Developing Custom Solutions to Extend your Data Wirelessly

Transcription

1 An IT Briefing produced by Developing Custom Solutions to Extend your Data Wirelessly

2 2003 TechTarget This reference document is based on a Research In Motion/TechTarget Webcast, "." To view the Webcast online, please click the link. This TechTarget IT Briefing covers the following topics: Overview of BlackBerry Developing custom BlackBerry applications The BlackBerry Browser server model Pushing Web pages to BlackBerry The custom client/server model Understanding the options For more information About TechTarget IT Briefings TechTarget IT Briefings provide the pertinent information that senior-level IT executives and managers need to make educated purchasing decisions. Originating from our industry-leading Vendor Connection and Expert Webcasts, TechTarget-produced IT Briefings turn Webcasts into easy-to-follow technical briefs, similar to a white paper. Design Copyright 2003 TechTarget. All rights reserved. For inquiries and additional information, contact: Tina Hills Director of Product Marketing, Webcasts, TechTarget thills@techtarget.com Copyright 2003 Research In Motion Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction, adaptation, or translation without prior written permission is prohibited, except as allowed under the copyright laws. The RIM and BlackBerry families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo, the envelope-in-motion symbol and Always On, Always Connected are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED (RIM) ON BEHALF OF ITSELF AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THE INFORMATION OR GRAPHICS CONTAINED IN THIS ADVISORY FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT, INCLUDING RELATED GRAPHICS, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WAR- RANTY OF ANY KIND. RIM HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CON- DITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL RIM BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. THIS DOCUMENT, INCLUDING ANY GRAPHICS CONTAINED WITHIN THE DOCUMENT, MAY CONTAIN TECHNICAL INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. UPDATES ARE PERIODICALLY MADE TO THE INFOR- MATION HEREIN AND RIM MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DSCRIBED HEREIN AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE.

3 Developing Custom Solutions to Extend your Data Wirelessly This reference document highlights best practices for deploying custom solutions to extend enterprise data wirelessly. It is intended for companies that have already deployed BlackBerry in their own environment or are piloting BlackBerry and planning its deployment. Overview of BlackBerry The BlackBerry enterprise solution is a leading wireless connectivity solution that provides corporations with a secure 1, open platform for extending wireless communications and corporate data applications to mobile users. BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with existing enterprise systems, allowing integrated wireless access to a range of business information. The BlackBerry enterprise solution includes the following features: Secure wireless extension of the corporate messaging environment Secure wireless access to corporate data (through push or pull technology) Always On Always Connected push technology, providing immediate access to corporate data, , calendar, and global address list. Over the Air (OTA) synchronization of and calendar items Integration with existing enterprise systems Simplified management and centralized control of the wireless environment Multi-network and multi-device support Global deployment capabilities 2 Automated desktop software deployment (using an existing software distribution process or the silent installation process) Powerful development environment and open architecture for third-party and in-house solution development 3 Advanced wireless handhelds include phone, , corporate data, browser, SMS, and organizer applications Enterprises face a variety of challenges when they begin developing and deploying wireless applications (see Figure 1): Connectivity. How does the handheld connect to your back-end server application and web servers? Security. How can you make sure that that connection and that data flowing outside the firewall to the handheld are secure at all times? Management and control. Handhelds out in the field might travel overseas or around the country. As an enterprise, how can you be sure you can manage those handhelds effectively? Value and ROI. How can you be sure the wireless solution and applications you ve deployed will truly bring value to your enterprise, and how can you leverage the existing investments in technology to provide new ROI on top of your existing wireless platform? These are all key factors, whether you re considering deploying a third-party application or developing your own wireless applications in-house. For BlackBerry, Figure 2 gives a quick model to help you understand how RIM has addressed these challenges to provide a platform for which you can develop your own applications confidently and securely. As part of BlackBerry, we offer not only the BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds but the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as well, which is typically installed behind the firewall on your corporate network. Traditionally the BlackBerry Enterprise Server has integrated with back-end servers to provide secure wireless access to corporate . 1 End-to-end Triple DES encryption from enterprise mailbox to handheld when operating BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. 2 Check with service provider for availability, roaming arrangements and service plans. International roaming may be subject to network and export control restrictions. 3 Additional application development or third party software may be required. Some restrictions may apply to third party software, such as service provider support and license conditions. RIM shall in no way be liable for any third party software or your use of such software. 1

