As someone who has been engaged with our enterprise customers for the past 11 years, I’ve had the luxury of seeing so many well-built applications really change the way in which a business operates. These range from simple tasks like allowing an internal intranet page to be viewed on a smartphone to fully integrated workflow applications. I’ve also seen many of them never leave the proof-of-concept state. The number one reason that these fail is because in the end they cannot interact with real data, meaning that they do not have any connectivity to a backend data source where the relevant information resides. Unfortunately what often happens is that the application is built first and then shown off to executives and stakeholders with dummy data. Once they’re committed, the developer or project owner faces the sizable challenge of connecting a front-end mobile application to back-end data. This often requires additional investment and can prolong the development.

When building custom enterprise apps for BlackBerry® smartphones connected to a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets connected to BlackBerry® Device Service, we’ve worked to make it simple to create this type of connection. A component is available called BlackBerry MDS Connection Service (or MDS-CS), which helps to provide a VPN-like connection to the backend, allowing your application to easily connect to important data. It connects apps on BlackBerry devices to information stored on an organization’s servers or web servers, processing push and pull requests for data. Data conversion, optimization, authentication methods, access control, and much more can be configured using MDS-CS.

Take this scenario, for example: You have a workflow application to provide your executives with the ability to approve a time-sensitive contract. In this instance, you can build an application for BlackBerry smartphones without trying to reinvent the connection; it’s already there. Unlike VPN connections, there is no need for the end user to invoke a session, nor do you need to build that into your app. It is simply just there.

Here’s a high level overview of the architecture that allows for that inherent connection in BlackBerry devices. Develop along these lines with confidence; MDS-CS will remain part of the future for the BlackBerry Enterprise solution.

Let’s get that app off of the drawing board and into the hands of a mobile workforce – don’t forget connectivity, and when it does come time, consider the elements that are already in place with BlackBerry smartphones and tablets connected through enterprise servers. Learn more by checking out the Feature and Technical Overview for MDS Connection Service.

Has your organization developed a custom application? How does it connect to back-end data? Share in the comments below.

COM25 – How One Latin American Company Used BlackBerry to Mobilize its Field Service Team
Join us for an engaging session about an innovative Latin American company that has successfully integrated the BlackBerry® solution into their field service team.

Bryan Tafel, Mobile IT Director with Sensebyte Mobile

Register for BlackBerry DevCon Americas now!

Since 2004, Sensebyte Mobile® (Sensebyte) has recognized the need to mobilize business processes. The company develops mobile applications that are designed to improve workflow and software automation, while helping customers navigate through a wide variety of SAP business services.

Bryan Tafel, Sensebyte Mobile’s IT Director, discusses the company’s use of the BlackBerry® Application Platform and its unique integration with BlackBerry smartphone features and functions, as well as leveraging BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and why their partnership with Research In Motion® (RIM®) has been so important.

How does Sensebyte utilize the native features and functions of BlackBerry smartphones?
The “Super App” experience that the BlackBerry Application Platform enables makes a real difference. We develop our corporate-focused applications using a number of APIs that integrate with the native features of the BlackBerry smartphone and leverage the BlackBerry® Push Service. These features, combined with the security of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, allow the user a more enriched mobile experience.

Do you have a specific example of using the BlackBerry solution to help optimize business processes?
Of course. One example is the background thread, which is designed to allow us to take all of the information that needs to be sent on the server side and send it on a separate thread from the main process where the user is interacting with the application. The information that needs to be sent is held in the background, until we see that the screen has turned off or the application is running in the background. This helps to prevent the app from slowing down, and it greatly improves the user experience – and we can do it with just one line of code.

You mentioned the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. How important has it been in the development of your custom business applications?
All of our corporate applications are compatible with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This definitely makes our life really easy because it allows the IT staff to deploy applications remotely. Security is also a huge consideration. With some other operating systems, the user needs to have the SKUs to connect to a VPN from a mobile device and that’s difficult. With BlackBerry smartphones, that’s already part of the solution, so the user doesn’t need to take those extra steps.

What about leveraging other features on the BlackBerry platform?
We have two applications (ClubMobile and CouponMobile) running on BlackBerry® Messenger 6 (BBM™ 6). Integrated with the BlackBerry® Messenger SDK (BBM™ SDK), it’s a simple business application that is designed to allow you to share content freely and even recommend the application to others. The BlackBerry platform offers us so many advantages compared to other mobile platforms.

