Microsoft has announced the Edge browser, which does not support ActiveX.
I have an app that needs to get info from the Windows registry, so I have some questions about alternatives to ActiveX:
Is there a way to communicate with a native app (that can read from the Windows registry) from Edge or something similar (like native messaging in Chrome)?
Is there a way to directly access the Windows registry from Edge, Javascript, or the like?
Currently I see no way for you to access the registry from a web application running in MS Edge. If you just need to save information there are different alternatives you can chose from to enable similar capabilities.
You could use storage options available with HTML/JS like webStorage or indexedDB. They are both available in all modern browsers and could be used to to save data on the client.
If the application supposed to be available just on Windows 10 you might think about builing a hosted web app (http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/07/06/project-westminster-in-a-nutshell/) This technology eables you to access some features of the Windows operating system, but not the registry.
If your app is highly dependent on ActiveX and the Windows registry you can still use Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10.
Few days before my answer, Microsoft just introduced Native-messaging between Edge extensions & Native apps on their online document:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/extensions/guides/native-messaging
which might afford what you need.
Related
I have a multi-platform mobile app that I am releasing on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Blackberry 10 (WebWorks). For the other three non-BB platforms, I have a way to distribute the enterprise app via a web server (user installs by clicking a link on a web page inside of a mobile browser). However, for BB10 Webworks, I can't seem to find a documented way to distribute a .bar file in this same manner.
Options:
1) I have seen docs that discuss placing Java-based apps (.jad and .cod files) on a web server for OTA distro, but can't find any documentation on being able to do the same with BB10 .bar files.
2) Blackberry App World - but this is public, which is not what I want for this enterprise app
3) Blackberry App World for Work and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 - both of these seem to be overkill for my modest purpose. I only have a single app and simply need a download link, not full app/device management, app catalogs, etc.
Is it possible to do #1 with .bars? Or is there another option I have not considered?
Thanks
I was not aware that sandboxed users could see apps other users couldn't, as mentioned in the one of the answer - something for me to try!
The only other option I am aware of is to "side load" the bar file, you can side load with various tools which you can find if you search, such as:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-10-os-f269/how-get-bb10-hardware-id-sideload-app-bar-file-into-blackberry-10-a-780773/
http://forums.crackberry.com/android-app-sideloading-f279/how-sideload-apps-bb10-device-easy-way-windows-825656/
I haven't tried out these tools, sorry.
I actually do it using the tools you get with the Android Command line toolset - available from BB web site here:
http://developer.blackberry.com/android/tools/
but this approach are not 'user friendly'. I use it because I have converted a few Android apps to run on BB10 and so got to know the tools.
I can't say that these tools are safe, since I don't actually know them, but what I can say is that I am not aware of any way that a PC based tool sending something over the internet (or USB) to your BB10 could break it, nor am I aware of any way that a side loaded app could break your BB10. The days of bricking your BB devise with a dubious bit of software do seem (thankfully) to be over.
Edit: Just thought I would update this given the options that Nate has found, which I also didn't know about!
Both the sites Nate has found seem to work in the same way as the tools I mentioned above. My understanding of all these tools is that they run a deploy utility, that connects to the BB10 device via a TCP/IP connection (which could be routed over WiFi or USB), and sends the bar file over this connection. The connection is initiated by the deploy utility, which is why it has to be in the same network.
There is likely some BBRY proprietary protocol involved, which includes an exchange of the password, as the password supplied to the deploy utility must match the development password on the device.
Now I strongly suspect that BBRY have not published the specification for this communication. I also strongly suspect that the password is never seen in the clear, so you could not use some tool like Wireshark to reverse engineer this. My suspicions therefore is that the tools, including the two I have pointed you at, all run something like the Android Command line tool under the covers - and they got this from BBRY. So perhaps you can build something like the web sites yourself - assuming you have the time and inclination of course.
Just a thought and just my opinion.
There is probably a better way, but I don't know about it. Anyway: you can deploy an app to the BB World, but not put it up for sale, then add users accounts to your sandbox. They, and only them, will be able to download your application, which will not be shown on the BB World to anyone else.
This isn't natively supported on BlackBerry 10, but it looks like there are a few hacks that people have already figured out to make this work.
Depending on your needs, these may or may not work for you (see especially the security caveats on the FAQ pages).
https://sideswype.me/
https://barinstall.com
These appear to take advantage of a VPN security hole. BlackBerry has previously patched this hole, but according to the BarInstall site, the owner just added support for 10.2, to work around the patch.
Both of these services do charge a modest fee, but it may be easier for you than maintaining a BES server.
Peter Strange's answer is quite comprehensive for the time it was written. I will just add that with the release of BB 10.2 you have the option to distribute your application OTA as an APK. Since you are using HTML5 for development I suspect there will be little performance difference between running the APK and running the BAR. But that is something you can check out if you have, or know someone with a BB10 device. Performance should improve with the release of 10.3.
