Book Image

BlackBerry Java Application Development

Book Image

BlackBerry Java Application Development

Overview of this book

BlackBerry Smartphone was once the domain of jet-setting business users with power suits. Now you can hardly go anywhere without seeing someone using a BlackBerry to check their messages or make a call. It's this kind of explosive growth that makes the BlackBerry ecosystem a great place to develop and market applications through the BlackBerry App World store—this book shows you how to do just that! This step-by-step guide gives you a hands-on experience of developing innovative Java applications for your BlackBerry. With the help of this book, you will learn to build your own applications to illustrate the platform, and the various capabilities that developers can use in their programs. It explores the powers of Blackberry and helps you develop professional and impressive Java applications. The book teaches how to write rich, interactive, and smart BlackBerry applications in Java. It expects the readers to know Java but not Java Mobile or the BlackBerry APIs. We will learn to build rich, interactive, and smart Java applications for the BlackBerry. The book will cover UI programming, data storage, programming network, and internet API apps. As we move on, we will learn more about the BlackBerry's device features, such as messaging, GPS, multimedia, contacts and calendar, and so on.This book also helps you build your own applications to illustrate the platform, and the various capabilities that developers can use in their programs.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
BlackBerry Java Application Development
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
Preface

Introducing PIM


The first area that we will take a look at is the Personal Information Management, or PIM applications and data. PIM applications are a rather generic name for a group of tools that manage your personal information, especially as it relates to your handheld. This could be stretched to include a lot of things, but it generally means your messages, contacts, and scheduling information that help you to manage your life. In BlackBerry terms it means the Messages, Address Book, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes.

Access to the PIM data in the BlackBerry SDK is provided through the JSR-75 specification, which is a Java standard. Like many of the Java standards in the BlackBerry SDK, there are also BlackBerry-specific extensions available that expand the basic classes with new BlackBerry-specific functionality.

Like many of the other standards we find in Java, JSR-75 implements a factory pattern where one class, in this case the PIM class, is used to create objects for the other more specific...