4 Figure 1 Figure 2 2

5 With the most recent versions of BlackBerry Enterprise Server for both Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange, we introduced the Mobile Data Service feature. Mobile Data Service is now a core feature of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which enables the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to not only integrate with existing servers but to also communicate with your existing back-end applications and web servers. This is enabled through an addition of the HTTP protocol capabilities into the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Some key features of BlackBerry include end-to-end security for all and data from behind the firewall being sent out to the BlackBerry handheld, as well as push technology. Push technology means that s and data arrive proactively to your device, and you re alerted and can view your content rather than having to dial in or and request that the data be brought down to you. With Mobile Data Service, applications on the handheld beyond can now use the same secure encrypted pipe that BlackBerry Enterprise Server has always provided for wireless . No new infrastructure, connection plans or security models are necessary. The new applications you develop and deploy on the handheld leverage the very same investment you ve made in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server connectivity model. In essence, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with Mobile Data Service capability enables new wireless applications beyond to be developed and deployed to BlackBerry handhelds without the need to purchase new wireless connections or pricing plans. BlackBerry brings a compelling value proposition to the table because it provides that out-of-thebox secure connectivity from the handheld to the corporate network. You can develop and deploy new wireless applications without having to worry about the security model behind the firewall because it is inherent in BlackBerry. Any of the applications that you deploy automatically inherit and leverage Triple DES encryption from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server out to the BlackBerry handheld. You can develop and deploy new solutions without worrying about connectivity and support from multiple wireless networks. Take, for example, the case where your mobile professionals are based in the United States and they roam to Europe or Canada. As they do, they ll roam onto a new wireless network through one of the carrier partners. But with the BlackBerry solution we manage the data roaming so that the applications continue to run seamlessly through your BlackBerry Enterprise Server, even though the user has roamed onto a new network. In this case the user experience is optimal because they do not have to worry about whether BlackBerry will continue to work as they go to another country or go to another area. 4 Mobile Data Service and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server provide a secure, persistent connection for any handheld application, including the BlackBerry Browser that is deployed on the handheld by default, as well as custom Java applications that you may write as a developer. We provide that secure, persistent connection to communicate with back-end corporate servers behind the firewall. You don t have to worry about how to connect to those back-end servers and how to make that application secure. There are various options for deploying wireless applications. The first option is to deploy a thirdparty application from one of RIM s BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program partners. In this case, you buy a prepackaged application that includes a client application for the handheld and a piece of server software that will allow you to seamlessly integrate with your existing back-end systems, whether they be network management tools, CRM or ERP systems or something else. Developing custom BlackBerry applications There are two primary ways to develop and deploy an in-house application for BlackBerry. The first is based on browser server technology, and in this case you use the BlackBerry Browser as the client application on the handheld. The second option is the custom client/server model. The difference here is that you get into developing your own custom application for the handheld rather than using the browser. There are a number of advantages to the second approach; obviously there are also resources required to develop that application. The BlackBerry Browser server model In this case you re essentially using the BlackBerry Browser on the handheld as the client application for accessing information and rendering it to the 4 International roaming may be subject to network and export control restrictions. 3

