With the release of Firefox OS, Web App gained a new identity. Firefox OS gave Web App the honor of being able to talk with the hardware and be native apps. In general, Web Apps in Firefox OS is no different than your regular HTML5+CSS+JS built Web Apps but why special training? Well, when you’re making an app for a hand held device which can do more than just displaying a few information, you’ll need a way to communicate with the device hardware to tell it to vibrate, ring, access microphone and other crazy stuff. To do these awesome things, you’ll need something we call APIs. Mozilla has worked really hard to create some Web APIs and Firefox OS Specific APIs. People generally don’t know these APIs and they may know how to code HTML and CSS but a great part of the App is the manifest file which is OS specific. Teaching people how to write a badass manifest file is the primary object of these training.

On September 09, 2015, I along with my fellow mozillians payed a visit to Varendra University Rajshahi to introduce them Web Apps for Firefox OS.

The event was at 9AM but we reached there at 9AM, we’re lazy. Then after setting up the awesome banners and testing out the projector and sound system, we were good to go at around 9:30AM. But we’d to wait for a few more attendee. We, eventually, started at 9:45.

First, I talked about Web Apps in general, why we need them, how we’re surrounded by them and why they are important for a healthy application ecosystem.

Then, I started diving into developing Web Apps for Firefox OS. First I showed them how the WebIDE can help them and what the interface looks like. After that we together created the very first manifest file.

After the manifest file, they went brainstorming so that they could create something that they. Many of them came with awesome ideas but only a few could be done on spot. A group created a demo app for managing classes. Bravo!

Then we had our lunch.

After lunch, the participants did some practice on what they learned and then we started talking about APIs and why they’re a big deal.

After messing around APIs a little bit and installing apps on device just for fun, we started the Q/A session. The participants really had a few awesome questions.

Last but not least, this event really went well and I’m thinking to re visit them soon enough.