The problem

Normally, Titanium has to compile the entire titanium class library, then “dex” it and package all your app’s js files and resources and push it inside the emulator so you can test it – and this happens every time you change something in your app. The problem here is… this is slow, really slow. This fact alone almost drove me off Titanium Mobile, in favour of other, friendlier, platforms.

Using Fastdev

First download a recent nightly build of Titanium Mobile SDK (latest 1.7.x or 1.8.0) – more details in this previous post.

Now, the tricky part. This feature is still in beta, so there is no fancy UI integration inside Titanium Studio, and we need to do everything “by hand”.

First, add the 1.8.0 SDK folder to your system environment’s PATH (if you don’t know how to do this, click here). After this, in the command shell, go to your application’s folder and type:

start /B titanium fastdev start

This will start a new server that will send all the .js files and resources to your app, running in the emulator (according to Appcelerator, using fastdev on devices will be available soon). The files served are logged into this terminal window, so keep it open and visible, to check what is happening under the hood.

After this, just run the app on the emulator, as always, but do it only ONCE – if you need to update your app, don’t recompile: just close it inside the emulator and run it again – it will download all the resources from the fastdev server started above!

And that’s it, much faster and less painful… unless you are targeting honeycomb; but here the problem is that the emulator is, I think officially, the slowest emulator in the world.

Update: fastdev is already available inside the latest Titanium Studio – update it ASAP

- http://builds.appcelerator.com.s3.amazonaws.com/mobile/master/mobilesdk-1.8.0-20110513115704-win32.zip is the latest for windows at this moment. To install, just unzip it inside your Titanium SDK folder (this should be, in Windows, %ProgramData%\Titanium – in my case, this translates to C:\ProgramData\Titanium); The ZIP already has the required folder structure (mobilesdk\win32\[version]\etc..), so just unzip it there and everything will be fine.

If you are already using Titanium Studio, use the “Help” -> “Install Titanium SDK from URL” and paste the full URL to the ZIP file you have selected from the nightly builds. I prefer the method above, as this option, sometimes, doesn’t unzip the full contents of the updated SDK.

Appcelerator has made no official announcement on 1.8.0, so I have no idea what is new, but keep in mind: this is a beta release, and should not be used in production apps.

 The communication, available in Apple’s hotnews section (search for “Third party applications on the iPhone”) is the following:

“Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.”