Building an itunes search client using Apache Pivot

Building rich Internet applications with WTKX and Java technology

Before you start

Common terminology

Ajax: Asynchronous JavaScript + XML

API: Application Programming Interface

CSV: comma-separated values

GUI: Graphical user interface

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Json:javascript Object Notation

Jvm:java Virtual Machine

REST: Image State transfer

UI: User Interface

URL: Uniform Resource Locator

World Wide Web Consortium: WWW Consortium

XHTML: Extensible Hypertext Markup Language

XML: Extensible Markup Language

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with common WEB development concepts and technologies, including Java technology, XML, JSON, JavaScript, and HTTP. After reading this tutorial, you will understand how you can easily use these technologies to build Pivot applications.

About this tutorial

Like other RIA development platforms, Apache Pivot contains a number of features that make it easier to build modern GUI applications, including declarative user interfaces, data binding, visual effects and gradients, and Web service integration. Pivot applications are built with a mixture of Java technology and xml-based Markup Language (WTKX). Java Virtual Machine scripting language is also supported. You can use Java plug-ins to run Pivot applications in a Web browser, or to run them as stand-alone desktop applications (you can take them offline).

In this tutorial, you will implement a simple but useful Pivot application that allows users to perform searches on the ITunes Store. I start with the introduction of the Pivot platform, then summarize the ITunes search API, and finally show the demo application. In this process, I will explain how to:

Create a user interface declaration with WTKX, which is a Pivot, xml-based UI Markup Language

Use Pivot for JSON serialization with built-in support for processing JSON data

Handling user-Interface events in JavaScript

Prerequisite

The sample code in this tutorial is based on the Pivot 1.3 release, which requires a Java 6 (or later) SDK. You can download the binary file or the source code form of Pivot 1.3; The source code release contains a build file that describes how the project is built.

The source code for the demo application is distributed with the platform. All code samples are published in the Apache Software License, Version 2.0.