Useful Links for New Mobile Programmers + BlackBerry SDK!

[Mark Rejhon]

Useful links for people who are knowledgeable in programming, but is currently new to programming for the BlackBerry or cellphone programming in general.

There are two main methods:

(A) Run on Just BlackBerry: The advantages is that you have a much more comprehensive API, with an easier development environment that already has the BlackBerry Emulator integrated into it. You just need to download the RIM JDE, install it, and compile away. The 4.x environment is completely integrated and even comes with a free "Hello World" type samples that you can compile, run, or install on your BlackBerry right away. Alternatively:

(B) Run on Multiple Cellphones: Did you know you can write a generic Java midlet that works on multiple cellphones? Yes, including BlackBerry, Nokia, Motorola, SonyEricsson, etc. Examples of phone-independent Java midlet software that runs on BlackBerry too. If you need to cast a wide net because you think the Blackberry market is too small despite over one million users, this is an option you can go to gain a bigger potential market to justify development. Alternatively, you can benefit with using BlackBerry extensions for a BlackBerry-specific application! In fact, you can write for both, and automatically use the BlackBerry extensions if you're running on a BlackBerry, too!

• For generic Java midlet development (run on multiple phones including BlackBerry/Nokia/Motorola/etc.)
  SUN - J2ME Developers
  .
• For the main information page about BlackBerry specific development:
  RIM - BlackBerry Developers
  .
• For RIM's Developers Getting Started page:
  RIM - Getting Started
  .
• For the BlackBerry development environment programming and a BlackBerry emulator, you want:
  RIM - BlackBerry JDE Download
  .
• For Books about BlackBerry development, you want to learn about:
  Books About BlackBerry/J2ME Development
  .
• To do more flexible and advanced development:
  The $100 Code Signing Key

The optional $100 code signing key simply permit more flexible development such as programmatically modifying PIM, bluetooth programming, programatically dialing numbers, loading/saving settings, etc. The key is unlimited use; you can use this key as often as you want for as many applications you want, released under your name or your company name.

Please feel free to come back here and post a new thread to ask further questions;

This is a "Mark Rejhon BlackBerry FAQ" article.
Copyright (C) 2005 by Mark Rejhon, All Rights Reserved. Some portions may be Copyright (C) by respective forum members.
Mark Rejhon grants permission to use this article only for private use. For all other uses, please ask Mark Rejhon at Mark Rejhon - aka Marky - Home Page of Mark D. Rejhon to ask for permission to use this article. If any content of this article also contains content by other forum members, please ask them for permission too as well. This includes commercial use, public use, reposting in full/part anywhere on the Internet, publication in magazine/book or any other media, or any other use than private use. This copyright notice may not be edited or removed in any manner. Mark Rejhon reserves exclusive right to edit, remove, or restore this article, and this article may not be edited, removed, or restored by any other individual or organizations.

[Nikhil]

That's some fundoo stuff you have posted.
I'm quite new to coding of applications on blackberry [ haven't written one 9-) ].
Didn't know that the midlets can run on my 7100.
Just downloaded the chessbuddy from the midlet.org and works fantastically !!!!

Quick question : The 7100 has the OS 3.8 correct ?
Is this OS proprietary to Blackberry ?
pardon me for the silly questions though.

[Mark Rejhon]

Does 7100 use 3.8?
-- Currently uses Version 3.8 (as of October 2004)

Is BlackBerryOS Proprietary?
-- Yes, except for the standardized Java/J2ME portion.

[mookia]

[Mark Rejhon]

If you are publishing software for Over-The-Air downloads (i.e. you create .jad/.jar files instead of .cod/.alx files), don't forget to configure your web server to permit Over-The-Air downloads to BlackBerries:

MIMEType Configuration Instructions

[yyjjll]

Greetings, I'm kinda new here ...

I wonder if there's anyway to run embedded C programs on the 7100 device, below the Java VM layers, and above the OS.

A major problem with the Java VM is it's too slow for computationally intensive tasks.

I've asked RIM about this issue and of course I got the answer no, since Java Midlet is the only thing officially opened to developers.

However, according to what I've found, 7100 runs on an ARM processor, and nothing should prevent one from running compiled C/C++ programs on the processor.

Does anyone have any idea on this? Thanks.

[ins0mniaque]

I'm kinda new here too :P

I am trying to convert "Mystic Island 2" to the BB, but it uses the nokia "FullCanvas". I was wondering if someone with enough BB API knowledge could port the com.nokia.mid.ui.FullCanvas class to the BB. It derives from javax.microedition.lcdui.Canvas.

