[Nalinith]

Hello Everyone,
I don't want to take the credit for bringing this wonderful application to crackberry. I'm just posting it here in a way where it will be more search friendly and that so people know what it is by the first post. (Thanks shuck7!!!)

BerryBlab by footose is an application that lets you view vBulletin message boards without the need of using your browser. It should work on all devices that are 4.5+, including storm. However, that forum needs BerryBlab installed, which CrackBerry does! (From what I hear it takes 1-5 minutes to install it on a forum) If your having problems I've included several FAQs below.

Features:
* Multiple Forum access
* User Login
* View Forums
* View Sub Forums
* Private Messaging - View, Reply, Reply All, New
* View Latest Threads
* View Subscribed Threads
* Reply to Posts
* Create New Threads
* View Images as thumbnails and fullsize

Loading the main CrackBerry forums from WAP.CrackBerry.com takes approximately 70kb's.

Loading the same forum using BerryBlab takes less than 20kb's, which cuts loadtime by ~70%.

Also, the big part of this for me was making it specifically for BlackBerry. I just really couldn't stand surfing my site on the Browser.

!! List of Forums that work with BerryBlab

OTA Download:
Go to: vBulletin BlackBerry App | BerryBlab.com

BerryBlab on a 8530












Video comparison WAP vs BerryBlab:

Do I get charged for using data on my device?
BerryBlab uses the same connection as your BlackBerry web browser. Make sure you have an approriate dataplan to use BerryBlab

I'm on a BIS, how do I use BerryBlab?
BerryBlab now fully supports BIS! We recommend that if you are on a BIS, that you manually set your connection type to "BIS-B". You can do this by Opening BerryBlab, Press the BlackBerry Key, Select "Settings", Change connection type from "Auto Detect" to "BIS-B"

Tunnel Failed" Error
Your BlackBerry is having a tough time connecting to the internet. You may need to manually set your connection inside of BerryBlab, or set your APN settings.

"APN" Error
Your BlackBerry is having a tough time connecting to the internet. You may need to manually set your connection inside of BerryBlab, or set your APN settings.

"Malformed UTF-8 (or XML)"
This error usually indicates that the forum configation file is not setup properly for the language that is supported in the forum database. Have the forum administrator set the configuration file to your Encoding Standard type.

"No Permission" Error
You need to give BerryBlab access to your connection. Permission settings.

BerryBlab looks "really small" on my Storm / Storm 2
You downloaded the keyboard version of BerryBlab! Please erase it completely from your phone, reboot, and revisit vBulletin BlackBerry App | BerryBlab.com to download the Storm/2 version.

ConnectionIO doesn't not exist
Your phone Operating System is too old! It is likely you are running OS 4.3. Please connect your BlackBerry to your Desktop manager and upgrade to OS 4.5 or greater

DNSException when adding a forum
You have probably typed in the wrong URL for your forum. Make sure you specify the forum URL exactly. You may also have incorrect APN settings..

I've tried everything and I can't connect! What now?
Contact us! I will be happy to personally help you get connected!

I found a bug and I have tons of ideas to make this app better!
We love feedback! Use our contact page to get in touch with us and tell us about bugs, feature ideas and other feedback!

Setting Your BlackBerry's APN

Some users may need to setup their APN for their phone carrier / provider. An APN is an "Access Point Name" which is sometimes required to access unrestricted data networks on Smartphones.

A list of APN's for your carrier / provider can be found here: PinStack APN List

* On your BlackBerry, go to "Options" > "Advanced Options" > "TCP/IP"
* Check the "APN Settings Enabled" checkbox
* Enter the APN
* If the APN requires a Username / Password, check the "APN Authentication Enabled" checkbox
* Enter the Username and Password
* Save on Exit

Setting Your BlackBerry's App Permissions

Some users may need to change their phone's permissions to allow the berryblab app to properly connect to the internet. If you are having issues signing into berryblab, etc. you can change your app permissions as follows:

* On your BlackBerry, go to "Options" > "Advanced Options" > "Applications"
* Scroll through the list to find the "BerryBlab" app
* Hit the menu button and select "Edit Permissions" from context menu
* Change the permissions for "Connections", "Interactions" and "User Data" to "Allow"
* On exit, save the changes

I'm getting this error when I'm trying to reply/create a topic.


