The BlackBerry UEM Integration SDK is a new developer resource that allows you to create plug-ins that can add new features or services to an organization’s UEM domain.
The advantages offered by a UEM plug-in:
- Add new features for user and device management, monitoring, reporting, integration with third-party systems, and more.
- Integrate custom services to meet the specific needs of your workplace. For example, the BlackBerry Workspaces plug-in allows an administrator to provide Workspaces file-sharing services to a UEM domain.
- Add UI components to the management console for controlling and managing new features or services.
- Leverage existing UEM features, including role-based authorization, group and user management, logging, monitoring, high availability, and much more.
- Integrate with and leverage existing systems, for example, a plug-in service can access user details from your company directory or licensing information from the BlackBerry Infrastructure.
- Add custom APIs to BlackBerry UEM to support new plug-in functionality.
You can add any number of plug-ins to the UEM platform. Plug-in design is flexible. You can create a plug-in that exposes UI options for configuration, permission and profile management, and user assignment, or you can implement “back-end” functionality with no UI impact at all.
The SDK provides a development environment and templates that can be used to integrate code with the management console service (the UEM UI) and the BlackBerry UEM Core service. Developers manage UEM plug-in code in its own repository and build the code using the UEM Integration APIs:
- The BlackBerry UEM UI APIs: allow you to add new screens, menu items, configuration settings, status fields, and other UI elements to the management console. There are APIs for the UI client and the UI server, with common components shared by both.
- The BlackBerry UEM Core API: allows you to integrate plug-in logic using various APIs for user management, group management, profile management, and so on. The UEM Core API uses the Spring Java application framework to integrate a plug-in with the UEM code base.
The relationship between the UI client, the UI server, and the UEM Core can be thought of as a client-middleware-server relationship. The UI client runs and presents the management console in a browser, the UI server is the middleware for the management console, and the UEM Core is the main server component that allows UEM to carry out management activities that are initiated in the management console.
The UEM Integration APIs are easy to use and require familiarity with standard technologies, including Java, Eclipse IDE, the Google Web Toolkit, and optionally, Sencha GXT. All you really need to get going is Eclipse IDE, a UEM install for testing, and the free SDK package.
Visit the Developers for Enterprise Apps portal to request the UEM Integration SDK package. The package includes:
- The UEM Integration SDK Development Guide (also available at BlackBerry Help and Manuals): Introduces key concepts and provides system requirements, set up instructions, development guidance and best practices, troubleshooting, and deployment instructions.
- API references (Javadocs) for the UI client, UI server, and UEM Core: Each describes how to use the packages, interfaces, and classes required to build a plug-in.
- The UEM Integration plug-in for Eclipse: Allows you to integrate Eclipse with a local UEM installation to develop and test your plug-in.
- Sample UEM plug-in source code: A functional sample plug-in that demonstrates key use cases.
- Tools and resources: Provide the required third-party dependencies, Gradle libraries, and templates that you need to create and build a UEM plug-in.
Check out BlackBerry Help and Manuals for the latest Release Notes and other documentation. Visit Get Started with the BlackBerry UEM Integration SDK for a quick overview of the setup process and the development resources available to you. As always, visit the Developer Community to ask questions and share knowledge with other BlackBerry developers, as well as to give us feedback about the SDK!
For more developer resources or to get started on any of our platforms, please visit the BlackBerry Developer Community website.