Porting this to the BB could makes a WHOLE lot of games work out of the box.

See http://www.hta-bi.bfh.ch/Projects/po...view-tree.html for more information.

[FCGreg]

FYI: The link you posted for "Introduction to Java and J2ME on BlackBerry" is no longer active. It probably needs to be updated.

Thanks for the great info.

[benroul]

For some reason, all the resources that I try to download off those link does not work, I tried the newest JDE (4.02 version) and the simulator that works for 7780 but when I try to install the JDE, a warning shows that installer got some problem. When I try to unzip the simulator zip file with winrar, it shows the ending of the file got some problem. I try to download both again, the system transfer a huge file and claim "system call is too small..."
Master, can you help me out here?

[Mark Rejhon]

Links fixed.

[ralphc]

works now

[tom2112]

Thanks Mark! There's a ton of great content in the "RIM - Getting Started" link. It seems that a lot of the knowledge-base articles have been created in the last 3 months! Gotta love up to date info.

[KYU SUNG JUNG]

Hello..


I have some problem ..


I got error when activating MDS runtime on the device:

The procedure I've done:
1. on BB device, options->security->wipe handheld
2. Enterprise activation (success)
3. install MDS runtime (v1.0.1.57) from Blackberry Desktop Manager (success)
4. on BB device, options->MDS Activation

Then I got above error message and failed to activate MDS runtime.

Any ideas? Thanks for help!



What should i do?

Thanks..

My Email is

[jeevessnsv]

Originally Posted by yyjjll

Greetings, I'm kinda new here ...

I wonder if there's anyway to run embedded C programs on the 7100 device, below the Java VM layers, and above the OS.

(snip)

However, according to what I've found, 7100 runs on an ARM processor, and nothing should prevent one from running compiled C/C++ programs on the processor.

Does anyone have any idea on this? Thanks.

I too would love to know about this. Has anyone tried hacking on it? In theory we should be able to cross-compile almost any language to the BB's processor, if we have a way of discovering the system calls and loading the code. I'd be interested in working with others on figuring it out, if someone knows how to start.

[csivaraj]

Hai,


How can i program to access file in BlackBerry?


Any one have idea?

[csivaraj]

Hai,


How can i program to access file in BlackBerry?


Any one have idea?

[Lowrider]

Can u point me to a FAQ on theme developement for BB, I need icon sizes. tia

[jonabyte]

The link for the getting started page at bb.com has changed somewhat;

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Developer Program | Overview, Features, Tools and Opportunities

The main link for developers is;

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Developer Program | Support, Simulator & MDS Downloads, Knowledge Base & Community

[xxxdev]

I suggest blackberry.com/developers - Java discussion forum
Disclaimer

and Knoweledge base
Livelink - Redirection

It is very useful!

XXXDev

[mr_pink23]

Hi,
I already read most of the FAQs and Papers on the BlackBerry site.
They are quite helpful but also very theoretically.
Does anybody know any tutorials that go a little further than HelloWorld?

I would really appreciate it!

[AllYourBase]

I am interested in pursuing learning some development for the bb, but I do not run windows. What are the options for linux people when it comes to the emulator and the sdk? Anyone here have any experience they can share? Thanks!

[Skipper_Joe]

JDE is windows-only application for now.

[AllYourBase]

Thanks for the input. Can apps be built for the bb using anything other than j2me? If I wanted to use C# to build a bb app is that possible? Thanks!

[Skipper_Joe]

No, only java. But not strictly J2ME.

BlackBerry API includes J2ME (MIDP2.0 + CLDC1.1 APIs) + a lot of their own RIM-specific APIs.

[AllYourBase]

That's too bad. I was going to find a way to port Castle of the Winds to Blackberry but it looks like that will have to take a back seat since I am about to embark on a study of C#. I know I cannot do that on linux either :(

[dj0n]

Hi!
What a developer program I need to create applications for BlackBerry 8800, Curve?
How get program control such parameters as:
Change a ringtone?
Change a wallpaper?
Change a theme?
Change a font?
If it is probably that what API functions are available for this purpose?

[blackberrynew]

Sorry to post it here.posti ng it her since i'm not able to post it as a new query.


i have developed application using VS plugin for BB but cannot install the cod/jar to blackberry device.Can anybody hekp me by giving the steps to deploy it on device.

