Today, I am very excited to introduce you to BlackBerry® Device Service, which is the component of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion used to manage BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets and future BlackBerry® 10 devices. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is RIM’s new unified multi-platform MDM (mobile device management) solution for managing in market BlackBerry OS devices, BlackBerry 10 devices, and iOS and Android™ devices as shown in the image above.

Why should you be excited about the launch of BlackBerry Device Service together with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0? Well that’s simple. For those of you new to enterprise mobility, especially when it comes to BlackBerry, we’ve always had the secret sauce to enable your enterprise mobile applications to seamlessly connect to your backend application server with no need for an enterprise VPN. This secret sauce was our BlackBerry Mobile Data System (MDS) which abstracted away much of the wireless network complexities and provided an end to end, AES secure connection for enterprise application developers.

For those of you that have been long waiting for this feature, look no further as we are bringing this functionality back to BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 and future BlackBerry 10 devices. Just imagine if you were an insurance adjuster in the field and wanted an application:

• pushed to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
• to seamlessly upload both vehicles pictures and a brief description to your application server that resides behind your corporate firewall

Together with BlackBerry Device Service and BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, these problems are solved! This is exactly what we have enabled both the corporate customers and enterprise developers to implement.

Although customers have long had the ability to push applications to BlackBerry users with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, this is the first time we are introducing a user self-serve portal to manage all enterprise applications – right from BlackBerry App World™. With BlackBerry Balance™, enterprise applications are installed within a corporate perimeter on the device. For more information on BlackBerry Balance, be sure to read this blog post from the Inside BlackBerry Blog, and check out the BlackBerry Balance website as well.

Together, these features will protect all your resident enterprise application data within the corporate perimeter and at the same time provide a secure AES encrypted pipe to transport your data securely from behind the firewall. This is exactly why I share this excitement with all our enterprise development community today.

If you haven’t already done so, I would check for BlackBerry PlayBook OS upgrades and immediately upgrade your device to BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. You can also download a free trial of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion today.

The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 software upgrade provided major enhancements to the web developer platform, and I wanted to highlight some of the key improvements to Web Inspector that are now available in OS 2.0 as well. These enhancements can make it easier for developers to fix bugs, improve performance and create positive experiences for their users.

Quick access settings menu

A settings panel is now available to help developers configure how information is presented within Web Inspector. Developers can define default formats for colors, text indentation and word wrap behavior.

Network panel

The new networking panel displays helpful information about HTTP request and responses made by your application. This includes network traffic logging about documents, style sheets, images, scripts, XmlHttpRequest, fonts and even web sockets.

Click on any resource displayed on the left side panel to view its request and response HTTP headers as well as a preview of the actual resource.

Context Menu

Right-clicking on any panel in Web Inspector will now display a new context menu. This menu contains items that are relevant to the current window. For example, within the “Elements” panel developers can edit or copy selected HTML elements, while in the Network panel, developers can copy link addresses as well as HTTP request and response headers.

Note: Access to the system clipboard is restricted by JavaScript®, so in order to implement this copy feature, Web Inspector will instead open a new tab or window in your browser and display the selected information in plain text. If you have popup blocking enabled, you may not see this new tab or window.

Console window auto-complete

Another great improvement is that Web Inspector has been designed to respond to what you type in the console window. Often the console is used to make dynamic calls to JavaScript loaded on the page. This can be a helpful practice for checking variable values or running debug code.
To see this in action, start typing some JavaScript from within the console window, such as the example shown in the following screenshot. After each period, you should be prompted with a drop-down list of available method or property names for the current JavaScript object you have provided.

Custom User Agent

Web Inspector can now be used to change the value of the user agent header. This header is often used by web servers to detect which browser is currently being used to access a web page, and provide custom content targeted to that browser. Open up the settings window and select the “Override User Agent” checkbox. You can then select from a list of default user agent values, or provide your own.

See the “How to detect the BlackBerry Browser” developer article for more information about the format of the user agent header on the BlackBerry web platform.

JavaScript “pretty print”

Minifying JavaScript is an excellent way of improving web page performance by reducing unneeded bandwidth. However, it can become very difficult to debug minified JavaScript as finding the right place to set breakpoints can be challenging.

