Building BlackBerry PlayBook Apps with Flash Professional CS5

First thing is to note that BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for AIR comes from BlackBerry and has some API's that do not work on AIR on the Desktop. If you end up using some of the PlayBook specific API's you will have to test your applications on the simulator (or device) itself. I assume in this article that you have downloaded the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK and have it installed on your computer. I will be using the default install path of c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4\sdks\blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.0 (Windows) and /Application/Adobe Flash Builder 4/sdks/blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.0 (Mac) in this article but just swap the path to the sdk with your local computer specific location.

Develop for mobile devices using Flash platform

The dust has settled over this year Adobe MAX conference (my colleague, Serge Jespers, has been thinking about the next year’s conference for the past two months but this is another story :D).  So, by now, you should have heard most of the news around the Flash Platform and mobile devices. However, if you haven’t yet tried to build your first “Hello World” application, read on because it is really simple for us, Flash developers.

Mobile platforms - Blackberry

After having gone thru the Android documentation and videos from Google IO, I found the documentation on Blackberry to be somewhat disorganized – it is not easy to get the big picture and grasp key concepts. You need to go thru a lot of documentation to figure out how things works together as a system. I also tried to access the materials from http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/2010-on-demand but it turned out that it would require a registration for $ 20. That was a bit of a WTF moment … I mean, you want to make money by selling conference materials? Who does that?? Anyway I proceeded to register on https://www.eventreg.com/pls/pg_rim/reg_rim.reg_login?icpid=&ipr_code=ONDNON and after filling two lengthy forms, was unable to make a payment despite getting a registration id. I wrote to BlackBerryDEVCON@eventreg.comwith my registration id (this was on 3rd Mar), but am yet to hear from them. Rather discourgaing for somene starting off on a new platform.

Signing your Blackberry application

Signing your application

Before you can distribute your application for use on a BlackBerry® tablet, you must sign your application. The signing tool included with the BlackBerry® Tablet OS SDK adds cryptographic hash values to your application package (BAR file) during the signing process. The hash files help verify the authorship of your application to users and the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

How to make apps for Blackberry App World

Pretty much everyone has seen commercials for iPhone apps, but did you know that Blackberry has an app store as well? And while you can only develop iPhone apps on very specific Apple hardware, Blackberry apps can be developed on any platform that allows Java development, which is pretty much every platform! With literally millions of Blackberry users on a variety of carriers, there is a great potential to earn lots of money developing Blackberry apps. Here's how you can get started

Build Your First BlackBerry Java App

Learn how to use the freely available BlackBerry JDE to develop, debug, and test BlackBerry applications. Follow this demonstration to create a simple HelloWorld application that exploits some of BlackBerry's own APIs.


The BlackBerry wireless handheld device by Research In Motion (RIM) has quickly gained popularity among mobile professionals. With its "Always On, Always Connected" approach, it enables corporate users to connect to their e-mail systems, including Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange, and other mission-critical systems (e.g., instant messaging) using a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)-based wireless connection.BlackBerry supports Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) and ships with a complete Connected Limited Device Configuration/Mobile Information Device Profile (CLDC/MIDP) implementation. Although Blackberry devices run applications that use only the standard MIDP APIs (commonly referred to as MIDlets), developers can also tap into BlackBerry-specific APIs to take advantage features such as sophisticated user interfaces.
This article introduces the freely available BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE), which allows you to develop, debug, and test BlackBerry applications. It goes on to demonstrate how to create a simple HelloWorld application that exploits some of BlackBerry's own APIs.

Building a UI for your Blackberry application

Building a UI for your application

The UI encompasses all visible aspects of your application, including buttons, labels, lists, dialog boxes, or any other interface component that a user uses to interact with your application.

Because your application may be deployed on multiple devices, and because most devices support orientation changes, you need to pay particular attention when you design the layout of your application. Thankfully, theBlackBerry® Tablet OS SDK provides classes that enable you to design and build effective layouts. In particular, theContainer class provides a simple container-like mechanism for laying out an interface and for defining the alignment, flow, and spacing of UI components.