Safari® and WebKit Development for iPhone® OS 3.0

Chapter 10. Integrating with iPhone Services

One of the most intriguing ideas when creating a Web application for iPhone is integrating the application with core mobile services, such as dialing phone numbers or sending e-mails. After all, once you break those inside-the-browser barriers, the application becomes more than just a Web app and extends its functionality across the mobile device.

However, iPhone service integration is a mixed bag; it's a "good news, bad news" situation. On the upside, four of the most important mobile functions (Phone, Mail, SMS Messaging, and Google Maps) are accessible to the developer. On the downside, there is no means of tapping into other core services, such as Calendar, Address Book, Camera, Clock, iPod, and Settings.

To demonstrate the integration with iPhone services, you'll be working with a sample application called iProspector, which is a mocked-up contact management system that emulates the iPhone Contact UI (see Figure 10-1). To create the UI, you will be starting with iUI framework, which is discussed fully in Chapter 3, "Building with Web App Frameworks." However, because it does not provide support for the specific controls needed for the Contact UI, this chapter will show you how to extend iUI as service integration.

Because iPod touch does not provide support for Phone service, any iPhone-specific integration should degrade gracefully when running on iPod touch.

Figure 10-1. Contact UI

Preparing the iProspector Application Shell

Before integrating ...