The Death of RIM: The fall of a big Java ME player

Hi, all

Check out this interesting infographic about RIM's trajectory from top to the bottom. It is a sad picture of a big company and a big Java ME player as well.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

See you in the next post...


Created by: MBAOnline.com

Facebook API ME for Blackberry

Hi, all

This afternoon, I released Facebook API ME v1.0 for Blackberry. This version uses BrowserField component from RIM API to display the authentication page. As I explained in this tutorial, to use the API for other platforms, you just need to work with the respective wrapper class for the target platform. Regarding Blackberry, you will have to use BrowserFieldAuthDialogWrapper.

...
BrowserField browserField = ...;

AuthDialogWrapper pageWrapper = 
    new BrowserFieldAuthDialogWrapper(browserField);
pageWrapper.setAppId("App Id goes here");
pageWrapper.setAppSecret("App Secret goes here");
pageWrapper.setRedirectUri("Redirect Uri goes here");
pageWrapper.setPermissions(new String[] {Permission.OFFLINE_ACCESS, Permission.PUBLISH_STREAM});
pageWrapper.addAuthenticationListener(this);
pageWrapper.login();
...

Besides the release package, there is also a sample app demonstrating how to implement the authentication process for this platform. Here it goes the download link.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

See you in the next post...

Facebook API ME & HTMLComponent: Not going well.

Hi, all

Yesterday, I took the day to work on my new project: Facebook API ME. The development is going well, btw. As I explained in the previous posts, the great challenge of this project is the authentication process, since it requires certain browser integration, which is not a trivial thing considering Java ME.

Anyway, the API is now working properly using Browser component from eSWT library. eSWT is available in most Nokia and Sony Ericsson devices. I intend to release it for developers this week. I will let you guys know.

Regarding LWUIT integration, using HTMLComponent, the work is not going so well. HTMLComponent is not working well with Facebook's authentication pages. Actually, it works well on login page, where the username/password are informed. On the other hand, the page where the user authorizes the app to access his account is not displayed properly. HTMLComponent is not able to display the "Accept" and "Deny" submit buttons. Because of that, the authentication process is not complete.

I tried to check out LWUIT's latest source code from SVN repository, but it seems they are refactoring the code for some reason. There is an error in one of the classes. Because of that, I was not able to generate a jar file. Is there anybody here that could help with that?

I also intend to work on Blackberry integration, using BrowserField component. But as I am not a Blackberry expert, I have to study a little bit to understand how it works so I can work with it.

I let you guys posted.

See you in the next post...

Twitter API ME 1.4: New release!!!

Hi all,

I would like to inform that Twitter API ME 1.4 has just been released. This new version comes with new features and the correction of a bug that was preventing it to work on Blackberry devices. So Blackberry developers, you all are now welcome back to Twitter API ME.

The new features available on version 1.4 are:

• Single Access Token auth
• Geo-located tweets
• Friends/Followers list
• Update user profile

See below how easy is to use Single Access token and send a geo-located tweet.

Token = new Token("token_access", "token_secret");
Credential c =
  new Credential("usrnm", "conKey", "conSec", token);
UserAccountManager m =
  UserAccountManager.getInstance(c);
if (m.verifyCredential()) {
  GeoLocation l = new GeoLocation("+37.5", "+26.7");
  Tweet t = new Tweet(Geo-located tweet.", l);
  TweetER ter = TweetER.getInstance(m);
  t = ter.post(t);
}

Easy, huh?

For further information on Twitter API ME, please visit us at www.twitterapime.com.

See you in the next post...

BlackBerry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse

Hi all,

Good news for BlackBerry developers. It has just been launched an Eclipse plug-in that enables you to write, compile and test Java ME application. In additional, you will also have access do simulators and device's native application.

To know more about, click here!

See you in the next post...

BlackBerry & Java: Tight Relationship

Hi all,

It is unarguable the relationship between BlackBerry devices and Java. In the last e-mail that I received from BlackBerry Developers Newsletter, they attempt to show how tight this relationship is. I got to be honest with you guys, I do not know much about BlackBerry's development platform, but I did not know BlackBerry was so involved with Java. Did you know that all those famous applications found on those devices, such as the message client, phone, and calendar are written in Java? Yes! J2ME.

BlackBerry has a complete Java development platform based on J2ME. It supports the basics, MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.1, besides some others optional JSRs, such JSR 135, 75, 179, 82, etc. In additional, they also provide some specific BlackBerry APIs that enable access to some device's features, such as accessing e-mail, maps, integration with built-in apps, persistent model, etc.

In order to use all this "arsenal", BlackBerry also provides some tools to leverage software development for its devices. It provides an Eclipse Plugin that integrates with the SDK; a complete BlackBerry IDE, with all the tools integrated (e.g. SDK, simulators, debugging, etc); and SDK integration with others popular IDEs, e.g. Netbeans.

This newsletter really impressed me. It made me realize how powerful and mature this platform is. As a suggestion for you guys, I leave this link, below, with a full presentation about what I have just written. I hope you all enjoy it.

Introduction to BlackBerry® Java® Development

See you in the next post...