Ant has been around a long time so it really needs no introduction. Inspiration for this build script came initially from Addy Osmani’s blog on creating a build script for web applications, and later from reviewing the HTML5 Boilerplate’s Ant-Build-Script project. This script is much more specific to BlackBerry WebWorks development and should serve as a great starting point for any developer wanting to introduce a build script to their WebWorks development cycle.

Ant scripts are great for a lot of reasons. Designed for build systems, with simple XML syntax, it’s been around long enough to get a lot of support from IDE’s and to have extensions and tutorials written for it. While there are newer build script tools available, Ant is a good, reliable tool. The IDE integration will be popular with many developers as well, since Eclipse and it’s variants work well with Ant. My current favorite is Sublime Text 2 which has superb build script integration: when set to Ant, pressing ctrl-b will run the default build in the current file’s directory. Besides working with your IDE, build scripts can do all sorts of repeatable operations for you, which can automate routine steps, saving time and maintaining consistency between builds. An obvious requirement for teams, but still a real time saver when working solo.

When I set out to create this script, I wanted something with a wide range of flexibility but also something simple that I could just drop into a project and have it build. I also wanted to be able to update some settings in one place when something changed but support project specific build targets. Lastly, I thought it would be pretty cool to do some Lint checking and code compression at the same time. The result is up here on Github and takes a two part approach. There is a main set of targets and associated tools that goes in one spot and a build.xml file that can be dropped into a WebWorks project. The main file you will setup once and only change when new SDKs are installed. The project file you will put a copy in each project and define a few simple properties to customize the build. Full instructions are included in the Github Readme.

Give it a try today and see what you think. Once you’ve done so, I’d really like to see some forks and pull requests that add additional targets. What are the tools that you would like to see included?

We recently added support for the HTML5 File system API in our web rendering engine and BlackBerry WebWorks.  With this release, you can now emulate the file system, both sandboxed and unsandboxed.  Ripple will create an area your application can write to, and mimics the file system layout of the device.

A really cool piece of Ripple is the emulation of geolocation.  We recently added the live map view that allows you to select a new location on a map, and inject the location into your app code.  With this release, we received a great community contribution that really takes geolocation emulation to the next level.  Mark Dineen provided a patch that allows you to specify a route to follow by providing a GPX file.  Ripple will read the file and inject location update events into your code based on the route provided! Now you can better emulate end-user navigation and movement.

To better reflect the relationship between Cordova and PhoneGap – and due to the fact their core is the same – they are now both under the same entry in the Platforms window, and are represented by version number.

Quite often an application will wish to know when the virtual keyboard is displayed and closed, so that it can react accordingly.  You can now fire the relevant keyboard events into your application to test out your logic.  In the Events panel when you are emulating the BlackBerry 10 platform, you should now see the blackberry.event.keyboard… events.

HTML5 being inherently cross-platform in nature, there are many applications built using web technologies that are designed to target multiple form factors.  Part of designing a cross-platform application is ensuring that your application appears and lays out in a useful way depending on the capabilities of the target platform.  CSS media queries are a powerful tool in this regard, and Ripple now emulates media queries based on the target platform you have currently chosen to emulate.  Try it out and have some fun with this one.

So, be sure to visit our HTML5 developer site to get all the most recent updates, and particularly the downloads page.  Get Ripple, and the latest WebWorks SDK, and start building!

With the release of v2.1 of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK for Tablet OS, new APIs and application functionality are now available for download! For those following the project on github, this release has also been known as the “Delta” release outlined on the BlackBerry WebWorks roadmap.

The goals for this release are focused on narrowing the gap between the BlackBerry WebWorks API functionality available on the BlackBerry® Smartphone OS and the APIs available on the Tablet OS, as well as exposing more BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet development functionality to web developers.

New capabilities available to BlackBerry WebWorks developers for the BlackBerry® Tablet OS are:

• In App Payment API
• Camera API (take a picture or a video)
• Microphone API (record audio)
• PIN API
• File and Directory APIs
• Configuring security permissions for your application on BlackBerry Tablet OS for features such as GPS and file access
• Configuring the home screen category for your application

The API reference guide has also been updated with some additional getting-started information on how to configure your app to use the different BlackBerry WebWorks APIs, and improvements around scrollable content.

In addition to the reference guide updates, we have also introduced an additional mechanism to call some of the BlackBerry WebWorks APIs. For those who are more comfortable using a URI or RESTful approach, you can now execute a subset of the BlackBerry WebWorks APIs by simply making AJAX calls!

As we continue our frequent releases of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS and BlackBerry Smartphone OS, we’ll be expanding the coverage of the URI/RESTful implementation to allow you to choose your preferred approach for interacting with the operating system.

Download the latest BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS to get started today!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

One of the most popular bootcamp sessions during BlackBerry Developer Day at Mobile World Congress 2011 was the BlackBerry WebWorks platform session. In the video above, I talk with fellow blogger Adam about how BlackBerry WebWorks makes it easy for web developers to make BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet applications quickly using HTML5 and CSS (as The Astonishing Tribe demonstrated earlier in the week). Below are some worthwhile BlackBerry WebWorks related links.

BlackBerry WebWorks SDK For BlackBerry Tablet OS
BlackBerry WebWorks Webcast Series (with Sample Code)

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Following the BlackBerry Developer Day App Circus at Mobile World Congress 2011, Director of Developer Relations, Mike Kirkup, was able to give me a brief look at a BlackBerry PlayBook application developed by The Astonishing Tribe that demonstrates the power and flexibility of BlackBerry WebWorks platform.

The “aura” application shown in the video above demonstrates rich graphics and physics engine similar to TAT’s “scrapbook” demo, but was built entirely with web technologies like HTML5 and CSS. Built in a week, “aura” demonstrates how web developers can leverage the professional grade performance of the BlackBerry PlayBook platform just like Adobe AIR and native application developers.

This is a perfect example of why developers packed the BlackBerry Developer Day WebWorks bootcamp sessions yesterday. Click the link below to download the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK and start building your own BlackBerry PlayBook Application!

BlackBerry WebWorks SDK For BlackBerry Tablet OS

If your background and skills are in using web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript®, then this is the platform for you! The platform extends some of the native device capabilities like system utilities, dialogs, and invoking other apps on the device and makes them available for you to use in your applications – helping them to become Super Apps!

Remember: this is still early access and the product team will be adding more and more capabilities from now until the launch of the device. The design and architectural principles for the BlackBerry WebWorks platform on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet were to keep as much in common as possible with the BlackBerry WebWorks platform on BlackBerry® smartphones. This means that apps written on one will work on the other; however some modification might be needed depending on the underlying device capabilities. For example the tablet may have characteristics like bringing up a native dialog box including various options like the size and appearance of the dialog on the PlayBook’s screen that aren’t on the smartphones. However, all of your HTML5, CSS and JavaScript code should all be compatible.

Also, we’ve released the source code to the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet – please check it out and join the open source project. This is an opportunity for the larger developer community to get involved in shaping the future of this platform and tooling. So get involved!

And lastly, all BlackBerry PlayBook WebWorks applications that are submitted to BlackBerry App World™ are eligible for a FREE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet! To submit your apps, please go here, and see the terms and conditions here. To keep in touch with all the announcements and release information related to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, please enter your information here.

Thanks for your support!