Today is the launch of the Gold version of the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR. Thank you to everyone that has been helping us test it so far! For a full list of API updates and fixes, please head over to the release notes. Below are some of the benefits of using the gold release of the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR.

BlackBerry UI / Same components as native

The BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR has been rebuilt from the ground up to allow developers to create applications that adhere to the BlackBerry UI branding guidelines. Basically all of the components you would get if you were a native developer, you also get in the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR.

Performance

Developing Adobe AIR applications that perform well on mobile is a challenge, and is also one of the main reasons why so many Flash developers shy away from mobile development. The BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR was built specifically for BlackBerry 10 and mobile development. If you use the components of the SDK, you can be assured that they are the best performing components for BlackBerry 10.

Multi-screen development

With the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR, developers can use the Container API to organize the application’s UI controls. By using a layout, a Container manages the positioning and size of any UI component that it contains. This allows developers to target multiple aspect ratios and orientations easily without having to specify set dimensions for their application.

Native capabilities

The BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR has native capabilities baked right in. You can easily take advantage of things such as invocation, sensors, push, notifications, payment and more.

Port your AIR apps

Re-compile your existing BlackBerry PlayBook AIR applications to BlackBerry 10. If you’re already using the fuse component set that debuted with the BlackBerry PlayBook SDK for Adobe AIR, the port should be quick and easy. You can get more details from this blog post.

For more details on what’s coming after Gold for the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR, please visit our Adobe AIR roadmap.

The BlackBerry SDK for Adobe AIR has support for Flash Builder 4.7 but developers should note that the installation process is different. As of Flash Builder 4.7 developers must install the BlackBerry SDK for Adobe AIR then install the BlackBerry plugin through Flash Builder 4.7.

Full installation instructions can be found in the documentation here.

*Note: Flash Builder 4.7 tries to default all applications to use AIR 3.4 so when developing for BlackBerry developers must force the Adobe AIR run-time to version 3.1. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

Speaking of porting, don’t forget our 36 hour The BlackBerry Got Game Port-a-Thon  starts tomorrow! Check out this post for details and how you can get some awesome rewards for porting apps to BlackBerry® 10. – Ed.

The BlackBerry® 10 SDK for Adobe® AIR® has been created to make it easier for you to create Adobe AIR applications on multiple screen sizes while keeping mobile performance in mind. If you’re a developer that has one or more of the 6000+ Adobe AIR applications on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, this article will help point you in the right direction for getting your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application updated for BlackBerry 10. This blog post will cover:

• Getting started
• User interface guidelines
• Support for multiple screen sizes
• Fuse UI
• Layouts
• Application icon size
• Samples
• Help

Getting Started

The first thing you’re going to want to do is download and install the latest versions of the BlackBerry 10 Beta SDK for Adobe AIR 3.0 from this location. This link also provides steps on how to download and install the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Simulator, which you’ll also need if you haven’t attended a BlackBerry Jam event and got yourself a Dev Alpha unit. To get your development environment set up, you can follow one of the many guides located here. If you are porting content that was originally created using Adobe® Flash® Professional, there is a guide you can follow here.

User interface guidelines

The user experience for BlackBerry 10 has changed significantly from the experience on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Creating a cinematic experience, having fluid workflows, and emphasizing high performance are just some of the key principles that BlackBerry 10 applications should follow. The BlackBerry 10 UI Guidelines cover these principles and specify design, interaction, and style guidelines for your app.

Support for multiple screen sizes

Your BlackBerry 10 application should support the different screen sizes so that it looks consistent across devices. You specify the splash screen in the BAR application descriptor file and you can add them for each supported screen resolution. The BlackBerry 10 OS chooses the correct icon and splash screen to use based on the device that the application is running on.

Currently, the BlackBerry 10 OS supports the following screen sizes:

To support multiple screens in your BlackBerry 10 application, modify the bar-descriptor file.

