Nearby Wikipedia articles for the Pebble

The Nearby API from Wikipedia has always fascinated me, so when I received the Pebble Time last month, I knew I had to use it to make an app for my wrist.

In the excitement of the Kickstarter campaign I had already started dabbling with the JavaScript SDK using Cloud Pebble. It took me a while to get started with the SDK on my computer because I couldn’t find a clear way to initialize a JS project. Things went smoothly once I realized that I had to clone the pebblejs repository first, and copy my files there.

The Pebble.js environment is still in beta and it shows. While the documented features work, I kept wishing for more, especially those that let me add color. I could get a few colors using textColor, and highlightTextColor, but couldn’t find any documentation on what was actually supported. I made my peace with the lack of colors and released the app on the Pebble app store.

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Analytics tells me that around 400 people are using this app and that makes me happy. The people are nice too — I got two emails reporting an issue on iPhone (I am working on it), both being informative and polite. This might not mean much, but I feel its an important litmus test for the community.

I hope more APIs get exposed to Pebble.js soon, until then feel free to contribute code and bug reports on Github.

  1. Sander says:

    Does this work now with an iPhone? I really like the idea, however my pebble just says Loading Wikipedia articles

    1. admin says:

      Unless there was an update in the Pebble app itself this has been fixed. I haven’t received this bug report in a while so I am hopeful.
      I’ll get to work on this once I have an iOS device. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/prtksxna/pebble-nearby, in case you want to poke around yourself πŸ™‚

      1. Tomas says:

        Hi!
        I just thought I’d report a reoccurring error in the app in case you hadn’t spotted it!
        I’m using your app on a PebbleTime watch linked to an iPhone 6 Plus. Every time I launch the app I get frozen on the loading screen!
        Sorry if I’m sending this and you’re already aware of the error!
        Tomas

  2. LarryD says:

    I’m using your app on a Pebble Time watch linked to an iPhone 6S. Every time I launch the app I get frozen on the loading screen!

    1. admin says:

      I am really sorry that you are facing this, but I don’t have a device to test and debug this on. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/prtksxna/pebble-nearby, in case you want to poke around yourself.

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