In this blog post, we shall take a look at how to get started with programming for the BlackBerry device. We shall cover what the device is, give you an overview of BlackBerry development and then provide you with detailed steps to setup your development environment. Future blog posts will focus on programming on the BlackBerry.

What is a BlackBerry Device?

The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device developed by the Canadian company known as Research In Motion (RIM) and was launched in year 1999. It holds 20.8% market share in worldwide Smartphone sales, making it the second most popular platform after Nokia. It is known as the most popular Smartphone around the world for its connectivity and security.

Its primary goal is to support push e-mail, web browsing, text messaging and other wireless internet services in a secure manner. Now a days the BlackBerry devices are integrated with advanced software’s which enable access to wide range of data, communications services, Email, phone, maps, GPS, organizer, social networking, games and other applications. These features of a Smartphone make life easy by allowing access to everything on the move at any place in the world on your fingertips.

The BlackBerry software development kit is a wide collection of examples, documentation, and mature set of APIs and tools grown in an extensive manner, which have shown the directions to develop all kinds of great applications. BlackBerry community and its App World help to get your application noticed and downloaded by users worldwide.

The list of BlackBerry device and its models:

• Early Pager Models: BlackBerry 850, 857, 950, 957
• Monochrome Java-based Models: BlackBerry  5000-series and 6000-series
• First Color Models: BlackBerry  7200-series, 7500-series and 7700-series
• First Sure Type Phone Models: BlackBerry 7100-series
• Modern BlackBerry Models (2006–2008): BlackBerry  8000-8830-series including: BlackBerry 8800,BlackBerry Pearl, Pearl Flip and BlackBerry Curve
• Latest BlackBerry Models (2008–2009): BlackBerry  8900+ GPS Wi-Fi Series: BlackBerry Bold (9000),BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Tour (9630), BlackBerry Storm (9500/9530)
• BlackBerry Storm 2 (9520/9550) (2009): BlackBerry Storm2
• BlackBerry Bold Series (2009): BlackBerry Bold 9700 (9700)
• BlackBerry Bold Series (2010): BlackBerry Bold 9650 (9650) Officially Announced
• BlackBerry Pearl Series (2010): BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100/9105 (9100/9105) Officially Announced

BlackBerry Development Platform consists of:

BlackBerry Development Environment is completely based on the Java Platform. It is collectively integrated with BlackBerry RIM APIs, J2ME APIs and basic Java SE APIs. It is built on top of Java Micro Edition (Java ME) which itself is derived from Java SE.  In order to get into the BlackBerry Application development one need to know Object Oriented programming with the basic understanding of J2ME concepts of configurations and profiles, and in particular the CLDC and MIDP standards.

The BlackBerry Development Environment tools:

The BlackBerry application can be developed on any platform, even in Linux, OSX, the easiest and best supported is Windows 32bit platform. RIM provides two BlackBerry development environments such as:

• BlackBerry Java Development Environments (JDEs) and
• BlackBerry Eclipse Plug-in.

Both Blackberry development environment tools work with standard Java Software Development Kit (Java SDK) and fully integrated with development tools, simulators and provides to necessary to create, package, compile, test and debug the Blackberry application. You don’t even need the real handheld device to test the application, because it also includes the full featured Blackberry device simulator. A complete set of BlackBerry JDE API Doc is available for referring available packages and classes for development. Both the development tools are being used by many professional developers to develop BlackBerry applications. We will look into both the tools in detail. The best thing about BlackBerry development tools is that they are absolutely free.

Now we will see the step by step installations for both BlackBerry Java Development Environments (JDEs) and BlackBerry Eclipse Plug-in.

Let’s Start with Installation process:

BlackBerry Java Development Environments (JDEs)

Installing the BlackBerry JDE is very easy as compared to any other tools:

1. Before installing the Blackberry development tools, you will need to install Java SE Development Kit (JDK) version 5 or later from http://java.sun.com. Which version has to be downloaded will depend on the version of Blackberry platform you want to target. The Java SE JDK v6.0 helps you to develop for BlackBerry Device Software version 4.2 or later. More specific information is available on the BlackBerry Developer page at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/javaappdev/javadevenv.jsp
2. Now you download appropriate version of BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE) from BlackBerry Developer Zone at http://www.blackberry.com/developers/ , you have to register an account. Free Developer tools, whitepapers, the developer Knowledge base and the Blackberry Developer forums are found here. (BlackBerry JDE versions: The BlackBerry OS is backward compatible, So something developed on OS 4.2 will work on OS 4.3 and later without requiring code changes done. It may be the case where certain features are only supported on higher versions. But most of the basic features are covered from OS 4.2)
3. Once the BlackBerry JDE installer is downloaded, run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. It will be installed to the default path C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry JDE 4.5.0, which can be changed during installation.
4. Launch the BlackBerry JDE from Start>Program Files>Research In Motion> BlackBerry JDE 4.5>JDE.
5. Once the BlackBerry JDE is launched it will look as shown in Figure 1.0. The left hand pane shows sample.jdw workspace, the right hand side shows the HelloWorldDemo.java file in editor. The sample.jdw workspace contains the Blackberry sample examples and it is located in the BlackBerry JDE folder at C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry JDE 4.5.0\samples. The BlackBerry API reference doc can be found in via Help>API Reference in the JDE.

The BlackBerry JDE v4.2.1 with workspace in left hand side pane, source code editor in right hand side and console at the bottom.

BlackBerry Eclipse Plug-in installation:

You can download the Eclipse IDE at http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ . Don’t forget to install the Java Development Kit as a pre-requisite as explained in step 1 of the BlackBerry JDE installation. And download the plug-in from BlackBerry tools at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/devtools.jsp

Perform the following steps to install the BlackBerry Eclipse Plug-in with Eclipse IDE of Java Development version 3.4.0.

1. Start Eclipse
2. From the main menu, Select Help > Software Updates.
3. In the Software Updates and Add-ons dialog, click the Available Software tab.
4. Click the Add Site button.
5. In the Add Site dialog, click the Archive button.
6. In the Repository archive dialog, select the .zip file to install.
7. Click Open.
8. In the Add Site dialog, click OK.
9. Select the check box for the BlackBerry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse. All subcomponents should be checked automatically.
10. Click Install.
11. Click Finish.
    When the installation completes, the Software Updates dialog is displayed.
12. Click Yes to restart Eclipse.

I hope this post is helpful in understanding the BlackBerry Environment, tools and its installation process. If you have any queries feel free to comment.

Siddhesh Bingi– Member of Mobile Center of Excellence