You are currently creating BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps. Tell us about your experience developing for the tablet?
We’re working hard on a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet application because we’d like to expand on our success with BlackBerry smartphone apps. When you already develop with Java®, it’s very easy to use those skills to cross over and develop with Adobe® AIR®, which is built on the Adobe® Flash® platform. Our experience enables us to use tools like Adobe Flash, Adobe® Flex®, and Adobe® ActionScript®, which are all simple languages compared to the other programming languages available. And the various Adobe tools simply allow us to give the user the rich visual experience that they have come to expect, especially while using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Thanks for your time, Bryan! Developer’s Blog readers, be sure to check out Sensebyte in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

Using the RIM Bluetooth Package (VIDEO)
How to Extend the Screen (VIDEO)
How to Extend Manager (VIDEO)
How to Handle Custom Keys in Your Application (VIDEO)
Over the Air Application Push Using BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 (VIDEO)
BlackBerry Widget SDK Beta Resources
How to Interface with BlackBerry App World™

Tune in next week for more Knowledge Base Friday fun, and don’t forget to post a comment about your favorite article and articles you would like to see!

In part one of our three-part series on BlackBerry® security, we discussed the nuances of enterprise IT policy. Today, we’ll discuss application control.

In contrast to IT policy, which IT administrators use to manage and control employee use of BlackBerry smartphones, application control refers to a security setting that can be managed by the end-user and/or the IT administrator (if the user is connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server) that defines application behavior on BlackBerry® smartphones.Specifically, application control allows IT administrators to define whether or not applications can make network connections, play media, access the BlackBerry® Calendar… etc.

These settings are configurable by either the end user or the BlackBerry Enterprise Server admin. It’s important to note this subtle difference: because application control can be configured by the user, the BlackBerry smartphone does not need to be connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server to use them (whereas for IT policy to be applied the BlackBerry smartphone has to be connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server).

BlackBerry smartphone users with experience installing applications are likely familiar with application control. In BlackBerry® Device Software 4.6 (first introduced with the BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone) and above, users encounter application control as soon as the installed application is first executed:

“Would you like to grant [Application Name] Trusted Application status?”

If the user selects “Yes”, then your application will be given all the permissions commonly needed for normal execution, i.e. all permissions will be set to “Allow” with the exception of:

• Prompt – Recording, Security Timer Reset
• Deny – Input Simulation, Browser Filtering, Display Information While Locked

Alternatively, if the user selects “No”, it’s not the end of the world; it just means that your application will be given the default set of permissions. For BlackBerry smartphones that are connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, all permissions are set to “Allow” with the exception of:

• Prompt – Recording, Phone, Location Data, Server Network, Internet
• Deny – Browser Filtering, Input Simulation, Security Timer Reset, Display Information While Locked

For smartphones that are not connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, all permissions are set to “Allow” with the exception of:

• Prompt – Recording, Phone, Location Data
• Deny – Browser Filtering, Input Simulation, Security Timer Reset, Display Information While Locked

Regardless of what the user selects, on first run of your application, it’s a good idea to check what permissions are assigned to your application, using ApplicationPermissionsManager.getApplicationPermissions(). All application permissions have a setting of “Allow” and “Deny”, and some have a tertiary setting:  “Prompt”. If a permission is set to “Prompt”, the user will receive a dialog like the one below when you use an API that triggers it:

“The application [Application Name] has requested a http connection to [domain X]“

At this point, the user is given the choice to “Allow” or “Deny” the request. If they select “Allow” (and check the box to not be asked again), the value of the permission will be changed from “Prompt” to “Allow” and your API call will succeed.  However, if the user selects “Deny”, then your application will receive either a ControlledAccessException or a SecurityException, depending on the method definition.

It is probably best to avoid these prompts in the first place. Since there’s no magic formula that will allow you to eliminate all these prompts, your best bet is to group them into a single request, using ApplicationPermissionsManager.invokePermissionRequest (ApplicationPermissions requestedPermissions) for the permission values your application will require. Calling this method will first present the user with a dialog indicating to the user that your application is attempting to change permissions, and then display a screen with all requested permissions, which requires the user to save the settings presented to them. Since developers don’t have the ability to control the user interface for either of these screens, it’s recommended that you inform the user what your application is about to do before blindly launching into the permission request.

Lastly, if despite all your best efforts, the user still hasn’t granted you permission access beyond “Prompt”, you do have the ability to provide more information to the user explaining your reasoning for leveraging a certain function. To explain, let’s return to the http message we got:

“Would you like to grant [Application Name] Trusted Application status?”

Using the ReasonProvider API, you can attach your own message to this dialog prompt, contained within a link for “Details…”. If the user clicks this link, your message will be displayed to the user, allowing you to explain why your application needs this permission:

“My application needs to open a network connection so that it can download pictures from your favorite website.”

This approach eases the minds of your users by providing them all the information they need to make confident decisions about your application.

For more information on the various application control settings that can be applied to your application, see the Javadoc for the ApplicationPermissions class, which defines constants for each permission.

In part three of this series, we’ll address the topic of code signing. Stay tuned!

So you’ve had your stroke of genius, you’ve developed the BlackBerry® smartphone application that’s going to sell a million copies on BlackBerry App World™, and you’re ready for your final end-to-end testing on a live device.  You put the application up on your web server, enter the URL into the BlackBerry® Browser, choose the option to download, and then half way through, the download comes to a halt with this message:

“This application does not contain a signature. It might not be from a trusted source. Do you want to proceed?”

