In the Windows Mobile world you can create a so-called Today plugin that adds content to the phone's main screen -- the one where you see the number of missed calls, unread sms and upcoming events. Is it possible to do something similar on the BlackBerry? I'd like to show some important info there, so that they are as visible and as easily reachable as possible.
To provide some information on the Home Screen you can use App Icon:
Add a notification icon at the status bar in BlackBerry JDE 4.5.0
alt text http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6459/icoupdate3.jpg
Other thing available from RIM OS 4.6 if app indicator:
Blackberry - How to use notification icon in statusbar
alt text http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3807/standardindicator.png
These things are already displayed on the ribbon depending on the theme.
If you want to create/modify a theme, use the Plazmic CDK.
There are two ways to put individual icons onto the ribbon (similar to icons like mail, calendar, address book, browser, maps, etc):
channel push: easiest if the user is on a BES, now a way to do it for the non-enterprise people on BIS called WebSignals.
write a midp or rimlet j2me application. Rimlet preferred unless you really need compatibility with other (non-RIM) j2me midp devices.
OK, there is technically a third way, but I really don't think it's serious: MDS Studio.
All the tools are free but you may need a code signing key if you're writing a rimlet using a secure API.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/docs/developers/?userType=21
Related
Is is possible to dynamically figure out the position of an app's icon on the home screen of an iphone/ipad?
Sorry I don't have enough credit to comment yet so I'm posting here.
To my knowledge no you cannot natively or easily do this. I know of no open source or other libraries. The reason being that your app exists in its own world, it is not in touch per say with the rest of the device. It can get permissions to read and write data but it doesn't know of itself.
Does that make sense?
When you open a website it cannot know which tab it is in the browser. Instead it knows how it was accessed and what device (physically) is using it. It knows the user-agent, the time, the browser, etc because that is information sent to it in the request. In turn the phone on launch gives data to the app in how to handle it but not for example how many other apps are running, or where it is on the screen. It's not normally considered relevant to run time. In addition it's a security feature in preventing an app from deleting or altering other apps, as well as itself. If you have an iPhone you will notice that SIRI cannot turn off google maps navigation or any other non-apple specific app. Only apps natively comparable and private party ones (ex apples) are accessible because Apple did that intentionally. They all know of their own existence and each others. However non-native in the sense of apps that do not come preinstalled and manufactured by the company creating the device are less trustworthy, in addition there are no guarantees about how they will be run by the device, where they will be, or what other apps will be there.
It is true that an app can request for another app it may be comparable with but it is up the user to handle that information.
May I ask for curiosities sake why you are trying to do this? Are there any other workarounds?
However in terms of it being physically possible, yes. I doubt that apple allows independent developers to do this however. But an example of this occurring may be gridlock where a user can move their apps around differently on the screen. The app in this case has the ability to access app position. But I believe in this case app position is about the UI and not about nested files. apps cannot to my knowledge modify information outside of their own file. Imagine if you had an app that could edit other games scores.
It is not possible to dynamically find out the position of an app's icon on the Home Screen (even for jailbreak apps). Apple wants you to respect the user's privacy settings.
Extra Info - There is popular JavaScript library that adds a promo bubble to the bottom of your mobile web application, inviting users to bookmark the app to their device's home screen.
In android apps, it's very easy to show a tooltip (they call that a Toast). But I can't find an easy way to do the same in iOS apps.
I saw several things about this question, but my goal is to publish my app on the app store, so I want to use a proper way to do these tooltips...
Then, is there any way to do a tooltip according to Apple philosophy ?
There is no Android Toast equivalent built in. Many people use MBProgressHUD.
I'm using Xamarin.Android and I would like to build an application that start in modal way and don't close if you push the home button.
So this application need to be the only one application than a user can use on device.
Somebody can suggest how it can be done?
You best way to do is to make a "Launcher"/"Home" application. The Android SDK comes with a sample on how to do this.
You basically do this by adding your main Activity to the android.intent.category.HOME and android.intent.category.DEFAULT category and you set the launchMode to singleInstance.
This will register it as a Home application, then when you press your home button it should ask you to choose which launcher you want to use. You will have to set it once and it can be changed by the user.
You can find the sample in: android-sdk\samples\android-17\Home\src\com\example\android\home (should also be available in the other API samples).
You cant stop people from installing applications on android devices. You would have to build your own hardware for that however, you can override OnKeyTouch and check for the key being home.
You could build a service that checks the package of each running application and log which applications are run on the device to prevent users from using company property on other things. However, if android ever decides to kill your application the service should stop and this wont work.
Long story short what you are trying to do is flawed in its inception given the platform you are trying to do it on.
I want to remove "Delete" menu for application from home screen or download folder or wherever it is placed.
How can i achieve this?
Thanks
As I understand you would want your application to be installed so that the user CANNOT delete the application.
First, you will need to rethink if this requirement is justified. Suppose you are the end user and purchased the latest and greatest Blackberry phone for $600 and you install this application which you have found to be annoying (say this application sends SMS to some unknown number) and blast your phone bill. Ask yourself if you want to have the ability to delete this application.
Second, with this kind of feature, you will NEVER be able to host your application in Blackberry App World. Your application will be rejected outright. Consumers will not be able to install your app from App World.
Third, it is not possible to accomplish this. The following changes can be made to your application's icon
Change the application name of displayed
Change the application's Icon. This can be useful to alert the user that there is something interesting happening with the application.
Change the application's roll over icon.
That's it!
Nothing else if possible.
Is there a way of making a phonecall within an application using Browser application development ? (for example using a link with a protocol similar to 'mailto:user#example.com' but that would make phonecalls instead of sending mails.)
If not, is it possible to make phonecalls using the Rapid application development ?
If this an app hosted in a browser, Blackberry respects WAP conventions for encoding a phone number.
Here's an example snipppit for displaying a number that is callable via a Blackberry device:
<a href='wtai://wp/mc;5551231367' title='Call'>555.123.1367</a>
I've been using this approch for some time now and it works for me. When the user clicks the link, a dialog from the OS pops up and asks if you would like to call this number.
Additional Information
I also recommend checking out Blackberry's additional resources on development. Since the current browser is still in the stone age compared to iPhone/Android it's worth seeing what's possible.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/docs/subcategories/?userType=21&category=BlackBerry+Browser