[studiochris]

Hi everyone--

There's lots of talk lately about side-loading apps onto the PlayBook hardware, something I started thinking about over a year ago when I built and released the first edition of FruitBat to automate the command line tasks of the PlayBook AIR SDK for designers & developers. It has been out there for a while now, but I never thought to post about it here.

As of this morning with its 6th update, it is officially cross-platform and available for Windows XP, Vista & 7 32 & 64-bit as well as Mac OS X, Snow Leopard and Lion. It is an AIR application in itself and requires AIR 2.7 at a minimum to be installed on your machine beforehand.

After installation, putting the PlayBook in development mode and choosing the Tablet launch target from and filling in the Settings/Preferences window with the Tablet OS AIR SDK location, Tablet IP Address and password (at a minimum), installing a signed BAR file is as easy as clicking a single menu item or keyboard shortcut (ctrl/cmd+i). It's quick, easy and completely painless.

Installing unsigned BAR files is supported as well, but the debug token rules still apply. The remaining bits of the AIR and WebWorks SDKs is supported as well -- it does everything (again, it was originally made for developers & designers) with as few steps as possible. Most actions are 1 or 2 clicks at most (depending on if you have to open a menu) and it saves a ton of time as compared to using the command line outright.

Give it a try - it's a free download.

Main page - http://www.studiochris.us/software/fruit-bat/
1.4 release notes - http://www.studiochris.us/2011/fruit...-beta-release/

Let me know what you think about it and let me know if you run into any issues with this build (outside of the few known bugs that have already been sniffed out).

~Chris

[rais.aslam]

Thanks Chris!!!

[Mr.Softberry]

Amazing! thanks a lot.

EDIT: I've tried side-loading a few apps from my mac to my playbook and nothing happens. I've followed all your steps from your website. Help please!

[studiochris]

@Mr.Softberry - If you open the console window, what does it say? The console outputs everything that the SDK would write into Terminal as it does its thing. This includes every step being taken as well as any errors that may occur.

I just tried installing with one of my own BAR files from Mac OS X (10.6.2), and it took forever (I don't know why, but it may be because of virtualization), but it did install the BAR file and launch it... I installed to the simulator first and I'm running a second install to the tablet now just to make sure.

EDIT: Install to the tablet worked as well. The slowness is something with the networking in VirtualBox. It transferred the BAR file to the PlayBook 37KB every 2-5 seconds. The BAR file is 3.6MB, so it took a while, to say the least. The console did show that the request was sent to install the BAR early on, though. Attached a screenshot of what a successful install looks like.

Maybe open Activity Monitor and see what the network traffic looks like while it is supposed to be transferring the BAR file.

[studiochris]

Released an update in the wee hours of the morning to address a few issues including WebWorks publishing and the auto-update feature for the FruitBat app itself (Mac version only - 1.4.0132 is the latest version). Windows users may use the "Check for updates"item in the Help menu to update automatically. Mac users should download the newest installer.

Full release notes & download links: http://www.studiochris.us/2011/fruit...4-0132-update/

Also, since I didn't mention it yesterday, related to networking, if wireless is slow, maybe try using the IP address that is assigned to the tablet when attached to your computer via USB. It may be more reliable. Unfortunately, all of the network transfer stuff is out of my hands.

[dhyde79]

ok, tried it via wifi and USB, neither one did anything.... console says "Installing: /Users/Owner/Desktop/Playbook/app.bar" and that's all it does....nothing further, doesn't attempt to do anything beyond that, as far as I can tell....I let it sit and run for 20+ minutes

Debug Info:
OSX (10.7.2)
Playbook (16GB) OS 1.0.8.6067


Let me know if you need more info....

[studiochris]

The path to the AIR SDK may be incorrect in the settings window or file. FruitBat constructs a command and sends it via Terminal where the SDK takes over. You're seeing FruitBat's message that it sent the command. The SDK takes over from that point until you see "Exit Code: 0" or some other exit code number in the console, which means the SDK's install script has exited.

You aren't getting the first response from the SDK which should say:

Info: Sending request: Install and Launch

almost immediately or at the most in a few seconds (response time varies).

[dhyde79]

dunno.....I went digging and found localbar and installed via terminal command line instead, no biggie.....

[Antoinebg78]

what is the OS AIR SDK location we need to fill up in settings?

[studiochris]

It is the Adobe AIR developer SDK for the PlayBook and is available for download from BlackBerry's developer portal.