One of our SPG consultants, Joe Szabo, recently noticed an issue where even though it looked like our BES 5.0 server should be prepopulating users’ new Blackberry devices with 200 previous email messages it, was not doing so.  In the Blackberry Administration console, he expanded BlackBerry Solution Topology > BlackBerry Domain > Component view > Email and checked to ensure that the server was set to prepopulate 200 previous messages.  Joe did some research and found that by default Blackberry only prepopulates messages for new users on their first Enterprise Activation.  It will not prepopulate messages if those existing users activate a new Blackberry device.

To force prepopulation for all users, Joe added the following registry keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Agents]
“ForceMsgPrepopOnActivation”=dword:00000001
“ForceMsgPrepopDays”=dword:0000000e
“ForceMsgPrepopMessages”=dword:000002ee

On an x64 server, you would add these entries under:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Agents]

We have confirmed that this works for BES 5.0, but it should work for older BES versions as well.

I have been using the Nexus One with Android 2.1 for a month and a half in order to get a good insight into the real workings on the Android operating system. To sum up my experience the Nexus One phone is a great piece of hardware but the Android OS still has a long way to go in order to be as functional as a Blackberry or an iPhone.

The Nexus One hardware platform is amazing. The touch screen is very bright, clear, and responsive. Call quality on T-Mobile is excellent, and the 5mp camera phone takes amazing shots. A major plus over the iPhone is access to the phone’s battery for quick replacement. Navigating via the touch screen is also a breeze, especially since the 2.1 update providing multi-touch functionality.

As I previously mentioned, the Android OS is a shortfall of the Nexus One when using it for business. Google integrated applications, such as Google Maps, work excellent but the business tools do not. The most notorious feature that is still missing is the ability to synchronize the calendar with Microsoft Exchange. Since switching from my Blackberry to the Nexus One I have been late to or have missed dozens of appointments because of the lack of reminders. Key business features that are also missing include e-mail signatures, notifications for high-priority emails only, and poor cut and paste functionality. Additionally, the layout of the keyboard is hard to get used to. The keys are smaller than those on the iPhone and the spacebar is very close to the Home and Menu hard keys which results in frequent miscues of those functions.

Security is a major issue with mobile devices and there are two major security issues with the Nexus One. First, the Android OS does not support Exchange Remote Wipe for erasing data from lost devices and second is what I call ‘Google’ security. When setting up the device Google asks if it is ok to upload information to Google about the phone’s location, and in order to use certain features like the calendar you must integrate with Google applications requiring Google Accounts. This puts the user in a precarious position where sensitive data could possibly be transmitted and stored on Google servers which is unacceptable for most business security policies.

To wrap up on a positive note, Google is definitely headed in the right direction with the Android OS and Nexus One, especially with their no contract purchasing plan. Once Google provides the critical business functionality that is currently missing then Google might have a real Blackberry or iPhone killer on their hands.

Research in Motion (RIM) offers two ways of writing applications for BlackBerry devices–Native Java, and the Microsoft Visual Studio plugin.  As a VB.Net developer, I was tempted to go the Visual Studio plugin approach, but I decided against it for the following reasons:

• It’s geared more towards rapid forms-based applications that communicate by web services.
• It requires the user to be on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
• It does not provide access to all of the APIs and BlackBerry features that you get with Java; for example, camera, phone, Bluetooth, address book, GPS, BlackBerry Maps, and BlackBerry Message features.
• It doesn’t support the BlackBerry Storm touch screen and accelerometer.
• Debugging and deployment is more difficult, and the Visual Studio plugin only comes with a BlackBerry Bold simulator.  The Java tools come with a BlackBerry Storm simulator.

For these reasons, to be able to debug for the Storm, and to have access to the entire BlackBerry library, I decided to go with the Java approach.  The transition is quite easy, once you get the development environment in place and write your first test application.  The BlackBerry website has a lot of good information for developers, if you’re able to find it.

I found that this page has everything you need to get started developing BlackBerry applications:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/tutorials.jsp#tab_tab_development

Rather than copy and paste information from their guides, I’ll just point out some of the things I wish were clearer in each document.

Setting Up Necessary Tools

First you need to install the JDK, as specified in the BlackBerry documentation.  However, you can skip the step get the Eclipse IDE.  The Eclipse IDE is installed automatically with the BlackBerry Plug-in for Eclipse, which is mentioned in the next step.  In addition to the BlackBerry plugin for Eclipse, you’ll need to install the BlackBerry plugin for Eclipse Component Pack 4.7, in order to get the BlackBerry Storm simulator (and target the 4.7 platform), which is available here:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/javaappdev/javaeclipseplug.jsp
 

Writing Your First Application

I found the Eclipse environment for Java to be very similar to Visual Studio.  If you’ve ever done any JavaScript programming, then you’ll be somewhat familiar with the syntax, and it shouldn’t be too bad to start developing in Java.  The “Writing Your First Application” guide from BlackBerry is a great first step to follow along with to create a simple test application or proof of concept.  Two things I would add are:

1. Creating an icon for your application–It will look much better if you pick one, rather than the default RIM folder icon.  Right click on your project in Project Explorer, and choose properties.  Click on BlackBerry Project Properties.  Click Resources, and “Add,” under Icon Files.  You can choose a png, gif, or jpg to use as your icon.

 

2. Creating custom backgrounds and borders–This was hard to find information on.  Basically, you have to import these classes:

import net.rim.device.api.ui.decor.BorderFactory;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.decor.BackgroundFactory;

Then you can add code like the following to set a background color or border:

_fieldManagerTop.setBackground(BackgroundFactory.createSolidBackground(Color.LIGHTBLUE));
_MyTextBox.setBorder( BorderFactory.createRoundedBorder(new XYEdges(1, 1, 1, 1) ));

How And When To Sign

I found that any realistic application you would write for a BlackBerry is going to uses classes that are restricted and need signing.  Therefore I’d suggest that you apply for the RIM code signing registration keys right away.  It took about a week for my keys to be processed.

Deploy And Distribute Applications

I found that using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager’s Application Loader feature worked well for testing purposes, however over the air deployment works best for final deployment of the application to a wider audience.