Your mind starts racing.  “How are my users going to react?  How do I make this message go away?”

This is the first of a three-part series of blog posts that will outline how consumer applications are handled from a security perspective in the enterprise with BlackBerry Enterprise® Server.  First and foremost, it is important to understand that there are two categories of security to consider: IT policy and application control. In part one of this series, we’ll cover IT policy; in part two, we’ll cover application control; in part three, we’ll talk about code signing and how that affects application development regarding these two categories.

IT policy is a security setting in BlackBerry Enterprise Server that IT administrators in medium-to-large sized organizations use to manage and control employee use of BlackBerry smartphones.  For example, an IT administrator could set an IT policy that allows or prevents use of the camera, phone service, the browser, etc.  IT policy only applies to users who are connected to a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server.

When are you most likely to encounter IT policy? Typically only in organizations that require some level of security.  As an application developer, if you don’t have the time to learn about all of the various IT policy settings that can affect the use of your applicaton within these organizations, then at least take note of the big one: Disallow Third Party Application Download.  How will you know if you’ve run into this setting?  When downloading an application via over-the-air download, users will get the following error:

“Download Failed: 910 Application authorization failure.”

In order to get your application on this user’s BlackBerry smartphone, you’ll need to convince the BES administrator to either relax this setting or white list your application.  The good news is that smartphone users are not likely to encounter this setting very often at all; most administrators will use the default IT policy settings that are set in BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and these settings are application friendly.

For more information on IT policy settings for BlackBerry smartphones connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, please see the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide.  Note:  Should you wish to query any IT policy values from within your application, see the javadoc for the ITPolicy class.

Stay tuned for part two of this series!

Register for the 2009 BlackBerry® Developer Conference before September 18, and you can take advantage of the Early Bird Discount.

You’ll save $200 off the regular rate – and you get to attend what many consider to be the best event for today’s application developers making their mark with the BlackBerry solution.

Don’t miss out on other savings opportunities; learn more about special offers such as the Group Discount Program and the Alumni Discount.

An Abundance of Targeted Sessions – You Can’t Beat the Value

Take a look at the Session Catalog – technical, demonstration-packed sessions are geared to every interest level. This is the place to see how the tools have advanced again, making it easy, fun and profitable to develop applications for the BlackBerry platform.

Where else can you find out how to:

• Leverage familiar web technologies to create rich, tightly-integrated applications for BlackBerry smartphones
• Create fresh UI for your BlackBerry application
• Push information to consumers and also ensure reliability and relevance for your BlackBerry application

Attend BlackBerry Developer Day – A Developer Community Event

With your conference pass, you can also be a part of the NEW BlackBerry Developer Day on Thursday, November 12. This is a day when the developer community gets together to network and enjoy some great activities, including:

• Breakout sessions with Research In Motion (RIM) developers where you have the chance to offer feedback on today’s development tools
• The Developer Soapbox, where you can share your expertise and experiences developing for the BlackBerry platform
• BlackBerry Developer Certification where you solidify your credentials

What are you waiting for? Register today!

What Is – Appropriate version of the BlackBerry® Java® Development Environment

How To – Connect the BlackBerry Smartphone Simulator to a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server

What Is – The file size limit for wireless downloads

How To – Invoke the BlackBerry® Browser with raw HTML

How To – Enable HTTP logging for the BlackBerry Mobile Data Service or the BlackBerry® MDS

As always, post a comment about your favorite Knowledge Base article, and we may feature it in a future blog post!

I am very pleased to announce that the session catalog for the BlackBerry® Developer Conference 2009 has now gone live listing over 40 sessions from BlackBerry development experts from Research In Motion (RIM). This year we decided not to use the concept of tracks for organizing the sessions, instead opting for a mechanism that allows you to find the most applicable sessions for your interests with the click of a mouse. We have organized the sessions using “tags” into the following areas:

Audience

• Sessions are broken down based on the type of developer that may be most interested in attending this session including Commercial Enterprise Developers, Consumer Developers, Corporate Developers, Business (CIOs), and Application Architects/Designers.

Technology

• Sessions are broken down based on the core technology they would discuss or leverage including Java®, Web, BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, BlackBerry® Internet Service, and BlackBerry® Developer Tools.

Specialization

• Sessions are further categorized based on a specialization of the topic including Multimedia, Location Based Services, User Interface, and Security.

Technical Level

• Sessions are rated according to the expected knowledge level of attendees – introductory, intermediate and advanced.

Session Format and Attributes

• We also give you the ability to filter sessions based on the format of the session (eg. RIM-lead Sessions vs. Community sessions) or by attributes of the session itself (eg. does the presenter provide a demo or sample code).

With this system, you will have the ability to quickly and easily find great sessions that apply to your area of interest across the large scope of sessions. I would love to hear your thoughts on our new approach, so post a comment below!