Codename One Developer Guide

Codename One is a Write Once Run Anywhere mobile development platform for Java/Kotlin developers. It integrates with IntelliJ/IDEA, Eclipse, or NetBeans to provide seamless native mobile development.

Codename One’s mission statement is:

Unify the complex and fragmented task of mobile device programming into a single set of tools, APIs, and services. As a result, create a more manageable approach to mobile application development without sacrificing the power/control given to developers.

This effectively means bringing that old “Write Once Run Anywhere” (WORA) Java mantra to mobile devices without “dumbing it down” to the lowest common denominator.

The things that make Codename One stand out from other tools in this field are:

• Write Once Run Anywhere support with no special hardware requirements and 100% code reuse
• Compiles Java/Kotlin into native code for iOS, UWP (Universal Windows Platform), Android, and even JavaScript/PWA
• Open Source and Free with commercial backing/support
• Easy to use with 100% portable Drag and Drop GUI builder
• Full access to underlying native OS capabilities using the native OS programming language (e.g. Objective-C) without compromising portability
• Provides full control over every pixel on the screen
• Lets you use native widgets (views) and mix them with Codename One component within the same hierarchy (heavyweight/lightweight mixing)
• Supports seamless Continuous Integration out of the box

Codename One can trace its roots to the open-source LWUIT project started at Sun Microsystem in 2007 by Chen Fishbein (co-founder of Codename One). It’s a huge project that’s been under constant development for over a decade!