You're post count is most likely less than 10. When you post using BerryBlab it links to the BerryBlab website. In this case, you won't be able to fully use BerryBlab until you have a post count greater than 10. This issue hasn't been addressed yet.

[Hosehead13]

This is a great app. We use it for our Fire/EMS Forum site as well.

[joski]

Thanks a lot for posting this - checking it out now!

[footose]

Glad you guys like it!

My name is Harry, the Developer for BerryBlab. This is one of the biggest forums BerryBlab has been installed on so far (besides some Arabic forums) so hopefully there aren't any issues. If you have ANY problems, let me know immediately either here or using the contact form on vBulletin BlackBerry App | BerryBlab.com. I'm working with CrackBerry to ensure that this app works perfectly here.

[Wuzz Ranger]

Im gonna give it a try. Thank you Harry!

[sushistew]

what are other features of berrblab that i would want to use it over the browser?
i never heard of it till now. thanks

[bushd]

I'm testing this software out right now but if you're a Storm 2 (VZW current firmware) if you get an error trying to add a forums server to the list go into Options->Applications and edit permissions for BerryBlab to Allow Interactions instead of custom.

[shuck7]

wow just posted last night because i liked it so much for bbhybrids. thank you so much for getting this and thank you to the entire community for showing interest. this makes my life so much easier posting on crackberry and viewing it faster. thank you crackberry.com if only everything was this easy.

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[Nalinith]

what are other features of berrblab that i would want to use it over the browser?
i never heard of it till now. thanks

Well, for one instead of messing with the browser you can use a nicely laid out application instead. The application when viewing topics will show a short description of each one, I haven't seen the mobile site do this. If you visit multiple forums that are using vBulletin (of course having them have this modification) you could view them all from one application.

[Wuzz Ranger]

Well, for one instead of messing with the browser you can use a nicely laid out application instead. The application when viewing topics will show a short description of each one, I haven't seen the mobile site do this. If you visit multiple forums that are using vBulletin (of course having them have this modification) you could view them all from one application.

+1 Very True

[papped]

Woo, CB finally supports it, was waiting for that.

Tired of how bad the CB mobile forum looks at 320x240...

[dchawk81]

Too bad there isn't something that can reformat ANY forum into a mobile friendly view. Not all forum administrators/owners are willing to install third party add-ons.

[DenverRalphy]

Just downloaded and installed and love this app! =)

One feature I would like to see added would be a popup/alert in the BB-browser that notifies you when you happen to stumble upon a message forum that uses the berryblab plugin and prompts you to launch berryblab, add forum to berryblab, etc...

Is there by chance a forum for BerryBlab? Searching didn't seem to find any. I'm asking because it would be nice to have someplace to submit ideas for features etc.

[papped]

Too bad there isn't something that can reformat ANY forum into a mobile friendly view. Not all forum administrators/owners are willing to install third party add-ons.

You can with something like Skweezer, the problem is that they don't store login info permanently and stuff like that...

[Nalinith]

Too bad there isn't something that can reformat ANY forum into a mobile friendly view. Not all forum administrators/owners are willing to install third party add-ons.

Yeah, but you do get more features with the ability of using a plugin.

[papped]

Nm, will send them feedback...

[footose]

what are other features of berrblab that i would want to use it over the browser?
i never heard of it till now. thanks

BerryBlab is still new

I am probably bias, since I developed the software but here's WHY I developed it:

I run a medium size forum. A lot of my users are BlackBerry owners, and they had problems using the site on their phone. I didn't own a BlackBerry for a long time, but once I got one I also found it difficult to do simple tasks on the forum - Login - View Threads - Post a Topic .. etc.

A lot of smaller forum owners can't hire Developers to create WAP themes, or dont' have the knowledge / experience to do so. Developing a custom template for vBulletin and smartphones is such a hassle IMO. Regardless of what you do, it's still difficult to browse certain parts of ANY forum. This way, the plugin and BerryBlab completely negates the need for a WAP version of a site.

