Open source code aimed at mobile devices
Until now, developers had to design separate apps for Apple’s and Google’s operating systems but by using Mojito, applications will work on any mobile device as well as PCs. The key is that the apps are developed with JavaScript, the standard web programming language.
Mojito was announced last November and has been used in-house to develop applications such as Livestand (an app for digital magazines) but the technology has only been open sourced this week.
Yahoo chief platform architect Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz said that the unique feature of Mojito is that it allows developers to use the same JavaScript code on the front end and back end of applications. Essentially, this means that if a mobile device loses bandwidth, the server can run parts of application and send results down when the connection is restored and in the meantime the device can run client code on its own.
“It takes a while to download JavaScript, and that is the issue,” said Fernandez-Ruiz. “[Mojito] can run that same JavaScript on the server, but at the same time give the client an application that’s useable. It allows you to design for partially connected experiences.”
It sees Mojito being used primarily by publishers to deliver newspapers and magazines, and for interactive ads. Yahoo has released a few Mojito apps to show what it can do, including Livestand, an iPad app for reading articles from various sources.
It's part of a wider Yahoo project called Cocktail, to build a web presentation platform for devices. The Cocktail project also includes Manhattan, a Yahoo-hosted server environment based on Node.js where developers will be able to host their applications.
Mojito is available on GitHub, a web-based hosting service for software development projects.
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