Objective
In this section, you will learn about the various locations to which official and community-contributed modules are published.
Contents
Appcelerator Marketplace
The Appcelerator Marketplace – https://marketplace.appcelerator.com/ – is an app store-like exchange for Appcelerator- and community-developed modules, templates, and other assets that you could use in a Titanium project. Modules are available via the Marketplace ranging from free to various per-month or one-time fees.
For Appcelerator-developed modules in the Marketplace, support and on-going module maintenance is provided by Appcelerator. However, Appcelerator is not responsible for maintenance and support for modules developed by independent developers and published via the Marketplace. You'll need to work directly with those developers for support.
Once you purchase or download a module, the Marketplace system will keep track of your download. When updates to those modules are published, you should receive an email informing you of the available update. Some modules require an on-going subscription. Titanium will check your eligibility to use the module at build time and will display an error message in your app if your license has expired.
Appcelerator Enterprise Extensions
Various modules are made available to Appcelerator subscribers. Plans vary, of course. At the time of this writing, the Enterprise Extensions modules are available with all paid subscriptions. If you log into the Marketplace (or to the Developer Center, then visit the Marketplace), the Enterprise Extensions modules will be shown as available for free. These modules are also published on the Support site available to Enterprise subscribers. Some modules require an on-going subscription. Titanium will check your eligibility to use the module at build time and will display an error message in your app if your license has expired.
At the time of this writing, these are some of the modules included in the TiPlus set:
- InAppBilling (for Android)
- StoreKit (for iOS in-app billing)
- Barcode (for iOS and Android)
- Compression (iOS and Android)
- OpenGL (iOS)
- AirPrint (iOS)
Open-source Appcelerator modules
In addition to publishing modules via the Marketplace and Support site, Appcelerator publishes a few modules on its GitHub account. Those modules are open source (check the individual licenses for full details) and are provided as-is without official support. You'll find these modules at https://github.com/appcelerator/titanium_modules
Community-contributed modules
Various community members publish modules, generally via their blogs or GitHub accounts. Support and quality varies by developer. None of these are official Appcelerator modules, nor are they supported by Appcelerator. Contact the individual developers. A few "high-visibility" modules and developers include:
- gitTio! (maintained by Fokke Zandbergen) lists all Titanium modules and Alloy widgets available on Github at http://gitt.io/
- ClearlyInnovative (Aaron Saunders) has published various modules at http://www.clearlyinnovative.com/
- Ben Bahrenburg publishes various iOS modules at http://bencoding.com/ or https://github.com/benbahrenburg
- QuickTiGame2d is a 2D game engine module for Titanium http://code.google.com/p/quicktigame2d/
(Apologies to the many high-caliber developers and projects left off this very short list!)
Mobile Web modules
Mobile Web apps can use JavaScript modules (ones that don't include any native code, since the entire app runs within a browser instance). At the time of this writing, Mobile Web is too new to have inspired a selection of modules. We'll update this guide once good examples of Mobile Web-compatible modules become available.
Summary
In this section, you learned that there are many ways to obtain modules. Some modules are free and open source. Others are available for purchase or to subscribers.