Given the above, I wanted to make an application that:

- Loaded the forum quickly and easily
- Used native BlackBerry functions - scrolling, highlighting
- Had all of the basic features of the forum - Read, View, Reply - etc.

The more I developed this app, the more I understood that many other forums had to have this problem, thus BerryBlab was born. It allows you to add any forum that has this plugin installed.

Because of the way I developed the plugin, the data that needs to be transferred to your phone is pretty minimal, much less than WAP and other plugins / apps that are currently available.

For example:

Loading the main CrackBerry forums from WAP.CrackBerry.com takes approximately 70kb's.

Loading the same forum using BerryBlab takes less than 20kb's, which cuts loadtime by ~70%.

Also, the big part of this for me was making it specifically for BlackBerry. I just really couldn't stand surfing my site on the Browser.

I have also purchased an assortment of test devices to make sure that BerryBlab will work on all 4.5+ keyboard devices as well as 4.7+ touchscreen devices.



I'm an independent developer, so this all comes out of my own pocket right now.

Anyway, hopefully that answers your question.

I don't want to make this sound like a sales pitch. I do believe the WAP version of CrackBerry is really nice, and even the free launcher is great as well. Although optimized, at the end of the day it still isn't "native" for our phones, where as BerryBlab is.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[papped]

Your app is much better than the WAP site on 320x240 devices... The wap site looks nice on 480x360, but it is extremely hard to read on 320s240

A minor issue:
"b" stops working for bottom of the page once "Load More" no longer exists.

-Go to a short post on forums.crackberry.com
-Click "Load More" until there are no more items to load
-Now try using "t" and "b". "t" will work, but "b" stops working once there are no more items to load

[Nalinith]

Your app is much better than the WAP site on 320x240 devices... The wap site looks nice on 480x360, but it is extremely hard to read on 320s240

A minor issue:
"b" stops working for bottom of the page once "Load More" no longer exists.

-Go to a short post on forums.crackberry.com
-Click "Load More" until there are no more items to load
-Now try using "t" and "b". "t" will work, but "b" stops working once there are no more items to load

I agree on this point. I enjoy viewing crackberry using BerryBlab over using the browser.

[tucg15]

This app is excellent! Very nice work. Makes navigating the forums such a breeze. Great work and thanks!

[rootbeersoup]

This app refuses to function on my 9700... Both .93 and .995

[footose]

papped: Thx for the feedback, I will add that to my bugs list.

Too bad there isn't something that can reformat ANY forum into a mobile friendly view. Not all forum administrators/owners are willing to install third party add-ons.

It's very unfortunate IMO. The problem is vBulletin doesn't offer any sort of API for their system, which is basically what my Plugin does. If they did, I'm sure this app would have been available years ago, just like Twitter / Facebook.

I tried to make berryblab work WITHOUT installing a plugin, but it was near impossible given that most, if not all vBulletin forums have custom themes so it would be next to impossible to filter out what you "needed" and what you "didn't need"

[papped]

This app refuses to function on my 9700... Both .93 and .995

Set the app permissions to "Allow" for Interactions

[footose]

rootbeersoup

I'd be glad to help you out, add me to BBM: 2094173E

If you are experiencing errors,


Please post:
- The error message
- The Device you are using
- The network you are on

I've had this in beta for so long, it's likely a connection issue. I'm sure I can get you working

papped has found the most common issue - permission settings.

Setting Your BlackBerry's App Permissions

Some users may need to change their phone's permissions to allow the berryblab app to properly connect to the internet. If you are having issues signing into berryblab, etc. you can change your app permissions as follows:

* On your BlackBerry, go to "Options" > "Advanced Options" > "Applications"
* Scroll through the list to find the "BerryBlab" app
* Hit the menu button and select "Edit Permissions" from context menu
* Change the permissions for "Connections", "Interactions" and "User Data" to "Allow"
* On exit, save the changes

[slammin29]

Way kewl, wish our forum had this.