The JIL Developer Website allows you to design, develop, test and publish widgets for the global mobile platform. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at – whether you’re starting out or are a pro – as long as you’ve got a great idea, we’ll provide you with the development resources you need to build a great mobile widget. You’ll be able to get software development kits (SDKs), code samples, documentation sets like release notes, tutorials and API documents.

The Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) is a joint venture formed in April 2008 between China Mobile, SoftBank Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. JIL was established to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications and services, with an initial focus on developing and deploying a mobile widgets platform to encourage the development of innovative new mobile internet services.

The JIL Developer Website provides you with the basics of getting started on developing your mobile widget. You’ll be able to:

• get information on markets we support
• download our SDK
• view sample widgets
• read our Quick Start guide
• submit your widgets for publishing
• send us your feedback and questions
• connect with other registered users on the JIL Developer Website

We’ll be continually improving the site to meet your needs.

Registering with us will give you unlimited access to all our site has to offer – tools, resources, technical documentation and more. You’ll also be able to talk to our panel of experts and participate in discussion forums with other developers like yourself.

Your personal information is safe with us and we promise not to pass it along to anyone else.

Anyone! It doesn’t matter if you’ve never built a widget before; we welcome anyone who’s interested in developing mobile widgets for us.

It’s free to sign up.

All you have to do is sign up with us. Registration is free and secure. Simply click the ‘Sign up’ link at the top of any page, fill out the form, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a member of the JIL developer community.

Over the coming months, we’re planning on adding marketing and sales opportunities. We’re continually developing and improving this site based on your feedback, so remember to check back here for the latest updates!

For a listing and details on JIL compatible devices currently available, go to Get started > View Devices and Platforms.
We aim to support a wide variety of popular mobile devices. We are continuing to add devices, so please check back here often for the latest updates.

Currently, the JIL Developer Website supports Internet Explorer v7.x and v8.x, Mozilla Firefox v3.0.x and v3.5.x, Google Chrome v5.0.x, and Safari v4.0.x.

For the moment, our platform only supports mobile devices. We’re continually developing and adding features based on your feedback, so please check back often for the latest updates.

You can reach us by clicking the ‘Contact us’ link at the top of any page and filling out the form. We’ll make sure one of us gets back to you as soon as possible.

Some email clients use very strong spam filters, so try checking your spam or junk mail folder to see if the email is in there. If you still can’t find it, please try to Sign up again.

You’ve changed your email address recently.
For security purposes, we require you to confirm your new email address before logging in. Please check your personal email for an email from us, which will give you instructions on how to get your new email address confirmed.

You get a message saying your email address or password is incorrect.
If you’ve been trying to log in for more than 3 times, the site will temporarily block your account for 30 minutes. Please wait for a while and try logging in again. Please also check that you’ve typed your email address and password out correctly. If you’re still having trouble logging in, please contact customer support.

To reset your password, click on the ‘Forgot password’ link at the top of any page, enter the email address you used to register on this site with, and we’ll send your new password to your email.

You can get to your profile by going to My area > My profile.

You can change your profile details, like your email address and password, at any time by visiting your profile page in My area > My profile. For security reasons, you won’t be able to edit your first name, last name or nickname.

A Publisher ID is a digital certificate that includes the needed data used to identify the author of widgets.
Developers can obtain a Publisher ID from the third party CA (Certificate Authorities) which is designated by JIL.
Prior to publishing the widget to the DWP, developers are required to sign their widget by using the Publisher ID if their widgets use advanced APIs.  With a Publisher ID, you will be capable of:

• Getting a test and/or production certificate.
• Charging for your widgets globally.
• Developing widgets with Advanced APIs.
• Obtaining the “Identified” security domain.

To obtain a Publisher ID, go to the Publish page and select ‘Get a Publisher ID’.

Currently, the annual fee to maintain a Publisher ID is US$99.

You can change your bank account details, like the name on the account, by visiting your profile page in My area > My profile. Select "Bank account details" and simply amend the information on this screen. We will re-validate the information provided.

If you change your bank you must update your bank details. Log on to your account at JIL.org and access My Area, My Profile. Select Bank Details and simply amend the information. We will revalidate the information and your records will be updated in our billing and settlement systems. The changes will be made within 2-5 days. If you are changing bank account details you should avoid doing this from 18th – 25th of the month, because the payment is being prepared.

Yes you can, you will need to update the Company name field in your bank details. To do this access My area > My profile, and edit your bank account details.

If your personal, or company, tax status changes, go to My area > My profile. Select "Bank account details" and add your new tax code or VAT details in the fields provided. We will re-validate the data and apply this change to your banking records on our billing and settlement systems.

We recommend you do not change your tax status mid-month. If you do, your new tax status will be applied from the start of the month in which you changed it.

You cannot change your settlement currency once you have defined this for a period of 12 months, from the date your account was originally set up.

Please contact us by filling out our Contact us form.

We’re sorry to hear you wish to leave us. Please send us your request by filling out our ‘Contact us’ form.