6 user. With BlackBerry you can access your internal web sites behind your firewall via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Mobile Data Service feature. For those who travel and take a laptop, you can think about the case where you want to get into your corporate intranet to access some internal pages or applications that you have deployed internally. Typically, you would have to dial in from that laptop, get a secure connection and then be able to access those. With the BlackBerry handheld and the BlackBerry Browser, you can do that without having to dial into the system because you have that secure connection from the wireless device. What s exciting about browser server development is you can use your existing back-end web pages to deploy these applications. In many cases there is minimal or even no development required to realize these browser-based solutions on BlackBerry because you ve already invested in developing a web front end to your back-end data sources. Often enterprises will also look at designing new pages for BlackBerry so their users get an optimal experience for the web site, whether they be on their desktop PC or specifically on their BlackBerry handheld. The application residing on the handheld is the BlackBerry Browser. The BlackBerry Browser is your typical handheld browser that allows you to have a standard web page-type user interface and navigation so you can have URLs, you might have a menu that includes the back, forward, history, and so on. RIM has built the BlackBerry Browser and the Mobile Data Service feature to optimize the content that comes down to the BlackBerry handheld. So when you access existing HTML pages that lay themselves out in a very horizontal way on a desktop, the Mobile Data Service will work to optimize that content so it is laid out in a more vertical sense on the BlackBerry handheld. That being said, there can often still be a lot of work to be done to make sure that those web pages provide an optimal user experience on the handheld. There are two main versions of the BlackBerry Browser today. First is the BlackBerry Browser for the BlackBerry handhelds that operate on the GSM/GPRS, CDMA and iden networks. These are the handhelds that have integrated voice capabilities on the new 2.5G global networks. The browser on these handhelds supports both HTML and WML content within the browser. This is very exciting because it means you can access existing HTML pages without having to do any wireless-specific development. The second browser available now is the RIM Browser version 2.5 or version 2.6 for the BlackBerry handhelds that operate on the Mobitex and DataTAC networks. These handhelds are the RIM 850, RIM 857, RIM 950 and RIM 957 handhelds. These are the data-only handhelds that have been on the market for about five years, and the browser on these handhelds supports only WML content. There are many reasons why this is the case, and it s something to be aware of if you re looking at rolling out a browserbased solution to a large BlackBerry user base within your organization. The browser on the newer handhelds supports full HTML content, while the browser on the Mobitex and DataTAC handhelds supports only WML content. As an organization, you are free to develop web pages in either markup language, depending on your needs and your user base. Mobile Data Service and BlackBerry Enterprise Server provide end-to-end encryption for all data going to the BlackBerry handheld, which includes the BlackBerry Browser. Any time a user makes a request and retrieves an intranet page to the BlackBerry handheld, that page will automatically be encrypted using the same Triple DES encryption that we use for BlackBerry . This is very important, meaning you don t need to layer on other forms of security and encryption just for the wireless link for your browser applications. What s involved in developing and deploying a browser application out to the BlackBerry handheld? When it comes to the development requirements, the good news is no wireless-specific development is required. You can use standard web publishing tools to create HTML or WML pages that can be rendered on the BlackBerry handheld. You can have static HTML and WML pages. You can also have ASP or JSP or other types of pages that enable dynamic content on the BlackBerry handheld. Existing ASP and JSP pages will work on the newer BlackBerry handhelds with the HTML capabilities. From a user perspective, what s exciting is you can just enter that internal URL and go. Just click on it and grab that page. To many wireless users that almost seems like magic because they can now access the intranet from their wireless device. In that case, no custom wireless development is usually required. There are many cases where you want to think about optimizing your existing HTML pages for BlackBerry handhelds to provide users with a good experience. Figure 3 shows a very simple web page that s very optimal for a handheld because it provides direct links and simple information. 4

7 Figure 3 RIM does enable you to go one step further with browser-based applications. Rather than have users bookmark pages or request web sites as they need them, we enable you to leverage the value of push in a browser-based application. This is a very different paradigm from your typical browsing model where you are requesting web pages to be viewed. In this case you can develop server-side applications that push out new web pages to your BlackBerry handhelds and alert the users that new content has arrived. This is a similar paradigm to BlackBerry wireless . The user gets an , receives an alert and opens the message to view it. With the BlackBerry Browser, you can push out existing web pages that you have behind your firewall. Users can be notified, pull out their handhelds and view the web page. There is also the ability to push out custom icons to the BlackBerry handheld s home screen that act like links to a certain intranet or Internet web site. The idea is perhaps you have to some standard web pages that users access, such as a portal or an entry point to a web-based application. You could push out an icon to the home screen so the user has a direct link from the home screen to that web page. This gives the users the notion that there is another application on the handheld that s providing them access to some other piece of important back-end data. Pushing Web Pages to a BlackBerry Handheld With the BlackBerry Browser we ve defined two different types of pushes out to the handheld. One is called "channel push" and one is called "message push." The difference in the two lies in how the user is alerted to new content that is available. With channel push, the idea is that you push out a web page, but you also push out an icon along with it that gets added to the user s home screen. That icon then acts as a "channel" to the URL and the web page that you pushed out. The user can click on that icon and go directly to that intranet web site. If the data behind it changes and you have to push out an update to the user, you can make it so the icon on the home screen changes so users can see there is new information, and they can open up that channel and view the data. With message push, you re pushing the web page out to the users in the same fashion. However, instead of producing a new icon on their home screen, what happens is a new message appears in 5

