Codename One, the “industry defining” Write Once Run Anywhere native mobile app platform for Java developers has just published version 3.6.
We’re thrilled with this release whose key features are offline build support and official support for UWP (Universal Windows Platform). Starting with this release we are changing the scope for Codename One: Instead of trying to be “as good as native” we’d like to aim to be “better than native”.
We already offer many advantages over native platform development:
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Faster builds and build cycles
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Portability
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Easier customization of the UI with ability to control every pixel
With 3.6 we hammered down all of these to a fine tuned machine and moving forward we’d like to build the Codename One that is better than native.
You can check out our press release here.
Special Sale
To celebrate this release we are offering the first year of the annual enterprise subscription at half of the standard monthly price which totals at 199 USD per month (2,388 USD for the year). You can take advantage of this offer by logging in and clicking the button below. This will allow you to take advantage of all the enterprise features including offline builds and enhanced support…
This special offer expires on Friday!
Last year we had a special promotion for JavaScript builds. A lot of you got to experiment with the JavaScript port thanks to that and it will be ending very soon!
So if you found that valuable this is probably the best price you will get on an enterprise subscription.
The special deal has elapsed, thanks for all of you who signed up! |
Highlights of this Release
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Offline Build Support – Building thru the cloud is one of the “defining features” of Codename One, but some government level customers need the ability to build offline due to regulatory concerns
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Production grade UWP (Universal Windows Platform) Port – UWP allows seamless native support for Windows 10 on Intel/ARM devices & PC’s such as the very popular Surface line
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New GUI Builder Release – We released the new GUI builder. It still has rough edges but is improving at a rapid pace
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Round Borders – Round style borders are available now both in the designer and code
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Floating Action Button – New FloatingActionButton component that allows badging as well
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In App Purchase Subscriptions & Receipts – We completely rewrote the IAP documentation and added support for subscriptions
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Security Enhancements – We introduced seamless storage encryption & certificate pinning (SSL Pinning)
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New & Remastered Demos – Demos were overhauled and new demos were added based on PSD design showing the level of creativity that you can integrate into your applications
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URL & File API’s – Easier porting for existing Java code thru File & URL API’s
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Properties – Properties allow us to build terse/type safe efficient mapping to storage/database/XML/JSON etc.
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Newer Defaults – Java 8 & Android API 23 are now on by default as well as xcode 7.3 with xcode 8 coming soon. Android’s peer component is also on by default
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Easy Caching – Caching HTTP has never been easier…
Lowlights
Overall we are very happy with this release we think we dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. This is to a large part due to the delay of the release from December. We still had to push back some issues to 3.7 but that’s always unavoidable.
The one thing we really didn’t get out in this release is a new Codename One course which we’ve been working on for a while. We hope we’ll get it done during the 3.7 era but video production is always a big effort and we just don’t have enough hours in the day…
Onwards to 3.7
Version 3.7 work is already underway. We hope to get the z-ordering in native peers to work on all major platforms in this version. We think it will open up Codename One to a whole new type of application (e.g. Augmented Reality).
Our biggest wish for 3.7 is on-device-debugging but it’s a big feature so it’s unclear if it’s something that we’ll be able to deliver soon.
We Need your Help
Spread the word, please let people know about us.
Sign up for enterprise accounts, besides the huge benefits of an enterprise account these are the guys that keep the lights on here and allow us to build Codename One. If your company can afford it please take the time and upgrade to enterprise, this will allow us to work on the things that are important for your company!
Thanks for reading this far and if you have any thoughts/suggestions of any kind please feel free to post below!
12 Comments
These are great advancements. Kudos team CodenameOne.
I can attest to just how great this platform is, just finished working on a new app and it’s incredibly gorgeous and goes a long way to show just what is possible with this platform. [https://play.google.com/sto…](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sematime.plus)
[https://uploads.disquscdn.c…](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5163d29b02233350f5955a94ac28e83a736bb8412d59921f99a513e15eac8f4a.png) [https://uploads.disquscdn.c…](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e41214b31a9525e4d162cc3643b92123eeb82801b3041fa2d40ac3907705e728.png) [https://uploads.disquscdn.c…](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a05b55913ef04e354bb80535a6f1d9e97d36f0247e6e0b8be1d2d165b51252d.png) [https://uploads.disquscdn.c…](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88334fc0569db5713eb867d88a7b9ed60ebe2692d00b1e352ef08bcb167b7821.png)
Screenshots on the app store look quite impressive. Well done !
You guys made a lot of progress since the screenshots were added here: [https://www.codenameone.com…](https://www.codenameone.com/featured-sematime.html)
We’ll try to update to the latest screenshots!
Great job guys! I’ve been out of touch lately due to other commitments but I follow the updates and look forward to when I can get busy with CodenameOne again.
Sasa boniface…
did you generate your UI from a PSD?
Thanks bryan.
Hi Lukman, no; did it all in Java from scratch.
Thanks Shai. Yes indeed. This is a great platform, we are big believers in WORA and will keep shipping all our mobile apps via CodenameOne.
Fantastic…….good job man….really good job
pleae give me your email boniface….. thank you
Nice one! well done!
Find our review of the Codename One platform here – [http://sematime.com/product…](http://sematime.com/product-updates/under-the-hood-the-technology-stack-behind-sematime/)
Keep doing the good work we’ll keep evangelizing this framework here in Africa.