip 9: Use media queries for UI scaling
- Tip 10: Use CSS3 to set background images
Of course, if you are already a JavaScript or widget guru these tips may be old news to you; but if you are still looking for new tricks, we hope you will find them useful.
Either way, you can read the full article here. And if you have some tips of your own, why not pass them on? Get involved, and join the discussion! As always you can post your comments below, and contribute answers, as well as questions, on the developer discussion forums.
