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Updates on BlackBerry development


Around a week ago, I discovered an issue that could very likely have thwarted my BlackBerry development plans had I not found a solution of sorts. After finding all the necessary tools, I had finally started working on my first BlackBerry app. At first, it ran fine on both my device and the emulator. However, after adding a few new features, a major issue came up: the app wouldn’t run on my device unless it was signed.

Simple, right?

So, all I needed to do was sign the app. That’s easy enough, right? Unfortunately not. You can still request new keys from BlackBerry, and they’ll send them to you, but the actual key registration setup utility does not work anymore. This is likely due to a dependency on some service that has been shut down.

This meant that I couldn’t sign the app. After asking Twitter for advice, (Massive thanks to Nostalgitech and Paul Wallace for the help, by the way!) I realized that I was going to have to figure something else out.

Some good news and some bad news...

After looking into the issue a bit more, it turned out that certain APIs couldn’t be used if the app wasn’t signed due to security reasons. This was good, since it meant I could make a working BlackBerry app as long as I avoided those APIs. Unfortunately, this also meant that what I could do with my app was significantly limited, due to these restrictions.

So, what now?

At this point, I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to release the two promised BlackBerry apps. However, without signing a BlackBerry app, you can’t use the database, web browser, or file picker APIs to list a few major ones. Consequently, there’s only so much I can do so these apps will probably be pretty simple.

A happy ending (of sorts)

Thankfully, I have a feeling the apps I release will still turn out quite well! I’ve been able to work around some of the limitations, and I’m pleased with the results so far. Obviously, it’s disappointing that these issues have come up. However, I’m just glad I’ll be able to write some BlackBerry apps, even if they aren’t the most complex.

Thanks again to all who helped me with this, and thank you to those who have made it this far in the post. Stay tuned for more updates, as they will hopefully be coming soon!


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