When JavaScript is minified, all whitespace and comments are removed. This often results in an entire library being displayed as a single line of code.

Fortunately for BlackBerry developers, Web Inspector now provides a “Pretty print” feature, which can be found at the bottom of the status bar in the Scripts panel. When clicked, it will automatically re-format all JavaScript using appropriate indentation and whitespace.

Don’t forget to use Web Inspector as part of developing and testing your HTML5 and BlackBerry WebWorks applications. It can save you a lot of time and frustration in tracking down a bug, or finding ways to optimize your web content.

Try it out for yourself, and let us know how it helps with your BlackBerry development.

[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!

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!

This is amazing! Wait a sec, what’s WebGL?

WebGL is a cross-platform web standard that is designed to define a specification for enabling 3D graphics, powered by OpenGL ES 2.0. Using WebGL, you can create amazing graphics and subsequently more fun user experiences.

Here is a demo of a game named TunnelTilt running on BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0. This sample app was created for the purpose of announcing WebGL at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, and it has since been open sourced as the BlackBerry WebGL-Samples repo in Github:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

The 3D graphics are rendered in an HTML5 canvas element that is hardware accelerated. This content can even be interacted with using JavaScript™ and the document object model (DOM).

function webGLStart() {
var canvas = document.getElementById("lesson01-canvas");
initGL(canvas);
initShaders();
initBuffers();

gl.clearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
gl.enable(gl.DEPTH_TEST);

drawScene();
}

Code sample: Learning WebGL Lesson 1 (http://learningwebgl.com/blog/?p=28)

Libraries and Frameworks

The WebGL code that provides highly visual graphics can be very complex, and may present a steep learning curve for new developers who are not familiar with the necessary principles. Building compelling WebGL content may require a deep understanding of trigonometry, geometry and Open GL features.

For example, after reading the following tutorial about how to draw a triangle and square using WebGL, ask yourself if you were expecting to see so many lines of code. There may not be the higher level “draw” or “square” primitives and methods that a developer may find helpful in building real-world applications. WebGL offers lower-level primitives to its developers for building content. Why? It’s because WebGL is a language, not an application framework.

Don’t worry if that’s not what you were hoping to hear! Keep reading.

var square = gl.createBuffer();
var square_vertices = [
1.0, 1.0, 0.0,
-1.0, 1.0, 0.0,
1.0, -1.0, 0.0,
-1.0, -1.0, 0.0
];
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, square);
gl.bufferData(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, new Float32Array(square_vertices), gl.STATIC_DRAW);
square.itemSize = 3;
square.numItems = 4;


Code sample: creating a square using basic WebGL constructs.

Many, and I mean many, developers have recognized the need to simplify WebGL development, and have spent a lot of time and energy building great libraries and frameworks for other developers to use. These libraries translate the low-level functionality of WebGL into higher-level APIs that are easier to use in the context of application development.

Another benefit to developers is that all of this is done using JavaScript APIs. So if you are already familiar with the JavaScript language, you are off to a great start. You can continue to use all of the existing JavaScript development tools that you currently use (e.g. Web Inspector, IDEs, Jslint, etc).

A few examples of community-led projects that web developers can use to build great WebGL content include three.js, CopperLicht, SceneJS, GLGE and Canvas 3d library. There are many more, and the list will continue to grow. These libraries have traditionally focused on desktop browsers, which means authors will need to ensure they have successfully been optimized for mobile too. If you end up using a 3rd party library and find a bug, or if you are concerned about performance, please contact the appropriate author(s) and file an issue with them. Many of these frameworks exist as open source, meaning there is a great opportunity for improvement. As a community, we can work together to ensure these libraries work great on BlackBerry.

var rect = new THREE.Rectangle();
rect.set(0, 0, 100, 100);

Code sample: using three.js library to create a square. Only 2 lines of code!

Performance

So obviously there is a mobile version of the WebGL spec, right? Developers can expect to work with a specification that’s optimized for mobile devices and doesn’t have high memory or CPU requirements as desktop computers?

No, actually, there isn’t! OpenGL ES 2.0 does not have a mobile spec. So the same libraries that are used to produce WebGL content for powerful desktop hardware are also the same libraries used to build content for mobile devices.

