Introduction to J2ME

ESPRIT Saif Braham

saif.braham@esprit.ens.tn
 Java 2 Platform Micro Edition
(J2ME)

Java platform for small devices

A subset of J2SE

Released mid June 1999

Target devices:
– Two-way pagers
– Mobile phones, smart phones
– PDAs (inc PocketPCs)
– TVs, VCRs, CD players

Almost every mobile phone support J2ME

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 J2ME Phones

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 J2ME Phones (Up to 15 Jan 2008)
http://developers.sun.com/mobility/device/pub/device/list.do?sort=manufacturer&filterIds=61&page=1

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 3 Java Platforms

Java 2 Platform

Java2 Java2 Java2

Standard Edition Enterprise Edition Micro Edition
(J2SE) (J2EE) (J2ME)
Standard desktop & Heavy duty server Small & memory
Workstation Applications systems Constrained devices

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Saif.Braham@esprit.ens.tn Introduction to J2ME 6
 J2ME Architecture

To increase the flexibility of design, the J2ME
consists of two distinct layers:
Configurations and Profiles

Configuration
– Defines the minimum Java technology for a broad
range of devices with similar capabilities

Profile
– Provides capabilities, on top of configuration, for a
specific device type

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 J2ME Architecture

Two types of J2ME
configurations J2ME Profile
Profile
1. Connected Device
Configuration
2. Connected Limited
Device Configuration
Configuration
J2ME
Libraries CDC, or
CLDC

Java
Virtual Machine

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 CLDC vs CDC

CLDC
160 Kbytes to 512 Kbytes of total memory
available
16-bit or 32-bit processor
Low power consumption and often operating
with battery power
Connectivity with limited bandwidth.

CDC
2Mbytes or more memory for Java platform
32-bit processor
High bandwidth network connection, most
often using TCP/IP

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 CLDC

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 Mobile Information Device Profile
(MIDP)

Is a set of APIs that allow developers to control
mobile device-specific problems
– i.e. user interfaces, local storage and client
application lifecycles etc.

MIDlets minimum requirements
– 96 x 54 pixels mono screen
– two-way wireless network
– input device (i.e. keypad)
– 128 KB for CLDC/MIDP class and another 32 KB
for the KVM

Midlets are the most important and popular
applications in the J2ME family.

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 MIDP

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 Building J2ME Apps- Tool

We will use Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.x for
CLDC (The newest version is 2.5.2 in Jan 2008)
which can be downloaded from
http://java.sun.com/j2me/download.html

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 J2ME Wireless Toolkit Demo

Launch the Wireless Toolkit:
– Start > Programs > Sun Java(TM) Wireless Toolkit
2.5.2 for CLDC

WTK already includes a set of demo programs ready

to run.

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 J2ME Wireless Toolkit Demo

Select menu item
File > Open Project ...

Select UIDemo and
click Open Project.

The projects can be used as the templates of your

applications.
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 J2ME Wireless Toolkit Demo

Click the Build and then the Run buttons.

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 J2ME Wireless Toolkit Demo

The main menu screen is shown up. You can choose
a program and select Launch to start the program.

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 MIDlet Programming

Any MIDP application must extends MIDlet

This is the MIDP equivalent of an applet, where
starting/stopping is under the control of the
environment

Like Java applets, MIDlets have an application life
cycle while running on a mobile device.

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 MIDlet Transition States

Specifically, a MIDlet can be in one of three states as
shown:

Why do we need
a Paused state?

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 Midlet Skeleton
import javax.microedition.midlet.*; Note that startApp(), pauseApp()
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*; and destroyApp() are abstract
methods.
public class MyApp extends MIDlet {
public void startApp() { You Midlet program must
// start up code override these 3 methods even
} though you are not do anything
in it.
public void pauseApp() {
// we aren't showing any more
}

public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) {

// clean up
}
}

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 Two Level API

There are two areas the API which you should be
concerned with - the high and low-level API.

High-Level Provides input elements such as,
– text fields, choices, and form

Low-level is for drawing on Canvases and capturing
keyed events

All MIDlet applications need to import the necessary
midlet and lcdui packages:
– import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
– import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;

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 Displaying Objects

High-level Screens have a base class called
Displayable.

To show something on a MIDP device, you need to
obtain the device’s display
– javax.microedition.lcdui.Display class.

This Display class is the one and only display
manager for each active MIDlet and provides
information about the device’s display capability.

Subclassed Displayable classes will fill the whole
screen

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 Displaying Objects

To show a Displable object you must use the
setCurrent() method on the Display object.
Form mainForm = new Form ("First Program ");
Display display = Display.getDisplay(this);
display.setCurrent (mainForm);

Note that Form is a Displayable subclass.

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 First Example - HelloWorld
import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;

public class HelloWorld extends MIDlet {

public HelloWorld() {
}

public void startApp() {

Form form = new Form( "First Program" );

form.append( "Hello World" );
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent( form );
}

public void pauseApp() {

}

public void destroyApp( boolean unconditional ) {

}
}
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 Building the MIDlet

Run the program KToolbar
Start>Programs>J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.x>KToolbar

Click on New Project and enter the Project name and
class name as shown below

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 Building the MIDlet

After pressing the Create Project Button, a directory
tree will be created for the project:

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 Building the MIDlet

Use TextPad to create a source file HelloWorld.java
and save it under the directory src.