8 the user s message inbox on the handheld. Just as if they received an , the user s handheld will notify them of the new message, and in their handheld inbox they now see a link to the web page. This is the concept of a universal inbox in which the user has all of their messages, phone calls, web pushes and the like coming in to that single BlackBerry message list. When it comes to these browser server applications, following are some deployment tips. You can access existing web pages. Perhaps you want to optimize those pages, but you can also leverage the concept of browser push within your applications. What s useful is you re leveraging some of those value propositions of wireless to be pervasive and alert users to new information that s important to them at the time it is important to them. You can leverage browser push in a couple of ways. Channel push will typically be used to push out icons to the home screen for frequently visited web sites such as employee portals on the intranet or perhaps web-based applications. This is the case typically where you have a one-time push or a periodic push of a channel, again an icon to the home screen that resides there so the user can access that page wherever they go. Message push is typically effective for when you re looking at periodic alerts or periodic reporting. Your back-end system has perhaps created a weekly report. What you can do now is develop a simple server site application that grabs that report and proactively pushes it out to BlackBerry handhelds, so the user is alerted. BlackBerry users quickly discover that when their handheld vibrates, it s almost impossible to ignore it. You just have to pull that handheld out and see what the new information is. This is a way to force users to pay attention to reports and engage them in the whole process. It s also effective for periodic alerting. Perhaps you have a back-end system that generates alerts based on a database event. What you can do is create a web page or grab a generated web page and proactively push that to the user. The page will then show up in their inbox just like an , so the user knows they should view that immediately and respond if necessary. One basic tip is to start simple. Take a look at some of your existing web pages. Try to access some of your existing back-end web pages from the BlackBerry Browser. Evaluate the experience and consider whether it s suitable for deployment. You could start to use channel push for a very simple idea of pushing out one or two icons to the device that point to some frequently visited internal web sites. This removes the need for the user to open the browser and go to bookmarks; instead, they have that icon on their home screen. As a third step, think about how you could integrate message push into your applications. What events on the back end make sense to alert the user to and how can you now leverage the notion of message push to have that full lifecycle management within your application? The idea is to leverage the value propositions of wireless and pervasive computing. The custom client/server model The second option for custom application development is the custom client/server solution. In this case you develop and deploy your custom application for the BlackBerry handheld (see Figure 4). For example, on the right in the diagram is a small application called Forecasting, which would be a simple forecasting application for sales folks out in the field. That is the custom Java application that s been designed by a developer. When you develop your own custom Java application as opposed to using the browser, you can have a very customized user interface so the application looks and feels just as you want. You can have clientside logic and client-side data storage so users can access the data whether they re in or out of coverage, without relying on downloading it from the server. Those are some of the advantages you get over a browser-based solution for custom development. When you re developing a custom Java application with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with Mobile Data Service feature, we allow Java applications on the handheld to communicate with back-end servers behind the firewall. In many cases you can develop applications that talk to your existing back-end server applications and again in some cases you will develop new server-side applications that communicate with the client on the handheld. When you develop your own custom Java application, it gets loaded onto the handheld and is resident there at all times. We will cover Java and J2ME to give awareness of where things have come. Historically, there were three main versions of Java. Now Java is a programming language. It was developed relatively recently based on new Internet technologies and a newer generation of programming models. The first version is Java 2 Standard Edition or J2SE. J2SE is designed to run on desktops or laptops. J2SE has a number of Java API libraries and a Java virtual machine that is designed to run client applications 6

9 Figure 4 on a desktop. The second version is Java 2 Enterprise Edition, or J2EE. J2EE is a set of Java libraries designed to run on servers. This is the case where you have a Java server application that needs to connect to back-end databases, to do whatever it needs to do to present a presentation layer back to the client. There are added APIs in J2EE to do functions that you would typically do in an application that runs on a server. Several years ago a number of committees decided Java was a great programming language that could really be leveraged on wireless and small devices. But J2SE and J2EE by nature were too large to port onto small devices because they took too much memory to run and install. So the Java 2 Micro Edition or J2ME was defined as a small subset of Java APIs and Java API libraries designed to run on small, constrained devices that don t have hundreds of megabytes of memory or RAM. J2ME is a new standard set of Java API libraries designed to run on BlackBerry handhelds, cell phones, PDAs and so on. RIM has adopted Java and J2ME as the standard development environment for all of our BlackBerry handhelds for the GSM/GPRS, iden and CDMA networks on the market today. Again, these are the handhelds that include integrated phone capabilities. Moving forward, Java and J2ME will be the standard upon which BlackBerry handhelds are based. With this J2ME and Java environment, you can now develop custom client applications with the BlackBerry Java Development Kit that leveraged these standard Java APIs. We released the BlackBerry Java Development Environment or JDE version 3.6 in spring This Development Environment is free for download from the BlackBerry web site ( and it is based on the J2ME standard that is set across the board. The BlackBerry Java Development Environment includes a full Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that allows you to create applications, build them and test the applications on the PC before deploying them to the handhelds. The BlackBerry simulator does run the same version of handheld code as the actual handhelds do, which tends to show how the application will run on a real device. Within the Java Development Environment there is a whole host of Java APIs that you can use to develop your own applications. These APIs are categorized into a few standard libraries. Figure 5 shows a summary of the types of APIs that are available when building a custom Java application for BlackBerry. 7