<splashScreens>
   <image>splash-1024x600.jpg</image>
   <image>splash-600x1024.jpg</image>
   <image>splash-1280x768.jpg</image>
   <image>splash-768x1280.jpg</image>  
</splashScreens>

Fuse UI

In BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR 2.0, the qnx.fuse.ui API was introduced as a replacement for the qnx.ui API used in version 1.0. While the qnx.ui was deprecated, it remained available to applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook OS.

In the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR, the qnx.ui API has been removed, and you must update up your application to use the qnx.fuse.ui API.

In order to use the qnx.fuse.ui API in your application, you must add the QNXSkins AIR Native Extension to your application. For more information, see Adobe AIR native extensions.

Layouts

In BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR 2.0, the container methodology (highlighted in qnx.ui.core) was deprecated in favor of using layouts to organize your UI components.

In the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR, the container concept has been removed, and you must update your application to use the layout method.

You can use the Container class to organize your application’s UI controls. By using a layout, a Container manages the positioning and size of any UI component that it contains. Any controls that are added to a container are known as children. A container can also contain other containers, called sub-containers.

Below a container is created and a rowLayout is assigned to it:

//Create container
container = new Container();
container.scrollDirection = ScrollDirection.VERTICAL;
container.height = stage.stageHeight;
container.width = stage.stageWidth;
//Create layout
var row:RowLayout = new RowLayout();
container.layout = row;
row.spacing = 5;
row.padding = 5;

Application icon size

When creating new application icons, make sure that your application icon is the appropriate size for the application platform.

Samples

There are some BlackBerry 10 Adobe AIR samples that you can download the source for that will help you get started. You can find a description and the download location here. If you’re new, I recommend starting with the “Starship Settings” application and then moving on to the “Weather guesser” application for some more advanced layout techniques.

Help

If you need help, here is a list of resources that you can reference:

The Adobe AIR Development BlackBerry Support Community Forum
BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR API Reference (beta)
The BlackBerry SDK for Adobe AIR Documentation
The Adobe AIR Development BlackBerry Resource Center

If all else fails, you can tweet me @dustinmalik or tweet @BlackBerryDev.

In addition to developing applications with Adobe® Flash® Builder®, the BlackBerry® 10 SDK beta for Adobe® AIR® also gives you the option to integrate with FDT 5. FDT 5 is a flexible development toolkit in Eclipse™ for interactive developers. In my personal experience, FDT has a great work flow. The advanced refactoring capabilities, ASDoc support, SWF Bridge, and Haxe support make this a great package.

FDT 5 comes in 2 different versions, FDT 5 Free, and FDT 5 Max. FDT 5 Max has additional features that are unavailable in the free version but requires a license.  More information on the different versions can be found on the FDT 5 website.

Before installing the BlackBerry 10 SDK beta for Adobe AIR make sure that FDT 5 is installed. While installing the SDK you will be able to select Powerflasher’s FDT during the Integration Choice step. If you’ve already installed the SDK you can simply rerun the setup wizard.

There is a guide for creating your first application in FDT for BlackBerry 10 located in the documentation. If you need any help getting started or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop by the Adobe AIR development forum.

In a Flash Platform blog posted earlier today, Adobe® laid out their plans for Adobe Flash® Player on mobile devices. Many of our developers may be asking themselves whether and how they are going to be affected by Adobe’s decision to no longer adapt Adobe Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.

What I would like our developer community to know is that RIM will continue to support developers who have built Adobe Flash-based apps on our platform. As an Adobe source code licensee, we have a lot of leverage through our own integration and support of Adobe Flash and will continue to provide our desktop-class Flash experience to our customers. On its end, Adobe will continue to support the current BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet configuration.

