NoteBook: My first J2ME Application

Last weekend I was bored and since I have changed phones (Now using a Nokia 3230), and with the good support from Nokia Forums, I decided to study J2ME and finally ended up writing my first J2ME application. I've already got a bunch of my friends I sent the application to currently testing it. I also already received some feedback from some of the users in terms of features I can add and so on. The source code as well as the *.jar file are available for free for anyone to use and modify. Most of the guys currently using it uploaded the software to their phones using Bluetooth or Infrared. I am currently looking for a place where I could upload both the *.jar and *.jad files for people to access them directly from the GPRS connection on their phones. However and in the meantime I find a solution, for those who wish upload it via Infrared or Bluetooth, you can download the whole package (including source code) here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/5763187/Nokia_Notebook_J2ME_App.zip.html

Instructions on how to install/use the application are in the included README file. For those who would like to read the file before downloading the application, here's its content.

REQUIREMENTS
Basically it works for Nokia series 60 phones. This means that it will work on any
6600, 3230, 6630, 6280, 6281, 6280 and others in running the Symbian platform at version 6.0 or 7.0 or 8.0.

To make sure that your phone is a series 60 phones, please refer to the following web page:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/main.html and under the Resources link on your left-side of the screen, choose your phone
from the list of "Device Specifications".

This is a very basic J2ME program. It also been successfully tested on the following phone models: Motorola e398 and and Motorola e790.

WHAT IS IT?
This is my first application learning how to develop for mobile and memory constrained devices. It took me about a day and half with no sleep to learn the whole thing, so DO NOT EXPECT the program to be perfect although I thoroughly tested for bugs and so on. It's just an Notes application where the user can categorise his/her notes compared to the usual flat way it is on most mobile phones. So it's mostly an enhanced version of what cellphone manufacturers already offer.

However a couple things:
- The graphics are not as nearly attractive as what Nokia has built for their cellphones.
- The code probably needs some optimization and debugging here and there (will know from your various feedback).
- Right now, everything runs through menus and there is no default keyboard commands and so on (will come in future releases).


IS IT SAFE?
If you're the geek type and like trying out other people's stuff you'd want to try out this code. I ran it successfully without any problems what-so-ever on 2 of my smartphones (Nokia 3230 and Motorola e398).

If you're scared stay away from it (it's that simple).


HOW TO INSTALL IT?
In the Zip file that you extracted the current README file from, you will find 2 other files:

- NoteBook.jad and NoteBook.jar.

What you should do is to send both of the files to your cellphone via Bluetooth or Infrared. In most phones, they will appear
as messages. Run the one that has the Notebook.jad file in it.

Some cellphones (Motorola) can install with the Notebook.jar file only. Try that out if you're a Motorola user instead.

If you have no Bluetooth or Infrared on your Nokia (that'll be strange for a smartphone though) but still want to run the program and have at least a GPRS connection on your phone, just upload the files to your website or somewhere and get it using the browser on your phone. Note that in this case, Network Operator's charges will apply.


WHY DID I WRITE IT?
I always wanted to play around with mobile devices. More than that I always wanted features or applications on my cellphone that weren't there and when they were I'd usually have to pay for them and mostly they were not satisfying. Finally, I am now on a one-week break and I needed to learn something new and fun. All those circumstances forced me to leverage my Java skills and try this out.


THE FUTURE OF THIS APP?
I've got lots of ideas for it. For example, syncing over a SyncML enabled server, doing imaging-notes, etc... Why? Because it's fun, it's satisfying and it is probably going to land me a cool job someday. ;-)


FEEDBACK PLEASE!!!
As I said, you might discover some bugs, optimization issues or have even cooler ideas of what can be done from that App or using another one. Just Send me a mail: jeanpaul.hounkanrin[at]ravemail[dot]co[dot]za.


TODOS
I've already included these in the source code accompanying this file.
Some that I didn't add to the source code files:

• Possibility to move notes from one category to another
• Add date of creation to the notes
• Add priority sorting to the notes

That's it! It is also important to note that since I haven't used any specific Nokia J2ME extension, this should be able to run on any mobile phone with a J2ME Virtual Machine. For example some of my friends have been able to run it on their Windows Mobile based cellphones. So if you know that your phone has a KVM, you should try running the app and let me know how it went.

Once I have found a good host for the files, I will post the URL here. I will also make sure that the URL is converted into a TinyURL for easy use.