While there were a number of technical reasons for this problem, a primary reason was changes to named properties in Exchange 2010.  To avoid legacy issues with finite numbers of named properties (see my previous blog post for some more information), functionality was changed in Exchange 2010 such that named properties are now stored per mailbox instead of per database and anonymous headers are not promoted so as to avoid issues with reaching the finite limits.  Since BES leverages a number of named properties for its own functionality, the latter caused some significant performance delays when BES attempted to query non-promoted named properties.

Microsoft and RIM have been working very closely together to remediate this issue and I’m happy to announce that some significant progress has been made.  If you are experiencing this problem currently, upgrading to MAPI/CDO 1.2.3 on your BES (see here) and BES itself to 5.0.2 Maintenance Release 4 (see here) should provide significant improvement on the BES functionality side.  Additional updates from Microsoft and RIM will be coming in the near future but, in the interim, these updates should help improve performance dramatically.

Update: The new MAPI/CDO was released as an updated version of 1.2.1, not version 1.2.3 as expected.  When downloading and installing the new MAPI/CDO, make sure you are installing version 1.2.1 dated 2/25/2011 and versioned 6.5.8211.0 (not the one dated 12/9/2009 and versioned 6.5.8147).  The link above will direct you to the correct version.

The issue between BES and Exchange 2010 SP1 is that, prior to SP1, RIM’s published guidance included the requirement that you increase the number of allowed connections to the Address Book service via the MaxSessionsPerUser key in the microsoft.exchange.addressbook.service.exe.config file.  This key was deprecated with SP1.  As a result, RIM has published new guidance as of September 13, 2010 regarding how to properly configure Exchange 2010 SP1 to support BES.  Elan Shudnow previously published a blog post about this issue and RIM has since updated their documentation to reflect the changes required for client throttling.

In short, configuring the custom Throttling Policy for your BES service account (see my post here for more information on Client Throttling in Exchange 2010) via the cmdlets below will allow BES to work properly.  Again, please note RIM’s current supportability statement before upgrading production environments.

New-ThrottlingPolicy BESPolicy -RCAMaxConcurrency $null -EWSFindCountLimit $null -EWSMaxConcurrency $null
Set-Mailbox “BESAdmin” -ThrottlingPolicy BESPolicy

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.

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.

• 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.