Regardless of platform or coding language, to successfully create an app there is a general process I like to follow. When most people think of coding apps, they focus on the coding aspect, however that it just one piece of the process. So let’s take a look at my four steps of creating an app. Planning Step one of almost any good process involves planning. In the case of apps and...
I have tried a few pricing models, free only, free w/ ads, free version/paid version, etc but the best I've found is using the "freemium" model. The idea behind freemium is the app is initially free but to access additional portions or to gain extra ability in the app is to pay real money. This same methodology can be applied to already paid apps, thus recreating premium plus apps. Not...
One of the unique new features in BlackBerry 10 is the the minimized view of an app, also called the active frame. By default it is a smaller version of whatever the app looks like when maximized, however app developers have the ability to change it. Not only can it be changed to a static view, it can also be dynamically updated from signals within the code. Both of these features seem...
So you’ve written all your code, packaged your app, and now you are ready to post it for download or sale on BlackBerry World. Once you log into your vendor account, you may find the process to submit your app long and confusing. To help you, I’ve put together a complete walkthrough video explaining every step of the way. When I made this video I was completely ready for the...
Keyboard shortcuts are the real reason why hardware keyboard phones still exist! Since I leave the editorial pieces to other writers, I won’t rant about how much I love keyboard shortcuts. Instead I’ll do what I do best and show all you fine people how to add them to your Cascades apps. Before I get started and before anyone asks, no you can’t open the Z10 keyboard and use keyboard...
One of our friends at BlackBerry let us know about a new unofficial tool, GAP (Graphical Aid Plus) for HTML5 WebWorks development. This tool eliminates the need of using command line for various tasks when developing for WebWorks. Though I prefer coding Cascades apps myself, this tool is really cool and may even entice me to tinker a bit more with WebWorks. With that being said, let’s...
We're continuing our series on learning how to write BlackBerry apps from a hobbyist perspective. This edition, we dig into tabbed navigation panes in Cascades...
A few days ago we told you BlackBerry updated all the development SDKs to version 10.2 Beta and along with new coding features, the Cascades developing environment (Momentics) got a major overhaul. It features a more streamlined toolbar, better design preview performance, and a bunch of other goodies. So I thought this would be a good time create a video walkthrough of not only the new...
There are plenty of resources out there to help you develop apps for BlackBerry. The usual go-to spot is BlackBerry’s developer site. The next best place for getting help is from other developers. Developers tend to be willing help other developers, however to receive help you need to go about it in the correct manner. When you go looking for help there are certain do’s and don’ts you...
One of the core developing principles for BlackBerry 10 apps is the ability for the app to be social. The easiest way to implement this is to use the invocation framework to call the share card. The beauty of using a share card is most of the work is done for you. The designers of BlackBerry 10 and Cascades wanted an experience where the user never leaves an app, rather flows from one...
Far too often I hear Cascades and C++ in the same sentence and not enough about Cascades and JavaScript. On that same token another common statement I hear about Cascades is QML is for UI and C++ is for logic. Though that is true, what is also true is QML can be used for UI and logic. The way logic is handled in QML is through the use of JavaScript. At this point you may be asking...
Alongside the consumer focused BlackBerry Live Conference is the BlackBerry Jam Americas developer conference. We all expect most of the exciting announcements to happen during the “Live“ side of the conference but there are some sessions that could lead to some interesting insight of the future of BlackBerry 10. So in this “Conference Special Edition” of the Weekend Coder series, I...
![Asset Selector: Designing for the Z and Q [Weekend Coder]](https://d-cb.jc-cdn.com/sites/crackberry.com/files/styles/w250h188crop/public/article_images/2013/05/AssetMain.png)
As we can all plainly see, the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 have different screen sizes and aspect ratios. This is obviously because the Q10 has the full QWERTY. More often than not this presents a challenge for app developers. Luckily when coding in Cascades it is easy to code for both aspect ratios using the asset selector. Before jumping into the asset it should be noted that Cascades...