We are excited to see Adobe focusing their efforts on HTML5, and on bringing their world class development and design expertise to HTML5 and mobile. As many of you noted, at BlackBerry DevCon Americas this year we strongly emphasized HTML5 development, and all of our platforms include best-in-breed HTML5 browsing capability, based on the WebKit engine. We believe that HTML5 is the future of mobile, and are delighted to be aligned with Adobe on this.

If you have a question, don’t hesitate to send it over.
– Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development

A new version of the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS v2.0 Developer Beta is now available for developers to test their applications on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. The Developer Beta contains support for the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps as well as the latest versions of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ and Adobe® AIR® SDKs for BlackBerry PlayBook OS (for more info, be sure to read our BlackBerry PlayBook OS v2.0 Developer Beta post).

Please note that this build is strictly designed for developers and is NOT a build designed for consumer use, since some apps built for BlackBerry PlayBook OS v.1.0.7 may not work correctly. If you’ve downloaded and installed this build by accident, or if you’d like to return your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to its previous state, check out our guide to downgrading on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS v2.0.0.3894 contains two improvements to aid developer testing:

• BlackBerry WebWorks applications can now successfully call GPS
• Wi-Fi® profiles are now saved and no longer disappear during tablet reboots

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook OS v2.0 Build

Registering is quick and easy from the Android and HTML5/BlackBerry WebWorks developer sites. Once you’re on one of these sites, look to the footer for the Support heading; under this heading, locate and click Register your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. With the page loaded, we recommend that you quickly review the notes at the top of the page and scan the Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of the page to ensure the BlackBerry PlayBook OS v2.0 Developer Beta build will meet your needs.

When you’re ready, enter your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PIN and your email address; review the Terms and Conditions and check the box to indicate your agreement; then click Submit.
Within an hour, you should see a icon in the status bar on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. You’ll have 24 hours to complete the upgrade, which can be done by following these simple steps:

1. Tap in the top-right corner of the screen
2. Tap Software Updates
3. Tap Check for Updates
4. Complete the update.

If after an hour the update is still not available or you experience any issues with the update, please visit the support forums.

Happy Coding!

Jim Tobin, SVP of the Software, Services & Enterprise Markets business unit at Research In Motion® (RIM®), has a great blog post on Inside BlackBerry highlighting the benefits of our recent platform announcements for customers and developers. For your convenience, we’ve pulled out the developer-related information. Click the link at the end to read Jim’s full post!

We recently announced plans to enable developers to leverage existing assets for the BlackBerry® Java® Development Environment and Android® platforms to be easily ported to the BlackBerry® Tablet OS via ‘application players’. The application player for supported Android apps will be available this summer, followed soon after by the application player for supported BlackBerry JDE apps. Both will be available through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

What does this mean for Developers?

• For the majority of developers, the way to go is still the BlackBerry platform and the widened set of tools we’ve made available. Only these can ensure that the developer harnesses the full power of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in terms of extremely rich graphics, full multitasking, and ultrafast processing. BlackBerry smartphone development options include the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ platform. BlackBerry WebWorks offers leading HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript support on a mobile platform. The BlackBerry WebWorks platform also supports modern web frameworks such as Sencha, PhoneGap, jQuery and Dojo.
• BlackBerry PlayBook tablet development options currently include BlackBerry WebWorks as well as Adobe® (Flash® and AIR®).
• RIM will add full tooling support for native C/C++ development for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over the coming months. We’re highly confident about this. The QNX team RIM acquired to develop our BlackBerry Tablet OS has won awards for its Eclipse-based native Integrated Development Environment (“IDE”).

Because of the app players we’re providing, if there are developers currently developing for the Android platform, they can now rapidly move onto our platform while they evaluate our other development paths. We can now offer such developers an on-ramp to package and distribute their apps to our growing customer base of consumers, enterprises and governments.

