Introduction to ESWT Mobile extensions, part 1th: Quickly build mobile applications with simple widgets

Brief introduction

As mobile platforms become more complex, the demand for mobile computing will continue to grow. The embedded Standard Widget Toolkit (ESWT) Mobile Extension is an Eclipse technology that can be used to develop a local-looking Java application for a variety of mobile phones.

ESWT is part of an embedded Rich-Client Platform (ERCP) project that provides a standard embedded widget for building mobile applications. ESWT focuses on how to meet the capabilities and user experience needs of mobile devices. ESWT provides efficient, portable access to the user interface features on the device, and ESWT is implemented on that device. ESWT is part of the desktop SWT API. To accommodate deployment requirements, the API is divided into the following two packages:

The Core ESWT contains basic functions and simple widgets.

The Expanded ESWT contains more complex widgets (Table, tree, WebBrowser), and other layouts and dialog boxes.

This article assumes that you are more knowledgeable about ESWT and ERCP.

Overview

Table 1 provides an overview of the ESWT mobile extension. You can also view the class hierarchy.

Table 1. ESWT the classes contained in the mobile extension

control type	Class/interface	Describe
Controls	Captionedcontrol	Used to display a label (caption) before the control. The optional ending text can be used after the control.
	Constrainedtext	Restricts the Single-line text control entered by the user based on the style.
	Dateeditor	A special data entry control that allows the user to enter or select a date.
	Listbox/listboxitem	Represents a selectable UI object that displays a list of items that contain text and icons from a data model. A Model-view-control (MVC) widget in the ESWT.
	Listview	A widget that allows a user to select one or more items from a project collection that can be displayed as a column format style with multiple styles.
	Mobileshell	A shell, especially for devices that require dynamic changes at run time, and can be used to display applications in Full-screen mode.
	SortedList	Represents a selectable UI object that is used to display a list of text items sequentially. You can use a filter to filter the list based on user input.
	HyperLink	Represents an optional UI object that starts another application when the end user activates.
	Textextension	A method that contains functions that extend text controls.
Widgets	Tasktip	Feedback the status of long-running tasks to the user.
Dialogs	Multipagedialog	An instance of this class represents a dialog box with a tab.
	Querydialog	A modal window that prompts end users to enter data.
	Timedmessagebox	A modal window that uses standard styles to provide users with brief information.
device-related	Mobiledevice/moviledeviceevent/mobiledevicelistener	An instance of this class represents the device being used. It provides methods that allow applications to learn more about device-specific features and functionality.
	Screen/screenevent/screenlistener	An instance of this class represents the display screen that an application can use.
	Input	An instance of this class represents an input attribute based on a key.