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Basic

Introduction to Location-Based Services

There is increased interest in Location-Based Services (LBS) across the three major mobile phone markets – the US, Europe and Asia. This will continue as more Global Positioning System-enabled (GPS-enabled) phones become available, fuelled by falling chipset prices. Symbian OS provides the most comprehensive support for Location-Based Services available on any operating system.Read the paper

Using the Symbian OS Contacts API

This white paper describes the Symbian OS Contacts Model, which provides the essential contacts services for Personal Information Management (PIM) applications in Symbian OS. Code snippets are provided for reference. The paper also gives an overview of the changes required in Contacts Model client code when migrating to Symbian OS v9.3-based SDKs (e.g. S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2).Read the paper

Advanced RArray

This document covers intermediate and advanced usage of the RArray classes. It gives explanations and examples for some of the most frequently asked questions and encountered problems that have appeared on the Symbian forums.Read the paper

CActive and Friends

The second in the series by Ben Morris, which examines the Symbian OS native C++ idioms.Read the paper

Leaves and Exceptions

Jason Morley outlines the motivations for why Symbian OS v9.x now supports standard C++ exceptions.Read the paper

Using the new Symbian OS v9 Calender API

The Calendar API replaces the Agenda API that was present in versions of Symbian OS prior to v9.1, and provides information scheduling and exchange functionality according to RFC 2445. This paper explains how to use the Calendar API and contains code snippets to demonstrate how the API is used in practice.Using the new v9 Calender API PDFCalender API Migration Guide PDF

Introduction to localizing your Symbian OS applications: part 1 pre-Symbian OS v9

This paper describes the steps involved in internationalizing your Symbian OS application, and producing and installing localized variants for Symbian OS platform releases prior to Version 9. Read the paper

Introduction to localizing your Symbian OS applications: part 2 - Symbian OS v9

(Martin de Jode and Mark Shackman)
In part one we outlined the measures required to localize your applications for versions of Symbian OS prior to version 9. In this article we will complete the picture by looking at the changes required for Symbian OS v9 and later.
Read the paper (55kb)Download the source code (25kb)

Symbian OS workshop

Andreas Jakl developed a tutorial to Symbian OS based on an Arkanoid-like game. He will walk you through the source of the game and teach you some Symbian OS idioms at the same time. You’ll get to learn about Symbian OS while having fun! The code of the game is license under GPL so you can extend it in whichever way you fancy. Read the paper Download the source code (1 MB)

The workflow of C++ game development

(Andreas Jakl)
This paper describes the experience gained during the development of a location-based adventure game for Symbian OS. It aims to aid new developers in getting to grips with Symbian OS. To provide a More practical background, an innovative game called Journey has been developed. Based on this, several components of Symbian OS and Series 60 are described, which lack documentation or where a working implementation might be More useful than reading the theoretical basics.
Read the paper (538 Kb)

Writing Good Symbian OS Applications

When writing applications for Symbian OS there are many factors to consider – from the design stage right through to the final finishing touches of releasing your .SIS file – which all contribute to the quality and robustness of your application. This document aims to gather together some useful hints, tips and links which you, the developer, can use to produce the most reliable Symbian OS applications possible.
Read the paper

Symbian OS C++ coding standards

The Coding Standards paper has now been superceded by our new Coding Standards booklet.  Read the booklet (3701 Kb)

Coding idioms for Symbian OS

This paper is aimed at all Symbian OS smartphone developers. The 80-20 rule states that 80% of the time will be spent fixing 20% of the problems that occur in development. The aim of this document is to address those 20%. Read the paper (94 Kb)

A Symbian OS C++ project template for multi-GUI applications

In this article John Pagonis demonstrates how to keep the cost of a Symbian OS C++ project low by keeping as much code common between different GUI variants. The article is accompanied by a complete project template that allows someone to quicly start-up a project on UIQ v2.1, S60 2.x and Series 80 2.0.Read the paper (175 Kb) Download source code(15 Kb)

Introduction to RBuf

(Mark Shackman)
RBuf is a new addition to the Symbian descriptor family, providing a modifiable, resizable heap-based descriptor. This paper provides an introduction to RBuf, with example code to show its usage. Read the paper (84 Kb)

Symbian OS Error Codes

This spreadsheet contains a comprehensive list of Symbian OS Error Codes.Download the spreadsheet (142K zipped)

Eliminating Memory Leaks in Symbian OS C++ Projects

(John Pagonis)
This guide addresses the situation where the app you have developed throws an error on exit with the system complaining about a cell or cells not deleted. It shows how, although Microsoft Developer Studio doesn't directly support debugging of this situation, users of this IDE can nonetheless work out where in their Symbian OS code the problem has arisen. Read the paper (130 Kb) Download the pdb files (400kb)

Here you can find the answers to the most frequently asked developer questions, together with other useful tech tips.More