Going forward, we will continue to evolve our various development technologies to deliver the most powerful, flexible and open experiences for developers whether they choose to build with HTML5, Java®, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, or native C/C++. And for those developers using our BlackBerry platform tools, we will continue to offer access to a growing set of on-device API’s to enable best-in-class integration with core BlackBerry applications and features (which we call “Super App” experiences). We are also planning to provide a range of advanced cloud-based services including the BlackBerry Payment and Advertising Services, advanced location-based services, application analytics, and powerful Push services. Stay tuned for more details on these future release plans.

Read the entire post on the Inside BlackBerry Blog »

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

Attention BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet developers! As a follow up to our BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Webcast series, we’ve put together a video overview demonstrating how easy it is for developers to use the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK Beta2 for Adobe® AIR® and the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator Beta to develop BlackBerry PlayBook applications.

In the above video, I walk through deploying your app to the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator and the similarities between the Simulator and testing your app on an actual BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. I also demonstrate how the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK integrates directly into Adobe® Flash Builder 4 and the GUI builder in Flash Builder “Burrito”.

With the tools available to developers, practically anyone can create a BlackBerry PlayBook application, so start building! You might also be interested in learning that developers who create a qualifying application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet prior to its initial North American release are eligible for a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

BlackBerry Tablet OS Development Resources (SDK, Simulator, Webcasts)

Don’t forget get to also check out my friend Matthew’s new BlackBerry PlayBook Web Fidelity video on the Inside BlackBerry blog, which demonstrates rich multimedia, Adobe Flash games and social networking websites like Facebook running in the BlackBerry Browser.

Thanks also to our friends at Universal Mind for providing the code and app used in the video! For more information, please visit http://www.universalmind.com/

RIM President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis showcased some amazing BlackBerry PlayBook apps yesterday at the Adobe MAX conference with Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe. The above video highlights some of what Mike and Kevin demoed during the keynote, such as the BlackBerry PlayBook’s multimedia capabilities (including web based videos using Adobe Flash), multitasking and the eUnity healthcare application. All apps demoed during the keynote were built by developers working with the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR as part of an early access program. The other applications included:

SAP Crystal Solutions Dashboard and CIO Cockpit by SAP
Chatter, an enterprise IM application by salesforce.com

Check out the BlackBerry PlayBook demo video to see what they showed on stage and post a comment to let us know what you liked the most!

Developing Adobe AIR apps for the BlackBerry® Tablet OS
Speaker: Julian Dolce, QNX
Time: Monday Oct 25 2pm, Wednesday Oct 27 3.30pm
Join Julian as he takes you through the process for creating Adobe® AIR applications for the BlackBerry Tablet OS. This session is designed to give you all the information you need to know to start creating AIR applications for the platform.
[Register for Julian’s Session http://bit.ly/aB7CCV]

How to monetize your apps on the BlackBerry® PlayBook
Speaker: Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations – RIM
Time: Tuesday Oct 26 1.30pm
Learn how BlackBerry® App World™ can be used to deliver your applications to users and make you money. During the sessions you will learn the how to leverage BlackBerry App World as a channel to reach BlackBerry PlayBook users. For once you have acquired customers for your applications, learn how you can make additional revenue with the BlackBerry Payment SDK.
[Register for Mike’s Session http://bit.ly/9pHg0f]

The Power of BlackBerry® WebWorks
Speaker: Prosanta Bhattacherjee, Application Development Consultant – RIM
Time: Wednesday Oct 27 9.30 am
BlackBerry WebWorks open the doors of BlackBerry Development to web developers enabling them create standalone applications on BlackBerry devices. Join Prosanta Bhattacharjee in discovering what the BlackBerry WebWorks framework is, what a BlackBerry WebWorks application is capable of, and how you can leverage the framework to create a deployable web app to distribute to your users.
[Register for Prosanta’s Session http://bit.ly/9s9fDL]

In addition to voraciously following the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog and our @BlackBerryDev Twitter account, make sure to also check out the Adobe® Flash® Platform Blog for non-BlackBerry specific Adobe/Flash news throughout the week. Hope to see you there!