10 Figure 5 There are APIs to allow you to design a robust and customizable user interface so you can create your own screens, fields and menus. You also have the ability through the APIs to store data on the handheld so you can create your own persistent store, store data to the flash memory, and that data will reside on the handheld even if the device is reset or the battery is taken out. So you can persistently store that memory so the application has access to it at all times, even when out of wireless coverage. There are APIs for event listening and system interfaces. Through the Java APIs you can listen for events such as when the user clicks on the trackwheel or when the user presses a key on the device or when a new message or a new calendar entry is being created on the BlackBerry. There are a number of interesting event listening APIs that allow your application to respond and act on events that happen on the device, whether they re user initiated or system initiated. Then there are the wireless transport APIs. In this case, thanks to Java, the standard is HTTP. HTTP is a common transport API used for most Internet-based applications. That means Java applications on the handheld can make HTTP calls to your back-end web servers and application servers. That abstracts all the difficulties of wireless from you. You don t have to worry about wireless protocols and so on. It s all abstracted to HTTP, which makes it easy for you as a developer to leverage. For more advanced applications, RIM provides other APIs. We also give you the ability to do push-based applications in which your application automatically starts in the background and you can now push new data to your application at all times. No matter what the user is doing, even if they haven t opened your application yet, you can be listening for incoming push data, and again as those alerts or new data come in, you can update your application and perhaps alert the user by making the device tone or vibrate or popping up a screen to the user to say, "alert," such-and-such has happened, or "here s some new data about this customer you should be aware of." Figure 6 shows a sample application. It s a callreporting application for sales people in the field. The service reps go to customer sites, they meet with customers, and you want them to be able to submit a report on what happened at the time it happened. 8

11 In this example we are developing a little application for the BlackBerry handheld that allows them to enter all the details of the meeting from the Black- Berry handheld as it happens. They don t have to wait until they go back to the office, log into their PC or laptop and enter the information. We decided to build a custom Java application here to provide the optimal user experience for the salespeople. The user can launch the application from the home screen, and this produces a simple list of existing customers. In this case they could navigate to the customer they just met with, select that customer, bring up a menu that might say, "Create a new call report." As you can see in the diagram, we might provide the ability to view previous call reports with that customer, which can be very valuable where the sales rep is at the customer s site or just walking in the door, and they want a quick refresher on what happened with this customer over the last six months. So the user may create a new call report, including the details of that meeting: what was the objective, what was the result, who attended, and what were some notes. This could be adopted for existing systems, whether they be call reporting or anything else that you may use within your enterprise. This Java application is very simple. What would happen is the user would then click on the trackwheel after entering in the details and say "Save" or "Submit." On the bottom half of the diagram you can see what would happen is that after the user clicks on Save, the Java application would establish a connection back to a server-side application running behind the firewall. The application would connect to a standard URL, and it would send the data back to that application behind the firewall. That application would then read in all of the data and update your back-end databases and so on. All of the transport to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the end-to-end encryption are seamless to your application. This happens automatically so you don t have to worry about getting behind the firewall or making it secure. What does that server-side application actually look like? Typically what will happen is you will have a server application that listens on HTTP for the incoming data from the handheld, processes that information locally, parses that information, forms some logic on it and then it will interact with the back-end database to either insert the information or respond to a query or something like that. Most server-side applications have these three tiers: the listen- Figure 6 9