I'd like my Blackberry devices to get and possibly set data to the server, and am a little confused by all the options:
RIM-Push/Pap-Push. Use any library that is able to compose a HTTP GET request to the MDS-CS service (not MDS-IS). This is a one way operation from the server to the device.
RIM-Push (Push a URL and or shorcut to a device for possible offline viewing)
PAP-Push (Same as above, BUT allows for message confirmation of delivery)
WebServices: Use Visual Studio 2008 to create a Web Services only project. I'm unclear if this is supported anymore, or if MDS-IS is used. This is a 2 way operation.
MDS-IS: Use Eclipse to develop the applications and Java is required, I am unsure of what client libraries are able to do (2 way operation).
Let me know if missing any option, or if I need to revise my understanding of the basics
This is actually quite a broad question - there are a lot of ways for a BlackBerry device to interact with a server, and the ideal way depends heavily on your specific application.
Generally:
MDS Studio: the Visual Studio 2008 method is no longer actively supported. It was a mostly visual forms designer, but not a great solution for a lot of reasons. Basically, don't use it.
Mobile Web: Depending on what you need to do, this might work. Everything server side. The thing to be aware of (and why this doesn't work for a lot of problems) is that prior to BlackBerry 6 the browser wasn't very capable, either in terms of HTML support or JavaScript support. You can, however, create shortcuts to mobile web sites which appear as icons on the BlackBerry homescreen. And you can use BlackBerry Web Signals: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/browserdev/websignals.jsp to push changes to mobile web pages to devices
Widgets: Supported in BlackBerry OS 5 and higher. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/browserdev/widgetsdk.jsp These are packaged much like 'native' BlackBerry apps, but written using HTML and JavaScript. Can be a good option for rapid development if you're ok with just targeting OS 5, and with the limitations of the BlackBerry Browser. Lots of JavaScript hooks to system functions, so they give you more functionality than pure mobile web, and you can distribute them through App World and the like.
Java Apps: Most development work, but you get potentially the best user experience, and the most functionality. Too broad a topic to cover adequately here, but there are a lot of questions related to these on SO and elsewhere. A good starting point is the BlackBerry developer zone: http://www.blackberry.com/developers RIM Push and PAP Push both fall into this category, as they interact with Java apps, though there are other methods that you can use to achieve similar results (client polling, or I've even seen SMS or email used to push info or wake up a client, though this isn't recommended by RIM).
For a deeper overview of the options I'd recommend a book by my friend John Wargo, called BlackBerry Development Fundamentals. He covers the various options pretty well.
Just got a car with the Microsoft sync system in it. Did a quick search online and was curious if anyone is aware of any SDK that may exist, sample open source add-on applications, etc.
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE:
Looks like Ford has finally released their SDK:
https://developer.ford.com/
Ford has a website SYNC Mobile Application Developer Network but the SYNC SDK does not look to be available yet (their site mentions possibly later this year). It appears they are stilling working on the API before releasing it. All they are offering now is a way to register to be notified of new info as it becomes available.
From their About page:
Ford is hard at work developing an API
to allow developers to integrate their
Smartphone applications with SYNC. The
Developer Program website will educate
developers about the Ford SYNC
platform and how to interact with it
via the API. There will be a full set
of documentation, example
applications, reference libraries, and
even a developer forum so you can
reach out to the community for quick
help.
With the available SYNC API's, mobile
application developers will be able to
do some of the following:
Create a voice UI for your application using the in-vehicle
speech recognition system.
Write information to the radio head display or in-vehicle touchscreen
Speak text using text-to-speech engine.
Use the in-vehicle menu system to provide commands or options for
your mobile application
Get button presses from the radio and steering wheel controls.
Receive vehicle data (speed, GPS location, fuel economy, etc.)
The official API and full website
launch is set to be targeted for later
this year.
It looks like the SDK is coming very soon. The story was just posted on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/ford-to-give-sync-some-app-store-flavor-opening-api-to-devs-in/
Now just imagine what you could do with access to your automobile functionality!
I don't think there is any. Its a closed ecosystem.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/09/ces-2009-sync-could-one-day-add-app-development-like-iphone/
From what I understand it is based on the CE 6.0 platform using windows automotive 4.1, but I could be wrong. We really need a forum to get this going. Hurry up Ford! Release the SDK!
Given the way Windows automotive is there is only two ways of putting a ROM on Sync. Using JTAG to put your own custom bootloader (forget it), or though the USB. Which you will need to know how to sign the file so sync will think it is an OEM ROM. So at this point even if you were able to come up with your own custom rom by using Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ you would still have no way to get it on there.
