Earlier, a WebView widget was used to display the source URL for the News story, but launching the web browser application in a new card gives more flexibility to News. The browser application can be launched to its default launch view or to a specific URL.

case "do-webStory":
    this.controller.serviceRequest("palm://com.palm.applicationManager", {
           method: "open",
           parameters: {
               id: "com.palm.app.browser",
               params: {
                   target: this.storyFeed.stories[this.storyIndex].url
               }
           }
    });

The user must tap the dial button to approve any phone call that is placed. Your application can initiate the phone call by opening the Phone application, providing a dial string (as shown in Figure 8-1). The phone will be launched to the dial scene, with or without the dial string included:

this.controller.serviceRequest("palm://com.palm.applicationManager", {
    method: "open",
    parameters: {
       target: "tel://4085556666"
       }
    }
});

Figure 8-1. Phone application launched with prepopulated number

From within your application, you can turn on the camera and present a simple interface to take pictures, with an option to save or delete the picture after it is captured. When called from within another application, the camera application will only take a single picture and will return a file reference to the calling application if the picture was saved.

You must use a Cross-App launch to call the Camera from your application. This requires that you call the pushScene() method just as with any scene push, but include scene arguments that indicate an application launch is required:

this.someAssistant.stageController.pushScene(
    { appId : "com.palm.app.camera", name: "capture" },
    { sublaunch : true }
);

When the picture is taken or canceled, control will be returned back to your scene with a call to the scene’s activate() method, just as with any scene pop. However, unlike the typical scene lifecycle, there will be a response object passed as an argument to the activate() method:

CameraAssistant.prototype.activate = function(response){
    if (response)   {
        if (response.returnValue)  {
            this.showDialogBox("Picture Taken", response.filename);
        } else  {
            this.showDialogBox("No Picture", "");
        }
    } else {
         Mojo.Log.info("Picture not requested");
    }
};

The Photos application is limited to launching the application to the default view, where the user can choose between various albums and photos. All images stored on the device will be indexed and viewed this way:

this.controller.serviceRequest("palm://com.palm.applicationManager", {
    method: "launch",
    parameters: {
        id:"com.palm.app.photos",
        params: {}
        }
    }
});

You can use the Maps application to display maps around specific locations defined by street address, latitude/longitude, or through a location query. The map can optionally include driving directions or additional local or business search results, and there is a choice of map type and zoom level:

this.controller.serviceRequest("palm://com.palm.applicationManager", {
    method: "launch",
    parameters: {
    id: "com.palm.app.maps",
    params: {
        location: {lat: 37.759568992305134, lng: −122.39842414855957, acc: 1},
        query: "Pizza",
        }
    }
});

This example launches the Map application to show the pizza options around a section of San Francisco with an accuracy of a meter. This is very powerful when used with the Location service, which will be covered in the next chapter.