Blackberry Questions

[netninja]

I don't own a Blackberry, but I was asked if I could develop a quick application for one and I said that I might be able to if it was simple enough.

I was wondering if I could:

1. Retrieve SMS/emails somehow and perform actions on them.

2. Add a button/shortcut in the SMS/email screen that runs my java app. Or somehow run my app in the background.

Just guessing, I would say that 2 is pretty impossible. But does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers.

[Dynasoft]

For 1, do you mean SMS/emails that are already on the blackberry, or retrieving them yourself from an email server?

Though I don't think MMF's Java runtime can do either.

[netninja]

I meant SMS/emails that are already on the Blackberry.

I also think that it won't be able to do either, but I'm hopeful :P

I know that the GET extension is in the works for Java Mobile, it was mentioned in another thread.

[UrbanMonk]

I've made some blackberry apps and based on my own experiences I can say a few things for sure:

1. It seems that java apps can only access their own data, I made two apps and tried reading data from the others ini file and it didn't work. Also the ini gets deleted with the app, so whenever you update your app all the old data is lost. Either this is a limitation of the java mobile runtime, or it's by Clickteam's design.

2. I don't know if it's possible to add a shortcut to one app inside of another app, but what I do know is that it's possible to move your app from one directory to another, and even move it to the home screen. This can't be done automatically though. This is handled by the blackberrie's firmware, so your users would have to do this their self.

3. The blackberry's java runtime is the fasted mobile phone I've tested the java mobile runtime with. I was very impressed with what I could make it do graphics-wise.

4. It's not possible to access the entire keyboard of the phone yet, so if you are planing on allowing the user to type messages you'll have to wait until Clickteam releases the Java mobile sdk.

You can test your blackberry app without owning one by downloading the simulator from the blackberry website. ( http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/simulators.jsp )
My apps always run better on the actual device though, and simulator doesn't display the app at the correct resolution. Consequently you'll need to make sure you use the resolution listed in the devices specifications rather than what it looks like in the simulator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry (Look under "screen")