Create a BlackBerry application with open source tools, part 3rd building social networking applications

In the digital age, the impact of social networking applications on consumers and business markets is one of the most attractive wonders. Marketing experts have changed the way they deal with potential customers, and groups with the same interests can be quickly set up, which are inseparable from social networks. The U.S. presidential campaign in the fall of 2008 showed that social networks have become part of a successful political campaign. The combination of social networks and popular, powerful BlackBerry platforms will be a vibrant mix. This tutorial is part 3rd of the "Create a BlackBerry application with open source Tools" series, which explores why the BlackBerry is a powerful mobile device for writing and deploying social networking applications.

Before you start

This series explores how to develop a BlackBerry application with open source and Java™ technology through a mobile phone data collection application. The 1th part introduces the BlackBerry development, including the platform introduction, the BlackBerry development tool overview, and the complete data collection application construction. The 2nd part explores the RSS data release format by creating a BlackBerry RSS reader.

This tutorial is intended for Java developers who are interested in developing a BlackBerry application in a social network application environment. The example in this tutorial demonstrates a basic social network application using a free BlackBerry development tool. Experience with developing a mobile phone application can be helpful, but not necessary. Developing a BlackBerry application must understand Java programming skills, but these techniques are not necessary in this tutorial. Similarly, familiarity with social networking concepts can be helpful, but not required.

About this tutorial

Why do you write social networking apps for your BlackBerry? Social networks are very popular and people want to be able to use them anytime. Many social network users have BlackBerry mobile phones. The BlackBerry platform has matured to build social networks for it. The BlackBerry is a reliable device that can be accessed over the Internet and is also a good message platform. An important feature of most BlackBerry mobile devices is the full keyboard. Digital cameras are handy, but the keyboard is more powerful, and users rely on the keyboard to quickly send messages to friends and business partners. The BlackBerry environment shows an open source programming infrastructure that you can derive a lot of pleasure from. These features provide an opportunity to develop feature-rich social networking applications.

The application built in this tutorial is not a pioneer in this field; There are now commercial social networking applications for BlackBerrys. The sample application in this tutorial demonstrates how to build a useful open source social networking application. Learn how to add custom menus to your application and implement a "Share this event" feature that shows you how to interact with your contact database and schedule events on your BlackBerry. Contacts and events are part of a larger, more general dataset Personal information Management (PIM). When you understand how to interact with the PIM on your device, you can develop your social network as you wish.

This tutorial introduces PIM data briefly, and then discusses the need for developing a BlackBerry social networking application. Download the complete source code for the sample BlackBerry application.

System Requirements

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the BlackBerry development tool to build an open source social networking application for your BlackBerry mobile phone. You will need a BlackBerry Java Development environment (JDE) or other available environment to develop social networking applications.

Sample Code Overview

This tutorial will build a social network application called Ibmcalendar for the BlackBerry device. In the course of reading this article, try to go beyond the basics and think about something more far-reaching; this data will be used for the social networking applications that are built today. Please download the source code. Source code snippets include:

ContactList processes a list of contacts from the PIM database. The Ibmcalendarapplication class contains the entry point for the application. Ibmcalendar Builder This method demonstrates how to add a menu item to a built-in BlackBerry application. Calendarmenus This class contains the menu UI elements for the calendar/timeline application that will be added to the BlackBerry. Calendarmenus.run () This method is invoked when the user chooses to add a custom menu to the Datebook application. Calendarmenus.tostring () This method is very simple, but very important. It controls the text name or label of the menu. Calendarmenus.handlecalendarevent () This method is invoked when a custom menu that is added to a timeline application handles a timeline entry or event. Blackberrycontactlist This class provides contact checking functionality and can find the user's e-mail address. This class demonstrates the interaction with the PIM database from a higher level. Event and contact These two classes are used to extract data from the BlackBerry PIM database. SendEmail This class interacts with the messaging infrastructure of the BlackBerry to send e-mail messages.

PIM Basics

Before installing the BlackBerry JDE and building the application, let's take a look at some basics of PIM.