Here’s a guest post from Fernando with a big developer announcement! – Ed.
Olá!, I’m Fernando, originally from Brazil and now based in Canada as part of RIM’s Developer Relations team. My mission is helping to make this planet a better, connected, fun place to live. I am also a writer, photographer and avid bass player, I’m passionate about aviation and it seems I have been spending too much time with robotics. (Editor’s note: You know how I feel about robots.)
We at RIM are extremely proud to announce that the BlackBerry® Native SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0 is out of beta and now available for download! Based on requests from our developer community, we have been focusing on improving the user experience and providing a consistent environment with comprehensive APIs, resources and documentation.
Let’s take a look at some of the IDE enhancements:
- The EGit plugin allows developers to check out source code directly from GitHub via the IDE.
- A new easy-to-use wizard, Add Library Dependency, simplifies the process of adding library dependencies to a project.
- With per-project SDK support, you can now configure your SDK/toolchain on a per-project basis. This allows you to have projects in your workspace build against different versions of the device.
- A streamlined deployment setup wizard makes it easier for you to set up your development environment and troubleshoot issues. The wizard also leverages automatic device detection to help you set up your targets.
- You can now report bugs directly from the IDE. Select ‘Report a Bug’ from the Help menu in the IDE to report a bug and include screenshots, directly from the IDE.
- You can now filter files out of the BAR package to exclude unnecessary assets.
- BAR files in the Project Explorer can now be expanded to show contents. Files in the BAR can be opened (read-only) in the appropriate editor.
- The Import wizard has a new option, ‘BlackBerry Tablet OS Existing Code as BlackBerry Tablet OS C/C++ Makefile Project,’ to import existing code.
- The BAR file editor now allows viewing of localized manifests for each locale.
- Two new profiles, QNX Developer and C/C++ Developer (CDT), allow you to control access to functionality depending on developer type.
- AIR Native Extension Support, which includes new workflows has been added to the IDE to help you build and debug native extensions. This includes an ANE project type that works with the Adobe command line tools to generate ANEs. In addition, the new ANE launch configurations help you debug your ANE on the device.
- Access to more example projects using the New Example wizard.
The BPS (BlackBerry Platform Services) APIs have evolved too, now including more features and several enhancements:
- Sensor: many sensors are available, for example: accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature, luminance, etc.
- Device Information: functions for reading information like OS version, PIN, serial number etc.
- Soundplayer: several functions to play system sounds (like camera shutter, device lock etc).
- LED service: control of the LEDs and colors to notify users even if the device isn’t being used.
- Audio Mixer API: enables your application to react to events (headphone connected/disconnected, mute, etc) and also control audio properties. Also new input and output channels are available.
And also, highlights on Scoreloop! The addition of the Scoreloop SDK offers game developers next-generation technology for mobile social gaming features: achievements, challenges, user profiles, leaderboards, awards and more. The social features are modular so you can integrate only the ones you want, while maintaining your app’s look and feel.
You can get start at the Native SDK webpage, in the download section. Also take a look at:
- Documentation – in the documentation section, you will find a great source of information about tutorials, recipes, guides and a great directory of open source libraries ported and available on github.
- Forums – in the Native SDK forums, you can discuss support topics, learn from the community and interact directly with us.
So, are you ready? Let us know what you think in the comments!
