Over the years I have been trying to convert developers to the BlackBerry platform. One of the main issues was the lack of a book or guide on how to develop for the BlackBerry OS. I know that most of the J2ME books also work for the BlackBerry OS but they are not specific and do not really go into the features & issues exclusive to the BlackBerry. For example, how to setup a stable connection to the internet.
John M. Wargo is planning to change all of that on October 16th, 2009. He is currently a project manager and senior mobile application specialist for BoxTone. From 2006-2008 he worked for RIM and was responsible for training AT&T customers on application development in the US. From that I can tell that he definitely has the qualifications.
I know the book is not released yet but you can read more about it at this link. You can also preorder the book on Amazon to be delivered when it comes out. I will be picking up a copy for myself and a friend!
You can read about the chapters in the book at the links below:
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Mobile Applications
- Chapter 2: Determining the Best Approach
- Chapter 3: The Connected BlackBerry
- Chapter 4: The BlackBerry Mobile Data System
- Chapter 5: BlackBerry Application Data Push
- Chapter 6: Pushing Data to Internal (BES) Users
- Chapter 7: Pushing Data to External (BIS) Users
- Chapter 8: The BlackBerry Browser
- Chapter 9: Building BlackBerry Browser Applications
- Chapter 10: Testing/Debugging BlackBerry Browser Applications
- Chapter 11: Building BlackBerry Java Applications
- Chapter 12: Getting Started with the BlackBerry Java Development Tools
- Chapter 13: Using the BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE)
- Chapter 14: Using the BlackBerry JDE Plug-In for Eclipse
- Chapter 15: Using the JDE Component Package
- Chapter 16: Deploying BlackBerry Java Applications
- Chapter 17: Using Additional BlackBerry Application Technologies
Fabian Heuwieser Not Registered
Posted: June 30, 2009 at 9:30 AM EST
Now THAT’s good news! Well done RIM! I can’t wait to buy this book!
cobus Not Registered
Posted: June 30, 2009 at 9:41 AM EST
Great news! Guess I have till Oktober to polish up on my Java now.
RedNightHawk Not Registered
Posted: June 30, 2009 at 1:51 PM EST
Good to hear. I’ve only found one book specifically for BB programming and it’s ancient (well, a few years old, but the OS it was for was outdated).
My experiences with the BB Java Development Environment were interesting to say the least. Before I had signing keys I was frustrated wondering why different sample code that Blackberry themselves suggested in their documentation wasn’t working in the simulator. Turned out it worked fine on an actual device, but for some reason the simulator couldn’t handle it. I didn’t find that out until a few days of rewriting code and installing and uninstalling the JDE while waiting for my keys.
Then there’s the phantom API’s – the classes that are supposed to serve a certain funciton and are in the documentation, but when you try to use them they just plain don’t work on a device or a simulator.
Stumbling blocks like these are what developers face dealing with BB development and a good book by a knowledgeable author would be a welcome addition.