The results of more recent BlackBerry models like the Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm have authorized RIM (Research in Motion) to penetrate the purchaser smartphone current market and go head-to-head with the Apple Apple iphone as an application system. If you’ve been disregarding the BlackBerry system since it was as well Organization-targeted for your purposes, it could be time to precisely target the BlackBerry. This is how you get started out.
It can be Java Time
BlackBerry improvement for all recent models is performed solely in Java. So if you happen to be not a potent Java programmer, now’s the time to brush up on your Java programming skills. (C# programmers will obtain the transition to Java quite basic, the languages are really near in most respects.) Don’t find out about the latest Java functions, even so, since the BlackBerry platform is created on best of Java Micro Edition (Java ME), which is alone a spinoff of Java version 1.3. So ignore all the extravagant (but practical) language capabilities introduced in Java 1.5 — generics, enumerations, and so on — you are not able to use these in BlackBerry programming. You can not also use most of the library classes you might be familiar with — they’re just not there. A small subset of the Java Conventional Edition (Java SE) classes are supported, as well as a number of BlackBerry-specific classes.
Java Micro Version?
After you have brushed up on your Java, you want to expend a bit of time comprehension the Java ME platform, which was formerly regarded as Java 2 Micro Version, or J2ME for small. You will need to understand the principles of configurations and profiles, and in individual the CLDC and MIDP expectations. You can locate a lot of info about these in a variety of textbooks and on Sun’s Java improvement internet site.
The BlackBerry Platform
Immediately after finding out about Java ME, it is really time to take a look at the BlackBerry system. The BlackBerry platform is based mostly on the CLDC and features help for MIDP 2.. However, a significant amount of BlackBerry-specific courses are also supplied. Which delivers you to the 1st concern you’ll confront: are you going to create a BlackBerry application or a MIDP application? In a MIDP software you might be constrained to only use the APIs uncovered by the CLDC and MIDP expectations. Your application will run on the BlackBerry and on most cellphones, but it would not be capable to use any of the BlackBerry’s distinctive characteristics. You can use any MIDP-appropriate advancement device, this kind of as the Solar Java Wi-fi Toolkit for CLDC (previously known as the J2ME Wireless Toolkit), to generate your programs.
Most application developers decide to build BlackBerry-unique purposes. This means studying the BlackBerry-specific APIs — including new user interface courses — and working with the BlackBerry Java Progress Setting (JDE) to build your programs. The JDE, which is no cost to down load, is effective with the typical Java Computer software Growth Package and presents you with all the resources required to build, package deal, examination and debug BlackBerry purposes. You you should not even want a BlackBerry handheld, simply because the JDE includes a complete-showcased BlackBerry system simulator. A finish established of JavaDocs is presented that describes all the lessons and interfaces available to programmers.
Just after downloading and putting in the JDE, you are going to want to examine the developer’s guides that arrive with the JDE and seem at the sample applications that are transported with it. Then get started your development by crafting a couple uncomplicated apps to get a come to feel for the BlackBerry APIs and the instruments.
Get A BlackBerry Handheld
Whilst you can develop and take a look at your purposes for no cost, at some point you are going to require to operate the application on an precise BlackBerry handheld. This will value you revenue, of system, and so it really is not a little something you are going to want to do right until you happen to be critical about creating BlackBerry apps. On-unit tests is essential to guaranteeing that the software works properly, for the reason that the simulator is not a great emulation technique.
If you happen to be actually critical about BlackBerry software growth, contemplate also becoming a member of a person of the BlackBerry developer programs for more help and early accessibility to new gadgets and APIs. You really should also examine RIM’s other BlackBerry developer resources. There are also third-get together discussion boards and publications out there to assistance you study the BlackBerry system.
Conclusion
BlackBerry programming is not hard if you know some Java and you have an understanding of the constraints and restrictions of the fundamental Java ME system. You have to understand a new set of APIs and use new development equipment, but in the end it’s just yet another sort of Java programming.
