Blackberry Development in Mac: With or Without Using VirtualBox!!

Hi all,

In this post, I am writing about Blackberry Development choices and setting up environment using both Blackberry JDE and Blackberry Eclipse Plugin.

Why Blackberry?

Though there are different mobile phones from different manufacturer with various models, the Blackberry smartphone still got the market share in the world of Smart phones. What made the blackberry so special?  Well the key reason behind the success of Blackberry Smartphone is "Security". Basic points can be noted as follows:

1. All the transactions, messaging, e-mails etc which are transmitted using blackberry smart phones are encrypted to prevent snooping.
2. All these security features are maintained and monitored by Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).
3. Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) is a server of Research In Motion (RIM), creator of Blackberry. All the incoming, outgoing communications must go through the BES, which ensures its data encryption, virus detection in email-attachments, generating push messages and many advance features to ensure security.

So due to these features, most companies around the globe are providing Blackberry smartphones for their employees.

Introduction

Blackberry development can only be done in windows environment for so long time. The developers were forced to develop in different Java IDE using Blackberry plugins. The most supported IDEs are Eclipse, Netbeans. There were no Blackberry JDE. And all were supported in Windows OS only.

But recently, it has been a half a year, RIM has introduced the Blackberry JDE and Blackberry Plugin for Eclipse for Mac. The Blackberrry JDE is still run only in the windows OS. But the plugin for Eclipse for Mac gave a developer new choice to develop in mac.

Blackberry Plugin For Eclipse for Mac!

Though RIM has introduced the BB Plugin for Mac, it has its own limitation. The simulator doesn't work in Mac OS. The only option while developing in Mac using above plugin would be to use the real device for testing and running the app. It is because the simulators were created in Win OS and needs different win system files to execute.

So, you want to develop in Mac OS, you better have your own Blackberry to test it and run the app. There are quite a lot tutorials on getting started with Eclipse and Blackberry using Eclipse plugin. If you really want to get started, here is Getting Started With Blackberry Development in Eclipse by Anthony

 in his blog.

Blackberry Development in Mac using VirtualBox

So, if you don't have a actual Blackberry Device and need different simulators to test you Blackberry app, then using virtualBox is your only way out.

VirtualBox is an Open Source software for Mac which enables you to install different versions of windows in your Mac. For knowing more follow above link. First download the latest virtualBox for OS X from here. I prefer to install Windows 7 which is the best windows OS from visual and performance view till now.

Installing

1. Go through this guide to install the fresh copy of windows 7 in VirtualBox. Note that you can either use the CD ROM to boot your bootable Win 7 disk or you can use .iso image of bootable Win 7. There might be some changes with latest version of Virtual Box from guide, but don't panic, you can easily overcome it.
2. After successfully installing the windows 7, sign in into the Blackberry Developer Zone if you haven't already signed in or Sign UP if you are new.
3. Download Blackberry JDE 6.0 file if you completely want to develop in new Development IDE, provided by Blackberry from here.
4. Or if you are familiar with Eclipse and want to develop using Eclipse, then Download the "Blackberry plugin for Eclipse Full" version. This full installation file will install Eclipse integrating Blackberry in it. (It is quite easier one).
5. Install them. You can also download and install different simulators as per your requirement.

It is easier to install different types of simulators and test it than buying each devices and test it.

Well, here I conclude my post. While following above instructions, if you come to have any problems, or any suggestions feel free to leave comments.

Thanks for reading. Happy Sharing and learning!!