Touching On Touchscreen Functionality

Recently I was asked how a developer can use an ALX file to make sure that the touch-aware version of their app only gets deployed on touchscreen devices. It occurred to me that a lot of apps are still set up with separate touch and non-touch builds. Certainly there have been good reasons to do that in the past – but is it still the case today? Let’s take a look at some of the past reasons why a developer might have set up separate builds, and explain why a separate approach isn’t necessary today.

Reason #1: Touch isn’t supported in that OS

When the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530 smartphone launched with OS 4.7, it was necessary to have a special touch-only version compiled against OS 4.7 in order to take full advantage of the touch functionality. If you were using the standard BlackBerry UI components, an app compiled for an older OS would probably work fine – but if you wanted to actually capture and use touch events, those methods didn’t even exist until OS 4.7. In this case, not only did it make sense to have a separate touch-only version optimized for the BlackBerry Storm smartphone, it was really the only way to go.

Fast forward a few years, and devices running BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and higher are 93% of the market share worldwide for free apps. With paid apps, it’s up to 97%! Since the touch APIs are present in newer OS versions regardless of whether the device supports touch or not, any app compiled for BlackBerry Device Software version 5.0+ (or really 4.7+) can be made touch-aware.

More reasons and deploying to touch-only »

We turbo-boosted the BlackBerry PlayBook browser – can your web apps keep up? [VIDEO]

In my post “Building stable web apps – you can do it with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 software update”, I wrote about the improvements in BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0. I’ve since had a few of my developer friends ask about a comparison video – a great idea! Here’s a video that demonstrates what web developers can really do to leverage some of the powerful hardware accelerated capabilities of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 browser.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

The following demos are being used in this video:

  • Guimark3 HTML5 bitmap drawing test, by Sean Christmann
  • Rubiks HTML5 canvas, by Remy Sharp
  • Origami, by Hakim El Hattab

Leave us a comment and tell us what you think!

Native WebGL: A giant leap for the web development community on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Image courtesy of Khronos Group™

BlackBerry® developers, you’re in for a treat. If you haven’t heard already, the BlackBerry web platform for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS 2.0 supports WebGL. WebGL is an exciting new technology that is designed to offer advanced rendering capabilities and 3D Graphics for web development. Support for this feature was announced during the BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 keynote, and developers can use it as part of their HTML5 and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ web applications.

That’s right – if you wanted to, you could build a standalone BlackBerry application, powered by WebGL, using the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK, and distribute that app to other BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet users through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

This is a giant step forward for the web development community. As one of the first mobile development platforms to offer a native implementation of WebGL to its developers, BlackBerry provides the web development community a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of what they can do in their application content. WOW!

WebGL, Library, Frameworks and more »

Building stable web apps – you can do it with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 software update

The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 software update is designed to include many great improvements for both users and developers. For web developers, the BlackBerry web platform continues to receive quality improvements with each software update. I’m pleased to share that some exciting enhancements have been made to the WebKit rendering engine as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 update. These enhancements are intended to assist HTML5 and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ developers with their efforts in producing higher-quality application content and positive user experiences.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users who have installed the OS 2.0 beta may have already seen the improved WebKit engine, as it was upgraded starting with version 2.0.0.7262 of the BlackBerry Tablet OS software. The current version of WebKit on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet comes from a November 2011 branch of the upstream WebKit code base. A complete list of all changes can be found in the Trac for WebKit issue tracking system.

Wait, do you mean HTML5 development on BlackBerry is designed to be even better now?

Yes I do, and you’re in for a treat.

Read more about web development improvements »

We’re Extending the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Offer!

We knew developers were excited about our latest BlackBerry® PlayBook™ offer for Android™ developers when we announced it two weeks ago. You asked that Native C/C++, HTML5, Adobe® AIR®, and Qt developers have a chance to participate and we answered by opening the offer to all developers.

Today was going to be the deadline for the offer – but due to the overwhelming interest in the offer, we’re extending it one more time. How much interest? There have been over 1,500 app submissions as of last Friday and over 6,600 new developers registered in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.  We have teams working around the clock to approve vendor registrations and app submissions.  Because of the high demand, approvals are taking longer than normal – we appreciate your patience.

To help speed up the approval process of your application, we strongly recommend the following:

  • Before submitting your application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to remove all mention of the word “Android” from your application – both in the application description and the application itself.
  • Please remove all links to Android Marketplace from within your application.
  • When submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to select a minimum OS of 2.0.
  • Please make sure your application is signed. For more information on code signing, please view the code signing documentation on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps webpage.

If you’re not a registered BlackBerry App World vendor, you now have until 11:59 PM EST on February 15, 2012 to register at http://appworld.blackberry.com/isvportal.

All vendors (new and existing) now have until 11:59 PM EST on March 2, 2012 to submit your application to BlackBerry App World. Check out our offer FAQ and we’ll be updating the official terms & conditions later today.

Turning your jQuery app into a HTML5 + BlackBerry WebWorks app

Hello everyone, I’m Erik O. from the BlackBerry® Developer Relations team, making my blogging debut! I’m an Application Development Consultant and my primary focus is on Java® and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ development. I’ve been with Research In Motion® (RIM®) for just over two years now and have had some great opportunities to connect with developers in this time. I’m really excited about what BlackBerry WebWorks and HTML5 hold for the future of RIM. The open collaboration of web development really captures what I hope to see continue to grow in our developer community.

