Example: Porting a Social App with JSON REST from Android to Nokia Asha software platform

The RLinks example application is a Reddit client application demonstrating how to port a network and content-intensive utility application from Android to Nokia Asha software platform and Series 40 touch phones.

The application connects to Reddit, a social news service: "RedditReddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page." (WikipediaWikipedia).

A simple Android client was first developed and then ported to Series 40 platform and again to Nokia Asha software platform. The user flow of the application is kept as similar as possible to illustrate the differences. A number of helper classes were included in order to match the functionality in its Android counterpart.

The clients mostly differ in how the UI is handled: many components used to show content from Reddit are manually laid out using self-made CustomItems in LCDUI based Form views.

This application demonstrates:

• Handling network connections

• Retrieving and storing data using a JSON REST API

• Laying out custom view items