‘My area’ is the space where you can edit your profile and set preferences like language settings, and send and receive messages via the Mailbox from one location. We’ll be adding more features to this space in the coming months.

The Mailbox in My area is where you receive messages from us and from other members of the site. You’ll need to be a registered member of this site to use this feature.

To send a message to another member:
1. Log in and select My area > Mailbox > New message.
2. From the ‘To:’ drop-down menu, select ‘Another developer’.
3. Enter the developer’s nickname. Check that the nickname you’ve entered is valid by clicking the ‘Check this name’ button. If you’ve entered the nickname correctly, you will receive an ‘OK’ message.
4. Once you’ve finished typing your message, click ‘Send’.

Note: You won’t be able to send messages to multiple members in a single email. You must compose a separate message for each recipient. The Mailbox also does not support sending messages to external email addresses.

The Mailbox will be where we’ll be sending you automated messages from the system or from our administrators. You’ll also be able to send and receive messages from other registered members on our site.

To get the most out of our site and to be able to download our tools, you’ll need to be logged in as a registered member of JIL. Please log in or Sign up to get access.

You'll find a search box located at the top right-hand side of any page, which will allow you to search our site. To get the most complete set of search results, make sure you're logged in as a registered member of JIL. Please log in or sign up now.

The language you select at the top of any page defines the language that will be displayed to you for any content on the site. The language you select in your profile will allow us to send you messages in your preferred language.

You should be able to type Chinese or Japanese characters anywhere on the site. The only exceptions are when you are entering details like email address and password, where you must use English characters.

Yes. You must be a registered JIL member to use our widget porting engine. Log in and go to our online porting engine (Develop > Porting Engine). All you have to do is upload it, and we'll take care of the rest. We currently support Opera (SDK v1.0), Nokia (Web Developers Library v1.6), Apple (OS X v10.6 and lower).

A mobile widget is an interactive mini-application that you can run on your mobile device to gain quick and easy access to content on the internet. Some examples of mobile widgets are daily weather updates, news readers, currency converters, clocks or calendar reminders. Mobile widgets built for the JIL platform should be able to support AJAX.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never tried building a widget before; we’ve got a wide range of resources to help you get started. Here are some pointers:

• Read our Quick start guide
• Visit the Toolbox (Home > Develop > Toolbox) to view documentation, sample codes and video tutorials for ideas and tips

A SDK (software development kit) is a set of tools that allows a developer or software engineer to create applications for a certain platform.

Go to our Toolbox (Home > Develop > Toolbox) to select and download a range of SDKs you're interested in. We recommend that users with a slower connection use a download manager or accelerator to download the large JIL SDK installation file.

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a language format which defines how applications communicate with one another. For example, you could write an API for your widget to send a text message or access your mobile phone’s address book.

Advanced APIs are APIs defined within JIL that can be used only by an identified developer. The restricted functions are the following:

1. To get the account info of the device such as “phone MSISDN” and “user account balance.
2. To get the owner info.
3. To delete all messages.
4. To delete all call records.

You must be a registered JIL member to access technical documentation. Upon log in, you can find all API documentation in our Toolbox (Home > Develop > Toolbox > Documents) on our site.

You must be a registered JIL member to access technical documentation. Log in and go to our Toolbox (Home > Develop > Toolbox) to select and download the specifications and technical documentation needed to develop your widget.

An Identified Domain shows the security domain that is defined by JIL. Each handset allows/restricts the use of each JIL Widget API and prompts end-users based on the defined Security level. For more details, please refer to the “API Support Level” within the Handset APIs document.

We currently support JIL Widget Format Specification v1.2.x and later only. Please be sure to install the latest SDK from the Toolbox (Home > Develop > Toolbox).

You’re free to develop anything you like, as long as you abide by our terms and conditions. Here are a couple of things to think about:

• You’ll be building widgets for an international audience, so there could be slight variations across different regions. We’ll be posting regional guidelines for what’s allowed and what’s not allowed soon.
• Consider your users, and don’t build any widgets that drain battery power or generate excessive data connections.

As stated in our terms and conditions, you retain all intellectual property rights related to your widget.

A widget ID is automatically created for you in the SDK, but you can create it manually should you wish. Using SHA256 encryption, the correct format for a JIL widget ID is:

http://jil.org/wid/< SHA256(lowercase(<nickname>)) >/<widget id string>

For example, if your nickname is 'JoeSmith' and you created a widget that provides weather forecasts, SHA256 encryption turns your name 'JoeSmith' into a series of letters and characters. Your widget ID might look something like this:

http://jil.org/wid/b4c3addd8a1004ee5c651ca52bdc42353ad5a51db258aa0597cfb4f63df36e41/weather

The <widget id string> should be between 2 to 50 characters.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your JIL nickname contains uppercase letters, you must enter all lowercase letters when converting to SHA256 encryption in order to obtain the proper widget ID.

We strongly recommend that you test your widget on a mobile device prior to submitting it for publishing. If your widget uses advanced APIs, you will need to obtain a test certificate to test the widget on a mobile device. If your widget uses basic APIs, a test certificate is optional.

