Nokia Intros WRT Plug-in Tools

June 11, 2009

Nokia has introduced three time-saving mobile development tools for desktop designers and developers of Internet content, enabling the quick and easy conversion of standard web code and scripting languages into exciting new mobile applications and services while working directly within three of the most popular software development environments on the market today.

The Nokia Web Runtime Extension for Adobe Dreamweaver, Nokia WRT plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio and the newly updated WRT plug-in 2.0 for Aptana Studio let large numbers of web developers and designers using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax code and other standards-based technologies immediately extend their existing web content to the mobile channel through the fast and efficient creation of mobile widget applications.

Nokia WRT widgets provide mobile users instant access to customizable information or tools drawn in real-time from the Internet. Popular widgets range from breaking news headlines to stock-market tickers, social network status updates, flight arrival schedules, localized daily weather and more.

Nokia's WRT is built on the same open-source, industry standard WebKit project environment used by Web Browser for S60, Nokia's full-HTML browser for the latest devices running on Nokia's S60 platform. The world's leading smartphone platform, S60 on Symbian OS accounts for more than 180 million devices cumulatively shipped by S60 licensees, including Nokia, Samsung, Lenovo and LG.

Nokia's WRT widget plug-ins let web developers and designers working within Dreamweaver, Visual Studio and Eclipse-based Aptana Studio rapidly deliver innovative and feature rich widget-based content to users of tens of millions of supported Nokia devices currently available in markets worldwide.

No previous experience with Nokia software development tools or mobile platform technologies is needed to create on-device Nokia WRT widget applications, enabling businesses and organizations to mobilize their existing web presence and create exciting Web 2.0 mashups of content and services that combine the power of the Internet with the advanced capabilities of Nokia mobile devices.

"These new Nokia WRT tools open up the mobile market to web developers and creative professionals worldwide who work every day in these widely used development environments to create web applications and content," said Craig Cumberland, Director of WRT Tools and Technologies, Nokia. "WRT plug-ins enable the easy creation of feature-rich widget applications for the enjoyment of mobile consumers around the globe, providing new horizons to untold numbers of individuals and organizations seeking to extend their web content and Internet presence into the mobile space."

Additionally, within the next 30 days, Nokia will localize the WRT Extension for Adobe Dreamweaver and the Nokia WRT plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio, offering multi-language support for developer tools for the first time. The tools will be available in eight languages, including traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Germany, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish for developers around the world.

The Nokia WRT plug-in for the open-source Aptana Studio IDE launched in April, has been applauded by many developers, including Frankfurt-based PavingWays, which specializes in bringing web-based applications and services to mobile devices.

"We immediately identified the businesses advantages of using the WRT plug-in to quickly and efficiently complete mobile widget creation projects within the Aptana Studio development environment," said Rocco Georgi, Co-Founder and Lead Developer at PavingWays. "In a few short weeks, we experienced considerable savings in time and resources and were able to bring our Nokia WRT application to market in time for the launch of the new Nokia N97 touchscreen device."

Currently supporting more than two dozen of the most popular Nokia devices available in markets worldwide, all three of the new Nokia WRT plug-ins can be used to create widgets projects for all S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices and onward, as well as all S60 5th Edition devices. WRT plug-ins also support select S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 devices, with a firmware upgrade via a Nokia software updater necessary to install WRT on some devices.

Nokia's updated WRT plug-in for Aptana Studio 2 immediately supports Nokia platform services 1.0 and provides access to select device functionality for two Nokia touch-screen devices, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia N97, while also supporting the "Home screen" publishing functionality on the Nokia N97 and future Nokia devices.