What does this mean? It means that WebGL code that was designed for desktop browsers will need to be properly optimized to run on mobile smartphones and tablets. If not, you can expect to experience slow rendering or performance. This is very important for developers to recognize: one cannot assume that if it works on desktop, it will also work on mobile.

Community Activity

Many of you have already seen our web platform team members participating in HTML5 and WebGL developer events worldwide. Recently we had delegates attend and present at events such as onGameStart and New Game Conference. Here are some highlights from these events:

“WebGL is huge!!! And the fact that we will be the first tablet to have it built-in is extra-huge. We need to engage aggressively here to showcase our wares … interest in tablets is high.”

- Laurent Hasson, Director Web Platform, Research In Motion® (RIM®) (onGameStart, Warsaw, Poland)

“Good News! We are actually well positioned in terms of technology … There’s no reason we can’t have the best mobile web platform for gaming and game development.”

- Genevieve Mak, Software Developer, RIM (New Game Conference, San Francisco, USA)

This is awesome. I love WebGL. What should I do now?

The following steps can help you learn how to build a WebGL-powered BlackBerry application:

1. The BlackBerry open source project on Github contains a WebGL-Samples repo where developers can download and/or contribute to code examples. In fact, the source code for the TunnelTilt sample app shown above is available in this repo! Download it today and see how JavaScript, HTML5 and WebGL are being used together to provide an awesome user experience.

2. Log into the DevCon on Demand portal and read through the DEV46 session “Advanced Web Rendering: WebGL, Canvas and Gaming” session that was delivered at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011. Don’t miss this session, where Eli Fiddler and Ram Rajagopalan from RIM presented a great overview and best practices about using WebGL as well as some helpful code snippets and examples.

3. Take advantage of the many helpful learning resources you can find online, such as learningwebgl.com by Giles Thomas, which contains many tutorials and sample code. Remember: WebGL is a standard that the BlackBerry web platform supports. This means that most – if not all – tutorials, sample code or labs that you will find can be used to assist you in building WebGL content for BlackBerry. Check out the Mozilla Developer network for a robust collection of WebGL learning resources.

4. Discover how you can use Ripple Mobile Emulator to test WebGL content, and the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK to transform that content into a standalone BlackBerry application.

Did you find a bug? Report bugs in the developer issue tracker. Our goal is to provide developers with a world class WebGL experience on the BlackBerry platform, and we want to hear from you to ensure we are doing so.

Finally, I wanted to extend an invite to you to stay in touch with us. We want to know when you have created a WebGL application, framework and/or game content that runs great on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Send us a message or ask a question in the comments below, or else share a great idea in the forums.

At CES 2012 in Las Vegas, we previewed the upcoming BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 software, which is designed to have the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps built-in! This offering will allow developers to repackage their existing Android™ applications to run on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, as well as the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 devices.

Seeing the great response for the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps at CES, developer meet-ups and conferences that we’ve attended over the last few months, we’re expecting a huge interest in the consumer space for these apps when the update is made available next month. We want to ensure that you are able to capitalize on this unique opportunity by having your applications available when BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 is launched!

In order to ensure that your packaged and signed Android app is available in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for the release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, be sure to have your app submitted by Monday, February 6th, 2012.

To help with the process of submitting your application for approval and entry into BlackBerry App World, we strongly recommend the following:

• Before submitting your Android 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 Market from within your application.
• When submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to select a minimum BlackBerry PlayBook 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 (linked here).

We’ve released a few different options to convert your application (from APK to BAR) which are:

• The BlackBerry Plug-in for ADT, which is designed to augment your existing Eclipse development environment
• The BlackBerry Packager for Android apps, which is designed to allow you to test/convert your app through your browser (no downloads required!)
• The BlackBerry SDK for Android apps, which is designed to give you access to command-line arguments for scripting and getting your hands dirty

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy the porting process is. You can of course submit your application at a later date, but in order to ensure broader reach and exposure to consumers, I would strongly suggest having it submitted by February 6th, 2012.

If you have any questions, our Android microsite is extremely useful, or feel free to drop by our forum or tweet us (@BlackBerryDev). It’s a great time to be a BlackBerry developer!