12 ing interface (which is HTTP), the core application logic, and finally, those connectors to the back-end databases that house all of the data. This may be an existing application, a Java Servlet or something developed in the.net Framework. It might be an existing JSP. Perhaps you want to develop a new application for your web servers using Java or a.net language such as C or C++ to handle the response or request from a client and interact with your back-end databases. Although you re developing with Java and J2ME on the handheld, on the server side you can use any standard programming language as long as it supports HTTP. As opposed to making this a browser-based application, you can have an optimized user interface for searching for data on the handheld, for entering data on the handheld, and so on. With the Java application you can store the relevant data locally so it s always available to the end user. They can view their customer data while they re out of coverage; they can submit data while out of coverage. Your application can be designed to queue that up so that when they do go into coverage it gets synched behind the scenes. This application can have secure connectivity to your back-end web or application servers today to talk to them using the HTTP protocol. Understanding the options Figure 7 gives a summary of the three different models for extending BlackBerry beyond in the enterprise. There are two custom development options, of which the first is a browser-based application. In this case you re leveraging the BlackBerry Browser on the handheld. This is typically suitable for extending existing web-based applications that you may have today. Browser-based solutions are typically very easy to deploy because no wirelessspecific development is required. But you can also leverage the value of push to distribute updates and information to your users. The second option is custom client/server development using Java and J2ME technology. Client/server applications are usually suitable for extending existing client/server applications that you have in your infrastructure or perhaps existing browser-based applications for which you want a more custom look and feel on the BlackBerry handhelds. With Java cus- Figure 7 10

13 tom client/server solutions, you can control and optimize the user experience and how the user interacts with the application whether on or offline. The third option is to deploy existing packaged third-party solutions. In this case, no development is required on your side. You re leveraging the expertise of BlackBerry third-party ISV alliance partners to bring in these solutions and make them reliable within your enterprise. Whether you go with a browser-based, a Java-based or a third-party application, all of these solutions can leverage the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Mobile Data Service, the end-to-end encryption, the push architecture and the network independence. Any of these applications can be designed to run on all wireless networks that support BlackBerry. You don t have to worry about security and network connectivity. How do you know which approach to take: browser solution, custom client/server solution or a thirdparty application? There is no simple answer, but you can ask yourself some questions to help identify which approach might be right for you. How large is the expected application user base? If you plan on rolling out a small application to a team of 10 or 20 people, custom development may be the best option for you. If you re rolling out to hundreds or thousands of users, you may want to consider a thirdparty solution, as they tend to be more robust and experienced. Do you already have a web-based front end to your existing back-end applications? If so, then the BlackBerry Browser may be the best option for initial deployment and adoption since it s very simple and quick to roll out. Other questions: How critical is out-of-coverage support for your application? Is this critical for functionality or for user adoption? If your salesperson can t get access to customer information while out of coverage, how much value is there in that application? If out-of-coverage support is critical, then think about an application on the handheld, which would either be a custom Java app or a third-party solution. Is full end-to-end reliability and synchronization of data critical to your application? If 100% reliability and 100% data synchronization is absolutely critical in this case, then you may want to think about leveraging a third-party solution because that s what a lot of these partners provide: expertise in the areas of wireless synchronization, wireless push technology and how to make sure all of those transactions get back and forth whether in or out of coverage. What is your user base and will your application need to support the original BlackBerry handhelds for Mobitex and DataTAC networks, or only the BlackBerry handhelds for GSM/GPRS, CDMA and/or IDEN networks with the integrated phone? If you re in a situation where you have to support both types of BlackBerry handhelds, then you can rule out Java-based development immediately because the original BlackBerry handhelds do not support that. You may want to think about a third-party application because most of our partners do support both platforms, or perhaps a browser-based solution based on a WML front end, which is again something common across all of those BlackBerry handhelds. For more information Those are some things to think about when looking at applications beyond with BlackBerry. RIM also offers a number of additional resources: The BlackBerry Developer Zone is located at Here you will find quite a bit of documentation and sample code for how to build either a browser-based solution or a Java client/server solution. You will find the BlackBerry Java Development Environment, which includes our handheld simulators for simulating both the browser or your own custom Java application. There are other resources such as the Technical Knowledge Center ( and a Developer Discussion Forum ( that you can explore for more information on development. You can find also information on BlackBerry third-party solutions on the site. There is also an archive of BlackBerry web seminars on the web site at events/web_seminars_archive.shtml 11

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