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 Building and Run the MIDlet

Click the Build and then the Run buttons.

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 How can the program exit?

The program can not exit unless you close the
emulator.

To provide a way to exit the program, you need to
use Commands.

A command is like a button, it has a title, like "OK" or
"Cancel," and your application can respond
appropriately when the user invokes the command.

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 Event Handling with Commands

Displayable, the parent of all screen displays,
supports Commands.

The device determines how the commands are
shown on the screen or invoked by user.

Every Displayable keeps a list of its Commands. You
can add and remove Commands using the following
methods:
– public void addCommand(Command cmd)
– public void removeCommand(Command cmd)

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 Command Objects

In J2ME, commands are commonly represented with
soft-buttons on the device. The following diagram
shows two Command objects, one with the label
"Exit" and one with label "View."

soft-buttons

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 Command Objects

If there are too many commands to be shown on the
display, a device will create a menu to hold multiple
commands. The following diagram shows how this
might look.

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 Use Command objects

The basic steps to process events with a Command
object are as follows:
1. Create a Command object.
2. Add the Command to a Form (or other GUI
objects TextBox, List, or Canvas).
3. Create and set a listener for the Form.

Upon detection of an event, the listener will call the
method commandAction().

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 Create a Command

To create a Command, you need to supply a label, a
type, and a priority.

The type is used to signify a commonly used
command. It helps device to arrange the commands.
Command Meaning

BACK returns to the previous screen.

CANCEL standard negative answer to a dialog
EXIT for exiting from the application.
HELP a request for on-line help.
ITEM specific to the items of the Screen or the elements of a
Choice.
OK standard positive answer to a dialog
SCREEN an application-defined command
STOP A command that will stop some currently running
process, operation, etc.
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 Create a Command

To create a standard OK command, for example, you
would do this:
Command c = new Command("OK", Command.OK, 0);
label
type priority

To create a command specific to your application,

you might do this:
Command c = new Command(
"Launch", Command.SCREEN, 0);

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 Priority and Long Label

Every command has a priority.

Lower numbers indicate a higher priority.

If you add a command with priority 0, then several
more with priority 1, the priority 0 command will show
up on the screen directly. The other commands will
most likely end up in a secondary menu.

MIDP also supports for long labels on commands.

You can create a command with a short and long
label like this:
Command c = new Command("Run", "Run simulation",
Command.SCREEN, 0);

The device decides which label it will use based on
the available screen space and the size of the labels.
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 Responding to Commands

Commands show up on the screen, but nothing
happens automatically when a user invokes a
command.

You need to write an object called a listener which
will be called when the user invokes any command in
a Displayable.

The listener is an object that implements the
CommandListener interface.

To register the listener with a Displayable, use the
following method:
– public void setListener(CommandListener l)

Note it is one Listener per Displayable, NOT one
Listener per one Command.

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 Example
import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;

public class Commander extends MIDlet implements CommandListener {

public void startApp() {
Displayable d = new Form( "Test Command" );
Command c = new Command("Exit", Command.EXIT, 0);
d.addCommand(c);
d.setCommandListener(this);
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent(d);
}

public void pauseApp() { }

public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) { }

public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable s) {

notifyDestroyed();
}
} Abstract method of CommandListener. Will
be called when any command in the Form is
selected.
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 Another Command Example
(Two Forms)
Launch

Exit

2nd Form

Exit
Go to First Form
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 Another Command Example (Two
Forms)
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;
import javax.microedition.midlet.*;

public class Commander2 extends MIDlet implements CommandListener {

Display display = null;
Form f1 = null;
Form f2 = null;

// command
Command firstFormCommand =
new Command("1st Form", "Go to First Form", Command.SCREEN, 0);
Command secondFormCommand =
new Command("2nd Form", "Go to Second Form", Command.SCREEN, 0);
Command exitCommand =
new Command("Exit", Command.EXIT, 1);

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 Another Command Example (Two
Forms)
public void startApp() {
display = Display.getDisplay(this);

f1 = new Form( "Form 1" );

f1.append( "This is Form No. 1" );
f1.addCommand(secondFormCommand);
f1.addCommand(exitCommand);
f1.setCommandListener(this);

f2 = new Form( "Form 2" );

f2.append( "This is Form No. 2" );
f2.addCommand(firstFormCommand);
f2.addCommand(exitCommand);
f2.setCommandListener(this);

display.setCurrent( f1 );
}

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Another Command Example (Two
Forms)
public void pauseApp() {
}

public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) {

}

public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d) {

String label = c.getLabel();
if (label.equals("Exit")) {
notifyDestroyed();
} else if (label.equals("1st Form")) {
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent( f1 );
} else {
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent( f2 );
}
}
}

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Simple Debugging

System.out.print and System.out.println can be used
for debugging.

When run in the simulator, the output is put on the
console, not the phone.
public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d) {
String label = c.getLabel();
if (label.equals("Exit")) {
notifyDestroyed();
} else if (label.equals("1st Form")) {
System.out.println("1st Form is called");
display.setCurrent( f1 );
} else {
System.out.println("2nd Form is called");
display.setCurrent( f2 );
}

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