[sszturma]

Salesforce.com has a very rich Web services API (http://www.salesforce.com/us/develop.../api/index.htm) to accessing information in their system.

By default (not on a mobile device) the APIs that Salesforce has available use Apache axis and a bunch of other jars to do the actual web services calls.

I want to get retrieve/update information from Salesforce.com from my Blackberry. I see that many folks are using kSOAP for web services calls (because of the small footprint), but kSOAP doesn't support WSDL.

What's the best approach for this type of project? Any ideas/thoughts are appreciated.

[brcewane]

Salesforce.com has a very rich Web services API (http://www.salesforce.com/us/develop.../api/index.htm) to accessing information in their system.

By default (not on a mobile device) the APIs that Salesforce has available use Apache axis and a bunch of other jars to do the actual web services calls.

I want to get retrieve/update information from Salesforce.com from my Blackberry. I see that many folks are using kSOAP for web services calls (because of the small footprint), but kSOAP doesn't support WSDL.

What's the best approach for this type of project? Any ideas/thoughts are appreciated.

Have you tried the MDS Studio or the Visual Studio Plugin.. they are designed to consume webservices for the BlackBerry..

[evo8coop]

hi i want to get in to application building but where do i start first. i dont no any jave. is it hard to do? i read the whole post but dont no wehre to start can some one point me in the right direction thanks

[Gothcube]

So, I'm interested in programming for the Blackberry and other Mobile devices, but I am currently running OS X on my machines. Does anyone know if the JDE would run on an emulated version of windows? Just exploring the possibilities.

Thank you!

[BillBuchan]

This might be of interest. I wrote four articles for LotusUserGroup.org on how to develop BlackBerry MDS and BlackBerry JDE applications.

Granted the source system is Lotus Notes, but since I'm using web services and 'push http' services, this might be generic enough to get started with.

Anywhoo - 20,000 words of 'getting your feet wet':

Mobilizing Domino Applications onto Blackberry Devices

Hope it helps,

---* Bill
http://www.billbuchan.com
http://www.hadsl.com

[themlruts]

I am tring ot right write my first bb app but i whe n igo to install the bb software on my computer to delvel it tells me i need to down load java I dont know what to choose?

[cpradio]

I am having issues getting my programs to compile. They do fine if I set it as Private, but when I set it as Debug or Release, I get the following:

Building helloworld

C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry JDE 4.3.0\bin\rapc.exe  -quiet import="..\..\..\..\..\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry JDE 4.3.0\lib\net_rim_api.jar" codename=helloworld helloworld.rapc warnkey=0x52424200;0x52525400;0x52435200 C:\RIM\BlackBerry\8130\helloworld\helloworld\com\rim\samples\helloworld\HelloWorld.java

I/O Error: Cannot run program "javac": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified

Error while building project

Did I miss a step? Also, why it is that none of the samples/tutorials tell you how to get your sample on the simulator? I am struggling with that part too.

[Skipper_Joe]

you need to set JAVA_HOME and PATH env variables properly. search forum - it was discussed few times before.

[Rayford Booth]

Hi,
I am trying to get the certicom license. I have signed up with certicom and it let me download the application notes but where do i go from here?

I have looked everywhere but cant seem to find which to get the license

Thanks

[richard.puckett]

Since this thread is sticky, the code signing key's price should probably be changed to $20 to reflect its new price.

[satyam]

Hi,
Does anybody knows official enquiry Email id of blackberry/RIM where i can get information about code signing etc?
also if i got a key for signing my application and if i recompile my signed application after changes in it , for signing do i need to pay 100 $ again and get the new key ?

thanx in advance .
-Satish

[yeresera]

Hi everyone. I have a question:

SupportedAttachmentPart attachPart =
                    new SupportedAttachmentPart(multipart,
                    "image/jpeg",
                    selectedFile, readFile(selectedFile));
        multipart.addBodyPart(attachPart);

the above code is part of my custom email application. when i try to send my email, the attachments doesnt appear as they suppose to appear. There is no additional view attachment from the menu.
from the code above, I know that the selectedFile is a jpg file. am i doing something wrong here? thanks

[mkp]

Originally Posted by jeevessnsv

I too would love to know about this. Has anyone tried hacking on it? In theory we should be able to cross-compile almost any language to the BB's processor, if we have a way of discovering the system calls and loading the code. I'd be interested in working with others on figuring it out, if someone knows how to start.

It's been over two years since this has been posted. Does anyone know if this is possible (I'm using the 8820)?