Developing with J2ME Programming for Mobile Applications

AUDIENCE: This course is for enterprise application developers wishing to build a mobile front-end. It is also games developers wishing to develop for mobile phones as well as programmers wishing to extend their platform capabilities
PREREQUISITES: Developers must have a working knowledge of Java or attended our OO Programming in Java Platform 2 course. Windows experience is essential as all courseware is on Windows.
DURATION: 5 days. Hands on.
OBJECTIVES: Java is ubiquitous from the high end servers, through to the desktop, and now down to mobile devices such as telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The advent of the Java 2 Micro Edition (sometimes also incorrectly called the Java 2 Mobile Edition) means that Java programs can now be installed and executed on such mobile devices. This course covers programming on the J2ME platform. It introduces the highly compact J2ME virtual machine (referred to as the kvm) and compares it to its desktop cousin. Device types (called Configurations and capabilities (called Profiles) are covered and programming aspects for each are individually presented. The Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) and the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) are covered as the basis for many of the Java-enabled (J2ME) phones, and comparisons with the Connected Device Configuration (CDC) for PDA''s are made.

On completion of the course delegates will be able to:
· Explain the purpose of the J2ME configurations and profiles
· Describe the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC)
· Describe the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP)
· Develop a J2ME based game on the MIDP
· Interact with an Enterprise Java server Details.

COURSE CONTENT:
The Java 2 platform
Java and Java 2
The Java 2 Editions
J2ME: Java 2 Micro/Mobile Edition
J2SE: Java 2 Standard Edition
J2EE: Java 2 Enterprise Edition

Java Virtual Machine
The Java Virtual Machine
Java environments
Bytecode and bytecode example
Runtime loading
Classloaders
Classpaths
JIT and hotspot
Garbage collection and finalizers

Java Tools
Types of Java application (application, applet, servlet etc.)
Applets as applications
Java security model
SDK tools
Compilation
Running Java code
Debugging
Other common tools
The Java Virtual Machine
Bytecode

Object Orientation
Benefits of Object Orientation
What is an object?
Classes
Fields and methods
Class members vs instance members
Messages and method invocation

Java Syntax
Garbage collection
Comparison of objects
Primitive data types
Compilation and execution of Java code
Packages
Java sourcefile structure
Defining classes and interfaces
Defining methods and fields
JavaDoc
Looping and conditional constructs
Creating instances
Java expressions
Accessing members
Arrays

Abstract Types
Constructors and static initialisers
Finalizers
Inheritance
Casting
Abstract classes
Interfaces
Modifiers in Java

J2ME Architecture
Overview of J2ME
Configurations and Profiles
Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC)
Connected Device Configuration (CDC)
Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP)
Foundation Profile
J2ME architecture
Related Java systems

Overview of Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP)
Features of the MIDP
MIDlets
Control flow in MIDlets
Midlet suites
Deployment of Midlets
Midlet JAR and JAD files
Java Application Manager compared with Java Web Start

MIDP User interfaces
Display issues with MIDP
The LCD UI package
Screens, Displayables and Commands
Building and Testing with the J2ME Wireless Toolkit
Multi-screen J2ME Applications
Alerts and Forms
Graphics with J2ME
Keypress manipulation with J2ME
Pointer support

Data Structures
What is a collection
Collection Framework
Collection interfaces (Set,List,Map)
Iterators
Collection implementations
Choosing implementations
Arrays Class
Collections Class
Wrappers

Exceptions
Exceptions
The try/catch/finally block
Creating custom exception types
Advice for debugging exceptions
Input and output
Input and output streams
Stream concatenation
Common stream types
Text streams
Object streams and serialization

Input and Output with J2ME
Input and Output with J2ME
Connections
Using HttpConnection
Other supported protocols
Record management system
Reading and writing records
Searching records with filters
Sorting records with comparators

Networking
Client/server networking
TCP/IP networking
Client and server coding in Java
UDP/IP networking
The URL object
RMI overview

Multi threading in Java
Threads in Java
The Thread class
Creating new threads
Stopping and controlling threads
Synchronisation issues
Deadlock
Inter-thread communications through wait/notify

Inner classes
Static inner classes
Member inner classes
Local inner classes
Anonymous inner classes
Compiling Inner Classes
Restrictions on inner classes

Recommended reading
J2ME home page
· The J2ME home page lists information about the platform, along with downloads such as the J2ME Wireless Toolkit which can be used to develop and test J2ME applications
Nokia''s Java homepage
· Nokia produces Java enabled products; their homepage is at the Java Nokia forum
Motorola
Motorola produces Java enabled phones; the have a developer community at Java developer community