BlackBerry Developers: New SDK brings Widgets to OS 5.0

Research in Motion announced last night that they are releasing the BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1 for developers to play around with. The download consists of a widget packager, device simulator and code samples.

This is particularly nice because it will allow web developers to package up their web assets and insert them into BlackBerry widgets.

What’s a widget? A widget is a small standalone web application that uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In this case the BlackBerry widget will look and act like real BlackBerry application and will even share the same security mechanisms.

The exciting part about this announcement is that developers can use widgets to establish seamless interaction between a widget and the BlackBerry native applications such as calendar, email, and contacts. This also means that developers can also take advantage of the BlackBerry smartphones unique ability to push content and build this into their widgets.

“BlackBerry Widgets open up a world of opportunities for developers to build and bring to market web applications for BlackBerry smartphones that offer advanced, integrated functionality and an always-on user experience,” said Alan Brenner, senior vice president, BlackBerry platforms at RIM. “We are very excited by the prospects of this new widget development platform which combines the ease of development of standard web languages with the rich functionality of Java development.”

BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1 Downloads

Development Tools:

Each of the tools below needs to be downloaded before you can begin development.

1. Download & Install the Sun Java Application Development Kit. This is required software to compile the BlackBerry Widget. Minimum version of JDK 1.4 is required – if you have JDK 1.4 or higher already installed you can skip this step.
2. Download & Install the BlackBerry 5.0 Smartphone Simulator
3. Download & Install the BlackBerry MDS-CS Simulator (This is an HTTP Proxy and is needed to develop widgets)
4. Download and Install the BlackBerry Widget Packager Beta 1

The beta release and more information is available at BlackBerry - BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1
Developers interested in learning more about building BlackBerry Widgets are encouraged to attend the 2009 BlackBerry Developer Conference (2009 BlackBerry® Developer Conference - BlackBerry Mobile Applications),November 9-12 in San Francisco. More information is also available on BlackBerry Developer Zone (BlackBerry - BlackBerry Developer Zone).

MobiMadness Article:BlackBerry Developers: New SDK brings Widgets to OS 5.0 | MobiMadness

Very cool. I wonder what changes will be needed to move your widgets cross platform. This could make developing apps(widgets) quite a bit easier in the BB world.

Oh and if I'm not mistaken, there is already an OS 5.0.0.230 for the 8330.

Originally Posted by spampeg

Very cool. I wonder what changes will be needed to move your widgets cross platform. This could make developing apps(widgets) quite a bit easier in the BB world.

Oh and if I'm not mistaken, there is already an OS 5.0.0.230 for the 8330.

Thanks SpamPeg, I removed that reference to the Curve and OS 5.

ok im confused is this only for developers or can i download and have widgets working right away? should i wait?

Originally Posted by mrsjackd

ok im confused is this only for developers or can i download and have widgets working right away? should i wait?

SDK stands for Software Developer's Kit. It's a beta for them to play with right now to see how their web apps would look if turned into a widget for the BB.

This is just being released today, so I wouldn't expect tons of widgets for some months. Got to give the devs their time to work their magic, after all!

Your right! Its just so exciting!can't wait to see what they come up with

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Sorry if this is a really silly post but what sort of things can we expect to come from this?

Better and more appealling apps that work with the BlackBerry OS more coherently? Or more apps similar to weather widgets etc that you get on a mac desktop?

Never really understood widgets that much really...

Originally Posted by MisterAdam

Sorry if this is a really silly post but what sort of things can we expect to come from this?

Better and more appealling apps that work with the BlackBerry OS more coherently? Or more apps similar to weather widgets etc that you get on a mac desktop?

Hmm - what to expect from widgets? That's part of the beauty of it. It's only limited to the developer (and HTML/javascript). Anything from Weather Apps/Notifications, Small games, Slideshows of your pictures, Stock updates, News tickers, you name it. Probably a lot like the widgets on a Mac/Vista.

My big question is where will the widgets live --- I'm guessing on the home screen.

I'm curious on how RIM plans to display these widgets. I mean, right now, the Home screen is a 4 across by however many down grid of icons.

The icons themselves are relatively tiny. If the widgets will function like the desktop equivalents, RIM will need to change OS to handle them. Maybe this is RIM's path to incorporating the features of Android?

Originally Posted by spampeg

Hmm - what to expect from widgets? That's part of the beauty of it. It's only limited to the developer (and HTML/javascript). Anything from Weather Apps/Notifications, Small games, Slideshows of your pictures, Stock updates, News tickers, you name it. Probably a lot like the widgets on a Mac/Vista.

My big question is where will the widgets live --- I'm guessing on the home screen.

I have a better understanding now, thanks for that!!

It'll all be pretty exciting anyway. Definitely will be interesting to see how they could be incorporated... maybe multiple home screens similar to Android etc going from what Zipster said.

What would be exciting is if rim looked into a new OS for the big screen devices/touchscreen/slider devices because that would open a world of potential, but I guess that's for another thread!

Originally Posted by MisterAdam

I have a better understanding now, thanks for that!!

It'll all be pretty exciting anyway. Definitely will be interesting to see how they could be incorporated... maybe multiple home screens similar to Android etc going from what Zipster said.

What would be exciting is if rim looked into a new OS for the big screen devices/touchscreen/slider devices because that would open a world of potential, but I guess that's for another thread!

I don't expect to see widgets in the traditional sense that live on the desktop. I think these widgets will be more like what we call apps on the blackberry platform. The main difference is in how they will be developed.

Wonder if all these widgets will bog down the processor. Hope not.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com