 | Level: Intermediate Frank Ableson, Author
17 Mar 2009 The most intriguing and powerful phenomenon in the digital age is the impact
of social-networking applications on the consumer and business markets. Marketing professionals are changing how they
interact with prospective clients, peer groups can easily form,
and, as demonstrated in the fall of 2008, social networking can be part of
a successful political campaign. Combined with the popularity and power of
the BlackBerry platform, you have the makings of a dynamic combination. Part
3 of this "Create BlackBerry applications with open source tools" series explores how the BlackBerry is
a great device for writing and deploying social-networking applications.
Before you start
This series explores open source and Java™ technology for BlackBerry
application development in the context of a mobile data-collection
application. Part 1 provides
an introduction to BlackBerry development with a quick introduction to the
platform, a tour of the BlackBerry development tools, and construction of a
complete data-collection application. Part
2 explores the RSS data-distribution format by creating a BlackBerry RSS reader.
This tutorial is for Java developers interested in BlackBerry application development
in the context of social-networking applications. The example demonstrates a
rudimentary social-networking application that leverages the freely available BlackBerry development tools. Mobile development experience is helpful, but not required. Java programming skills are required for BlackBerry applications, but are not an explicit requirement for this tutorial. Likewise, familiarity with social-networking concepts is helpful, but not required.
About this tutorial
Why write a social-networking application for BlackBerry? Social networking is all the
rage, and people want to take this experience with
them wherever they go. Many social-networking users carry BlackBerry devices. The
BlackBerry platform is rich and ripe for social networking. Its capability as an
Internet-accessing device is solid, its reputation as a messaging platform is
legendary, and one important feature that most BlackBerry devices boast is a full
keyboard. Having a camera is handy, but the power lies in a keyboard where users can
rapidly type messages to friends or business associates. The BlackBerry environment
also presents an open programming infrastructure where you can "catch" or hook
many events of interest. These capabilities open many possibilities for feature-rich social-networking applications.
This tutorial is not singularly blazing new trails; there are already commercially
available social-networking applications for the BlackBerry. This
tutorial's sample application demonstrates how to build a useful open source
application centered around social networking. Learn to add a custom menu into an
application and implement a "Share this Event" feature that highlights interacting
with the contacts database and the calendar events on the BlackBerry. Contacts
and events are part of the larger, more general set of data known as Personal
Information Management (PIM). Once you understand how to interact with the PIM data on a device, the social-networking opportunities are limited only by the imagination.
This tutorial provides a brief introduction to PIM data, then dives into the requirements for a BlackBerry social-networking application. Download the complete source code for the example
BlackBerry application.
System requirements
This tutorial demonstrates how to use BlackBerry development tools to construct an open
source social-networking application for the BlackBerry. You will need the
BlackBerry
Java Development Environment (JDE) or equivalent to construct the application.
Sample code highlights
In this tutorial, a social-networking application named IBMCalendar is constructed for
the BlackBerry. As you go through, try to think beyond the basics; this data may be
used in the social-networking applications you use today. Download the source code. Snippets include:
ContactList- To work with a list of contacts from the PIM database.
IBMCalendar- The
Application class, and contains the entry point of the application.
IBMCalendar constructor- Method that demonstrates how to add a menu item to the built-in BlackBerry applications.
CalendarMenus- Class containing the Menu UI element, which is added into the calendar/date-book application on the BlackBerry.
CalendarMenus.run()- Method invoked when a user selects the custom menu added to the DateBook application.
CalendarMenus.toString()- Method that sounds rather simple (and it is), but is very important. This is where the textual name, or label, of the menu is controlled.
CalendarMenus.handleCalendarEvent()- Method invoked when a date-book entry or event is manipulated by the custom menu added to the date-book application.
BlackBerryContactList- Class employed to provide a contact lookup for finding a user's e-mail address.
This class demonstrates interacting with the PIM database from a high level.
Event and Contact - Classes used to extract data from the BlackBerry PIM database.
SendEmail- Class that interacts with the BlackBerry's messaging infrastructure to send an e-mail programmatically.
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