BlackBerry Push Service SDK – v1.0.1 Release and BlackBerry Push Service updated

Pratik S. — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:28:40 +0000

I am pleased to announce the release of the BlackBerry® Push Service SDK v1.0.1 and an update to the BlackBerry Push Service!

BlackBerry Push Service v1.0.1:

BlackBerry Push Service allows you to efficiently and reliably deliver information to your users through a BlackBerry Java® or BlackBerry® WebWorks™ Application. It provides an easy-to-use server side API based on the open WAP Push Access protocol v2.2 standard. BlackBerry Push Service is available to all developers and web content providers. By using this service, you can make your application more engaging and help turn it into a Super App.

New features in this release:

Subscription Check API: A new server side API has been added, which allows you to check the registration status of devices registered with your application.
Optimizations and bug fixes: Improvements made to both performance and reliability.

Note: The Subscription Check API is part of the BlackBerry Push Service itself, so it can be used independently of the SDK for your server application. To learn more about the Subscription Check API, please review the BlackBerry PAP Development Guide.

So why is this important? First and foremost, this API ensures that you are only pushing data to subscribed users and your push quota is not wasted by pushing to unsubscribed ones. This is especially important if you are using the BlackBerry® Push Essentials service, which doesn’t include the ability to query for push status to check for unsubscribed users.

Secondly, this API provides you with the ability to synchronize your list of active subscribers with those that BlackBerry Push Service records as active. This reduces the overhead of managing unsubscribed users, which can further improve the performance of your server application.

BlackBerry Push Service SDK v1.0.1:

BlackBerry Push Service SDK solves all the common problems inherent in developing a push-based application, such as PAP implementation, subscription management and notification handling. It comes with a sample server and client application to get you started in no time.

New features in this release:

Support for Subscription Check API: Support for the Subscription Check API has been added, so you can take advantage of it through the SDK APIs. A set of sync APIs have also been added to automatically synchronize subscriber status with the SDK database.
Statistics gathering: Allows you to better track data regarding push operations (such as push count and remaining quota) and SDK operations (such as memory, thread pools, work queues).
Improved Query Capabilities: This enables simple retrieval of data pertaining to your subscribers and pushes via user-defined criterion.
Installer Improvements: Command line installation support has been added to the Linux version.

For a complete list of changes, please consult the release notes.

I am sure you are as excited as I am and can’t wait to try out the new features introduced in this release! BlackBerry Push Service v1.0.1 has been rolled out to EVAL as well as production environments. Download the BlackBerry Push Service SDK v1.0.1 today!

Pushing data down to your BlackBerry Widget

Prosanta B. — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:45:30 +0000

In a world demanding constant access to data and quicker updates for their applications, what could be better than real time push data from your server? BlackBerry push technology is one of the cornerstones of the BlackBerry® solution which is used to proactively deliver emails, calendar entries and live data down to the smartphone.

The Push Service is comprised of three components:

The server side push application: Using the WAP 2.2 standard, the server component which is used to host and push data down to the smartphone.
Client side application: The application installed on a user’s BlackBerry smartphone which listens for a push coming from the server.
The BlackBerry Infrastructure: Provides the middleware that receives requests to push data from the content provider, and then delivers the given data to the associated client application on the BlackBerry smartphone.

Until recently this functionality was only available to Java developers for the BlackBerry platform. Using the BlackBerry Widget SDK, a web developer can easily leverage the BlackBerry push technology to keep their BlackBerry Widget up to date with real time data. Using the JavaScript API’s, a web developer can open a port to listen for pushed data on start up, and set an event handler for when that data is pushed down to the application. The event will be fired once the application detects that data has been sent to the device and you’ll be able to handle that data in real time. With that data, you can update the onboard SQLite database, update the UI of the application, store that data in a flat file or use it in whichever way you see fit.

Here’s a code example of how to leverage data:

var port = 100;

function subscribe() {
//open the listener to listen if there is pushed data coming through
blackberry.push.openPushListener(handleReturnData, port);
}

//handleReturnData – the function to call for the event of pushed data coming through
function handleReturnData(data) {
var text = blackberry.utils.blobToString(data.payload);
//do something with the text that was pushed…
}

//stop listening for pushed data, a clean up step
function unsubscribe() {
blackberry.push.closePushListener(port);
}

The BlackBerry Widget SDK really simplifies the process of utilizing the BlackBerry push technology, and allows you to keep data up to date in real time. Finance, news, sports and gaming are just some of the fields that could benefit by providing real time updates and pushing them down to the device.

One of the other major benefits of utilizing BlackBerry push technology is that your application no longer needs to poll a server to see if there’s new data. By pushing data down to the device, instead of polling, your application will save bandwidth usage, and battery life making your application more user-friendly.

I hope that you’ll take a look at the push lab posted on the BlackBerry Developer website to develop your own BlackBerry Widget utilizing the BlackBerry push technology.

BlackBerry Developer Blog » data push

BlackBerry Push Service SDK – v1.0.1 Release and BlackBerry Push Service updated

Pushing data down to your BlackBerry Widget