Palm’s Project Ares 1.0 Now Live

Palm’s Project Ares development tool reached version 1.0 this weekend.  Palm’s Web-based development tool has been in Beta for quite a while now.  At JSConf, the JavaScript Conference, Palm’s Matt McNulty announced and demonstrated Ares version 1.0.

One of the key differentiators that Palm attempted with webOS was to make development of apps as simple as using HTML, JavaScript and CSS.  Using these Web based technologies has let many developers quickly create applications without having to learn Java or Objective C.  Palm extends this vision to make app development easier with the release of Ares.

Ares is an integrated development environment (IDE) for webOS application development that runs inside a Web browser.  Let that sink in for a little bit…  Palm has made it so that you can create full, robust apps with nothing more than a Web browser.  Before you begin to think that Ares is a dumbed down editor for people without programming skills, know that Project Ares supports drag-and-drop widget placement, syntax-highlighting in the code editor, an integrated debugger and more.  Although Project Ares does make getting started as easy as possible you still have access to all of the power of the Mojo SDK within an Ares Project.

One of the most powerful features of Ares is the integrated debugger.   Debugging webOS apps has been one of the weaker points in the development process.  Ares addresses that very well.  The integrated debugger allows for breakpoints, variable inspection and DOM inspection.  This debugging even works with apps not developed on Ares.  Ares supports uploading complete apps as .ZIP files:  Take your existing Mojo app, zip up the source directory and drop it onto Ares.  Not only that, but Ares also has integrated support for pulling apps from Subversion and Git.  Recently I used this feature to assist a fellow developer who was having a problem with his app.  I was able to place a breakpoint into the code that was malfunctioning, single-step through the code and see the error.

One of the new features that 1.0 brings to the table is components.  Components are new non-visual widgets that provide access to a number of Web and phone services.  In fact, I used a component in developing our palmSpot app, recently.  These components include access to GPS data, RSS feeds, Calendar and Contact data and more.  Using a component is as simple as setting various properties and callbacks then executing a single line of code.

If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself, head over to the Project Ares site and sign up.  Palm also has a tutorial on integrating Google Maps with a webOS app.  Want to learn more about the Mojo SDK?  Head over to Palm’s developer site or check out webOS 101.