Are you working with jQuery wondering what you need to do to bring your app to the BlackBerry platform? Maybe you’re already a web developer considering BlackBerry, jQuery, or both. If you fall into any of these camps, head on over to our jQuery to WebWorks Fundamentals Guide for some pointers. Learn what you need to do in order to port your web solution to BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, what BlackBerry WebWorks can bring to your project, as well as considerations for leveraging jQuery. We discuss common topics such as UI considerations, debugging, and compatibility for the various in-market OS versions.

If there are any jQuery topics you’re still wondering about, be sure to leave some feedback and we’ll do our best to expand even further.

For those of you that already have a web project underway, this guide can show you how to bring your solution to BlackBerry platforms with relative ease – just in time for the free BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet offer!

Look for me in the BlackBerry Jam Zone (oros) and on our @BlackBerryDev Twitter® account – I post as ^EO. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback, or if you just want to say “Hello!”

The right tool for the right job: Developer microsites get a facelift

Giddy-up! We just launched new microsites to better serve the BlackBerry® developer community and have given BlackBerry Jam Zone a facelift to make it easy to navigate to the tools you want.

We wanted to re-build the main page to bring you the answers you’re looking for:

  • How do I make money?
  • What are the development platform options and which one is right for me?
  • How do I participate in the community and collaborate with others?

Now new sites have been introduced for Adobe® AIR® and BlackBerry Java. Oh, and a BlackBerry Theme Studio website is on the way as well, so stay tuned…

Starting back at DevCon Americas we launched Native C/C++, Android Runtime and HTML5/WebWorks microsites designed to bring a targeted experience for these development audiences. These were just the beginning steps in updating our online tools to help you build for BlackBerry and PlayBook.

We built these microsites to:

  • Bring all of the documentation, samples, tutorials, downloads and API references into one convenient, integrated location
  • Ensure that the information is presented and organized in a way that makes sense for the community who is using the technology
  • Keep it simple! We’ve been working with the design groups from TAT to create a streamlined design to get you the information you’re looking for FAST!

These microsites will continually evolve based on your feedback, what’s important to you, and how you approach developing apps. You’ll see lots of improvements to all of our websites as we continue to focus on getting you the information you want, the way you want it. So, don’t be shy. Let us know what you would like to see.

It’s all about the data (and reporting) – an interview with Distimo

I’m here at BlackBerry DevCon Europe with with Remco van den Elzen from Distimo. BlackBerry® developers around the world know that name – it’s one of the best app store reporting services available. Remco, you were mentioning before that there are a lot of BlackBerry developers using Distimo now – every three in the top three hundred use your service. For those who don’t know, what do you offer developers?

We have a free analytics tool available to developers for BlackBerry App World™ and across all major app stores. We enable them to track applications across all those stores, but also in terms of advertising networks. So we allow them to track their own applications, to look at their rankings and see how they’re doing in each country and each store, and also look at what they’re making from each purchase and from advertising revenue.

You break it down into categories too, to see how they’re doing in each category?

Yes – so for example, they can look at the Business category or the top level of the Games category, so they can compare themselves against competitors. It makes it very relevant for them to see how they’re doing in each market.

Your service also supports Apple App Store, Google Android Market and other storefronts. For developers who build for multiple platforms, are they able to compare their data from across different storefronts if they’re selling or offering their app in those?

Yes. That’s also the added value – so they can have one chart, for example, stacking up revenue from Apple, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Nokia. So, all the major stores we do support, and they can even integrate the ad revenue, so they can instantly see what kind of business models are working best for them.

Read more from Remco at DevCon Europe »

BlackBerry Developer Challenge – EMEA Recognition Award Winners Announced

2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge

To wrap up the 2011 BlackBerry® Developer Challenge, Research In Motion® (RIM®) and the BlackBerry Partners Fund have announced the final round of Recognition Award winners at BlackBerry DevCon Europe. Overall, we were very excited to see all the apps that were submitted to the developer challenge from around the world – they showcase the creativity of the BlackBerry developer community and your amazing talents. Keep these great apps coming in 2012 and remember to #BeBold!

Congratulations to these Recognition Award recipients! They receive a package with prizes consisting of tickets to the now sold-out BlackBerry DevCon Europe, a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, BlackBerry® smartphones and more.

For more information on the BlackBerry developer challenge and to read the press release visit: http://www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/challenge.

Second Gear Games benefit from Android and Java on the BlackBerry platform

When the founders of Second Gear Games, Sergei Lapin and Melanie Dompierre, began developing mobile apps in 2009, they consciously decided to work with multiple platforms, in particular BlackBerry® and Android™. While a handful of Second Gear’s games began as BlackBerry apps, most were built for Android first. Regardless, applications needed to be transferable to each platform and the games coding process needed to be as efficient as possible. Sergei’s solution was to develop apps with a touch screen-only version first, and then add support for keyboard and trackball/trackpad afterward. Still, seamless integration was not always easy and in many cases it took significant time and effort.

This, however, all changed with the addition of BlackBerry® Runtime for Android apps on the new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0. The process of porting Android apps has now become a few simple clicks.

Sergei talked to us about BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps, the benefit of working with the BlackBerry® Java® Plug-in for Eclipse™, and why it has always been important for Second Gear Games to run apps on BlackBerry devices.

Read the interview with Sergei after the jump »