Engagement/Developer Engagement/FirefoxOSAppWorkshops

Firefox OS App Workshops

What: A series of small hands-on technical workshops designed for skilled app developers in key launch countries. The goal of these day-long events is to help individual developers and small teams complete an HTML5 web app for Firefox OS or migrate their existing HTML5 web app to the Firefox OS phone and into the Firefox Marketplace.

Participants must apply to attend, and will be asked to demonstrate Javascript expertise and/or past experience building web apps and working with web APIs.

This program is designed and organized by Mozilla's Tech Evangelism team as part of the Firefox OS launch wave with support from Apps & Marketplace and Firefox OS engineering.

APPLICATION: Register here: http://bit.ly/FxOSAppWorkshop-apply

Our Goals

• Recruit skilled web app developers to complete on HTML5 apps and submit them to the Firefox Marketplace
• Identify local app developers in launch markets
• Create opportunities for local developers to showcase their apps

Event Locales & Contacts

These are the confirmed event locales and dates for Firefox OS App Workshops.

• Madrid, Spain, April 20
• Bogota, Colombia: May, exact date to be determined
• Warsaw, Poland: May/June, exact date to be determined

Resources for Attendees

Learn About Open Web Apps:

• Getting Started With Open Web Apps https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/getting-started-with-open-web-apps-why-and-how/
• Firefox Marketplace Developer Hub https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/
• Getting started with app development https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Getting_Started
• Using Web APIs https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/using-webapis-to-make-the-web-layer-more-capable/
• Web APIs wiki: https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI

Simulator:

• Firefox OS Simulator - stable release: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-simulator/
• Previewing Firefox Simulator version 3.0: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/03/firefox-os-simulator-previewing-version-3-0/
• Firefox OS Simulator, latest preview of next release:
  • Windows: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-windows.xpi
  • Mac: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-mac.xpi
  • Linux: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-linux.xpi

Permission Model/Packaged vs Hosted Apps

• Firefox OS Quick Start https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/docs/quick_start
• How to install packaged apps in Firefox OS https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/03/how-to-install-packaged-apps-in-firefox-os-options-and-tools/
• Packaged Apps https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Packaged_apps

Other Tools & Resources

• Firefox OS Boilerplate App : https://github.com/robnyman/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App
  • Install here: http://robnyman.github.com/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App/
• Building Firefox OS http://buildingfirefoxos.com/
• Mortar - A collection of Open Web App templates https://github.com/mozilla/mortar

Event Schedule

• Example schedule Friday evening (Madrid):
  • Meet & greet

• Example schedule Saturday (Madrid):
  • 9:30am: Check in.
  • 10:00 - 10:15am: Introductions
  • 10:15 - 10:30am: Geeksphone (GP) Device walkthrough
  • 11:00am – 11:30: Firefox OS Simulator & Send to Device (push to phone) walk-through & work flow challenges.
  • 11:30am - 12:00: Development environment(s) & tools
  • 12:00am - 1:00: Get to work
  • 1:00pm - 2:00pm: Lunch
  • 2:00 - 7:00pm: Hacking/coding
  • 7pm -8pm: Demos & drinks
  • 8pm: Dinner

Creative Assets/ Schwag

Pending

App Ideas

Some app suggestions from our partners:

Priority Categories for our Launch Markets

• Photography apps – This category includes image editors, tools for effects, and Instagram-style filtering and sharing apps.
• Local and hyper-local apps – mashups and services built with data provided by local APIs such as transit, government services, news weather, local events and location services.

• PRIVILEGED: Keyboards and input mechanisms like SwiftKey and Swype, that increase screen responsiveness and make it easier to type better on small touch screens. (this requires access to a privileged API, and is probably not accessible to developers who are not Mozilla staff, or carrier partners)

Requested Apps

Specific apps in 'top 100 downloads' category not currently available in Marketplace. These app categories could generate big opportunities for a developer (recognition and revenue):

• Emoticons/Emoji keyboard apps
• Fingerprint Scanner
• Candle
• Lighter
• Flashlight
• Advanced Calculator
• Call Timer/Stop Watch
• Local news aggregators