What is HackOTT?
Hack Ottawa = HackOTT is part of the HackDays across Canada. Here's how it works:
- Gather developers
- Provide food, space to work, and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces, the building blocks for applications that programmers use to like you know, build stuff)
- Let them code for 8 hours.
- Judge the results
Read more here: http://hackdays.ca/2011/01/hack-ottawa-is-here/
Register Here: http://guestlistapp.com/events/42672
I've signed up for the event here in Ottawa and am starting to prep for the event. So, let's get down to the title tagline of this post: A BlackBerry PlayBook App.
If you don't know, I work for Research In Motion, better known as RIM. The RIM tablet offering is the PlayBook and it's coming soon. Being a geek, lover of new tech, and always in pursuit of a challenge; I've decided I'll design my app to run on the PlayBook.
Dude a PlayBook, Like Let Me See It
"Cool, Mark, you've got a PlayBook to use already? They aren't even for sale yet," you say. Well, the truth is I don't have a PlayBook and if I did I would not be bringing it out to play. So, don't expect me to be toting one around to show you and demo. I have to wait for them to be available for sale like everyone else.
Well then how am I going to develop for the PlayBook? With the dev tools including the BlackBerry Tablet SDK and the BlackBerry Tablet Simulator for VMware Fusion; on my Mac Book Pro of course. All further discussion is specific to programming on the Mac. If you are a Windows dev, sorry, this might be of little use to you.
Setting Up A New Project
Let's jump in and get started.
- Setup a code repository with your favourite hosted repository site. In my case I am using http://bitbucket.org for hosting my code. Private for now but the project may go public once complete.
- Review the steps in the dev guide for the dev environment you want to develop your app in. Those would be the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK: Getting Started Guide for Mac Developers or the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR: Getting Started Guide for Mac Developers
- Download VMware Fusion: Note, if you have a copy of Parallels on your Mac you can upgrade to VMware Fusion (until March 15, 2011) for $20 USD. Go here to take advantage of the offer: http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/fusion_upgrade_promo.html
- Download the BlackBerry Tablet OS Simulator ISO for Mac from the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR page. You'll need to sign up as a dev to get the ISO. During the install of the ISO in VMware Fusion you'll get prompted to delete contents of /dev/hd0 in the sim, hit y and return to continue:
- Download and install the Adobe AIR SDK 2.5
- Download and install the appropriate BlackBerry SDK for Adobe AIR. here are the two of them for Mac: BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS Beta for Mac and of course the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK Beta3 for Adobe AIR for Mac
- WARNING: The download links will probably update frequently as new releases are made. These are valid as of January 21, 2011. Check the BlackBerry Tablet OS website for the latest versions.
- A note about installing. I ran into trouble when I installed the Adobe AIR SDK into a folder that had a space in it's path. If you installed the Adobe AIR SDK 2.5 (or the latest required) and the BlackBerry SDK installer tells you it can not find Adobe Air SDK then make sure there are no spaces in the path that you installed Adobe Air SDK into. For example this path is bad "/Users/snoopy/My Projects" but this path is fine "/Users/snoopy/MyProjects". I opened a Developer Issue Tracker for this bug.
BlackBerry PlayBook Resources
Ok, got that done? Good. Let's drop a couple links to resources to help you along the way of coding up your BlackBerry PlayBook App.
- BlackBerry Developer's Blog
- BlackBerry Development Forums
- Developer Issue Tracker
- BlackBerry WebWorks on github
Ok, that's all for tonight. Next, I'll be reading up on the WebWorks SDK and the Adobe AIR SDK to see which one I'd like to use for the project.