BlackBerry Programming 101 – How to Get Started With BlackBerry Software Development

The results of newer BlackBerry types like the Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm have permitted RIM (Exploration in Movement) to penetrate the shopper smartphone market and go head-to-head with the Apple Apple iphone as an application platform. If you’ve got been disregarding the BlackBerry platform because it was much too Enterprise-targeted for your programs, it could be time to particularly focus on the BlackBerry. Here’s how you get started out.

It is really Java Time

BlackBerry advancement for all latest versions is accomplished solely in Java. So if you are not a powerful Java programmer, now’s the time to brush up on your Java programming abilities. (C# programmers will come across the changeover to Java reasonably straightforward, the languages are extremely near in most respects.) Do not understand about the latest Java functions, having said that, due to the fact the BlackBerry system is constructed on leading of Java Micro Edition (Java ME), which is itself a by-product of Java variation 1.3. So overlook all the extravagant (but beneficial) language attributes introduced in Java 1.5 — generics, enumerations, and so on — you cannot use these in BlackBerry programming. You can’t also use most of the library courses you might be familiar with — they are just not there. A compact subset of the Java Conventional Edition (Java SE) classes are supported, as effectively as a number of BlackBerry-particular courses.

Java Micro Edition?

After you’ve brushed up on your Java, you have to have to spend a little bit of time knowledge the Java ME platform, which was formerly identified as Java 2 Micro Version, or J2ME for short. You want to understand the concepts of configurations and profiles, and in individual the CLDC and MIDP benchmarks. You are going to locate a lot of information about these in different guides and on Sun’s Java enhancement website.

The BlackBerry System

Just after discovering about Java ME, it is time to investigate the BlackBerry platform. The BlackBerry platform is centered on the CLDC and involves assistance for MIDP 2.. Nonetheless, a huge range of BlackBerry-precise courses are also provided. Which delivers you to the initially issue you will experience: are you likely to publish a BlackBerry application or a MIDP software? In a MIDP software you might be constrained to only use the APIs uncovered by the CLDC and MIDP criteria. Your application will operate on the BlackBerry and on most cellphones, but it is not going to be capable to use any of the BlackBerry’s unique characteristics. You can use any MIDP-compatible improvement device, these as the Sunshine Java Wi-fi Toolkit for CLDC (previously recognised as the J2ME Wi-fi Toolkit), to create your purposes.

Most application builders opt to construct BlackBerry-unique programs. This suggests mastering the BlackBerry-precise APIs — such as new user interface courses — and applying the BlackBerry Java Enhancement Surroundings (JDE) to establish your programs. The JDE, which is no cost to down load, is effective with the conventional Java Software program Growth Package and presents you with all the tools essential to create, bundle, examination and debug BlackBerry programs. You you should not even will need a BlackBerry handheld, for the reason that the JDE contains a whole-featured BlackBerry product simulator. A total established of JavaDocs is offered that describes all the lessons and interfaces accessible to programmers.

After downloading and setting up the JDE, you can expect to want to browse the developer’s guides that come with the JDE and look at the sample purposes that are shipped with it. Then start off your improvement by writing a number of simple apps to get a experience for the BlackBerry APIs and the instruments.

Get A BlackBerry Handheld

While you can build and examination your apps for no cost, at some point you are going to have to have to run the application on an precise BlackBerry handheld. This will charge you cash, of study course, and so it truly is not some thing you’ll want to do till you are critical about writing BlackBerry programs. On-product testing is crucial to guaranteeing that the application will work appropriately, mainly because the simulator is not a ideal emulation program.

If you happen to be genuinely major about BlackBerry software progress, take into account also joining one particular of the BlackBerry developer plans for additional aid and early obtain to new devices and APIs. You must also discover RIM’s other BlackBerry developer methods. There are also 3rd-bash discussion boards and books available to aid you study the BlackBerry platform.

Summary

BlackBerry programming is not difficult if you know some Java and you fully grasp the constraints and restrictions of the fundamental Java ME platform. You have to learn a new established of APIs and use new improvement instruments, but in the finish it’s just a different variety of Java programming.