BTW, the SDK they are talking about releasing will only be to develop apps for applink. (not modifying the OS). However, to upload the apps we might be able to find out how to sign the .bin file for sync to accept a ROM through the USB.
Then again this is just from my understanding... I am no great developer or anything.
Ford launched sdk in ces, check it out: http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/08/ford-launches-its-openxc-sdk-and-hardware-specs-to-let-developers-access-its-cars-sensors-and-metrics/
We have a range of PC demonstration programs for our microcontroller products. The programs typically connect to a USB HID chip on the microcontroller board. The USB chip acts as a communications bridge, allowing the programs to communicate with the micros over SPI/I2C/UART. The programs can configure the micros, and get back status information to display to the user.
We are now looking to build some standalone demonstrations using single board PCs. We would like to reuse as much as possible of our existing demo app source code. Ideally, we could just run them as-is.
Does anybody have any advice on the best way forward? The basic options seem to be WinCE or XP Embedded boards. WinCE boards seem to pull less power, which would be an advantage from a battery life point of view.
Our existing demos are built either in C++ under Borland Builder, or in Delphi.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: see my answer below with info from a board vendor.
Free Pascal/Lazarus can compile some forms of Delphi apps to WiNCE/arm. Even visual ones.
There isn't a Delphi version for WinCE, so you would need to rewrite the applications. The same applies for the Borland Builder's control libraries. Only if you have used plain Win32 API, you would be able to port your application to WinCE easily. You may also encounter problems with the hardware access part. The Serial Port driver may not work as is. Also, you need to find a WinCE board that can act as USB host and provides HID drivers (this isn't very common).
In conclusion, I believe that you would be better of with Windows XP Embedded boards. These should run your applications as they are.
As an update, and for future reference, I thought I'd post the results of our discussions with a WinCE board vendor here. Caveat: I haven't actually tried any of this.
The bottom line is that there isn't a straightforward way to do what we were hoping for (i.e., re-compile our existing demo applications to run under WinCE). The reason is that the generic HID drivers and standard APIs that exist in desktop flavours of Windows just aren't there in WinCE.
To talk to HID devices in WinCE you need to implement a custom HID driver. This needs to support an interface allowing user mode applications to communicate with the driver, and to construct HID reports to be sent to the physical device. As this interface would itself be custom, application code needs to be updated accordingly.
WinCE application development is generally done using Visual Studio and the Microsoft compilers. The approach recommended to us was:
Create a custom HID class driver. This could be based on, for instance, the Microsoft keyboard HID driver.
Create an API for talking to the driver.
Use .net to create our GUI applications, and use PInvoke to actually talk to the API.
The end result of all this head-scratching is that to avoid the time and learning curve associated with this approach, we're going to go for a board running XP. We can then use our existing demo applications straight out of box. The trade-off is that we'll have to live with substantially reduced battery life.
Every indication I have, based on my experience in embedded computing is that doing something like this would require expensive equipment to get access to the platform (ICE debuggers, JTAG probes, I2C programmers, etc, etc), but I've always wondered if some ambitious hacker out there has found a way to load native code on a Blackberry device. Anyone?
Edit: I'm aware of the published SDK and it's attendant restrictions. I'm curious if anyone has attempted to get around them, and if so, how far they got.
I've seen this question pop up in a number of different forums over time. The original Blackberries were programmable in C++ but I think that RIM ran up against the problems of trying to implement a secure platform in the C/C++ compile to native paradigm.
The devices do have JTAG ports, but unless one could get hands on the RIM code as a place to start the problem is enormous.
I also have to wonder how useful a Blackberry with a replacement FOSS operating system would be, since it would not likely have the protocols to connect to BES or BIS, send PIN's etc. If one was simply looking for a the power of the hand held computing platform I suspect there are many more likely candidates available.
No, C++ is no longer a supported RIM development tool, as they phased it out a number of years ago. Client applications can be developed in Java (or one of a few 5GL frameworks), and web + sever-side apps can be developed using standard tools.
For those looking for updated information, the new Playbook os, also known as QNX, also known as Blackberry 10 (or it will be when the phones running it come out) is in fact c/c++ based, also using QML and a C++ add on called Cascades.
Unfortunately the official SDK website only seems to mention Java. According to wikipedia, different versions of the BlackBerry use different processors. Combined with the fact that RIM uses a proprietary operating system for the devices, it becomes pretty difficult to develop native code without official tools. There is also a partial API-level security restriction which would further prohibit advanced tinkering.
Just randomly searching for an answer to this and came across http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Tablet-OS-SDK-for-Adobe-AIR/Native-C-C-SDK/td-p/778009 which mentions that BB intend to release a C/C++ SDK soon, more details will be provided at the 2011 Game Developer Conference.