It is currently free to obtain a test certificate.
However, if you test your widget with a test certificate, it is required that you obtain a Publisher ID prior to obtaining the test certificate. The cost of obtaining and maintaining a Publisher ID is US$99 per year.

A test certificate is valid for 7 days after the issue date. Therefore widgets containing test certificates must be installed within 7 days from the date of issue.

JIL does not allow changes to the application binary once it's uploaded. To update your widget application package (Config.xml, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.), you must increment the version number then re-upload it as a new widget. Note that leaving the widget_id same and incrementing the version is used to inform the end-users that there is a new version available.

You may update the widget metadata, e.g. marketing data, images, etc. To do so, log into the JIL Developer Website and go to My area > My widgets > My published widgets. Select the widget and Edit Widget. Enter the new information and/or images in the form provided. Select Save and the updated widget will be submitted for QA and approval.

The operator(s) will make a payment to you within 55 days of your statement date, once the payment threshold has been reached. Payment schedules may vary from operator to operator.

It's currently free to publish a widget with JIL.

An author signature is a signature that certifies the identity of the widget’s author.
This signature is used for developers to submit their widgets to the DWP.
Developers will sign the widget file by using their Publisher ID in the signing function of the SDK.
After signing the widget file, the file is renamed to the widget signature file named "author-signature.xml".
Author signature is needed for publishing chargeable widgets and those widgets developed by using advanced APIs.

You will need to digitally sign your widget if it requires the use of advanced APIs. Prior to submitting your widget to us for publishing, you will need to:

• Obtain a Publisher ID.
• Sign the widget using the SDK with your Publisher ID certificate.
• Request a test certificate and test your widget on a mobile device.

Once you have completed these steps, you will be able to submit your widget for publishing.

A digital signature is a signature that is used in the digital world by operating systems, software applications and mobile networks by applying the same system of handwritten signatures in the real world.
A valid digital signature appended to a message assures the receiver of the message that the message was indeed sent by a known sender and that the contents of the message was not altered in transit .
To append a digital signature (which is called author signature) to a widget, developers must obtain a digital certificate (known as Publisher ID) from the JIL designated CA.

A digital signature is only required if your widget uses advanced APIs.

No. Test certificates are only for testing purposes.
You need to submit an author signature using your Publisher ID for publishing widgets.

All image files must be in .png file format. Size and aspect ratio requirements are as follows:
Marketing image: Minimum 204x136 pixels, 3:2 or 2:3 aspect ratio, and less than 100KB.
Supplemental icon: Minimum 200x200 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio, and less than 100KB.
Screenshots: 240x320 (3:4) or 240x400 (3:5) or 320x480 (2:3) or 360x640 (9:16) and less than 200KB. All screenshots must conform to the same aspect ratio.

These are the various stages your widget might go through, from the time you upload your widget on JIL to the time it's made available for download in the online mobile operator stores:

JIL status
Created: A widget has been uploaded, and is being checked (widget scanning and digital signing, if applicable) by JIL.
Available: A widget is ready to be reviewed by operators for inclusion in the online mobile operator stores.
Unavailable: A widget that cannot be published to any new online mobile operator stores. However, it is still available at all previously published stores.
Rejected: A widget that has failed to receive a digital certificate.
Revoked: A widget that has been removed from the online mobile operator stores.

Operator status
For review: A widget that is ready to be reviewed for publication to our online mobile operator stores.
Processing: A widget currently under review by an operator.
In store: A widget that is currently available for download/purchase from the specified online mobile operator store.
Declined: A widget in which the chosen operator has opted not to publish in their online mobile store.
Updated: A widget with updated details to be reviewed for publication to our online mobile operator stores.
Revoked: A widget that has been removed from the online mobile operator stores.

To view the explanation for a Declined, Rejected, and/or Revoked operator status, click on the specific operator link from your widget's detail page. To access the operator link, go to My area > My widgets > My published widgets. Select the widget and the specific operator you wish to view.

This depends on each operator's QA process when reviewing your widget. The operator(s) will send you a response within 10 working days from submitting your widget for review. If your widget passes the QA test criteria successfully, your widget will appear in the online mobile operator store(s) within 48 hours. Turnaround time may vary from operator to operator.

If you selected a price to charge for your widget, make sure you also provided your bank account information. Widgets will not be published to online mobile operator stores until verification of your bank account details has completed. This may take up to 48 hours.

To check your bank account verification status, go to My area > My profile.
To edit or enter your bank account information, press the "Bank account details" button.
After 48 hours, if you’re still not seeing any change, please contact customer support.

Go to My area > My widgets > My published widgets. Select the widget you wish to change the price of, and select Edit Widget. Choose the new price from the drop-down list and select Save. Your new price will be reflected in the online mobile operator stores within 72 hours.

Go to My area > My widgets > My published widgets. Select the widget and Edit Widget, then update the territories you want to publish to. Choose the new countries from the options provided. Select Save and the widget will be submitted for review and approval in the new territories.

For information on access and usage of a Bulk Uploader tool, please fill out our 'Contact us' form linked at the top of any page.