Live and Jam

BlackBerry Live / BBJam

Next week I will be in Orlando at BlackBerry Live – the annual worldwide BlackBerry conference – this year in combination with BBJam Americas Developer Conference.

Seems like the Momentics IDE will get a newer Eclipse inside and some enhancements. Current Momentics IDE is based on Eclipse 3.7. Session JAM22 will provide some news on Momentics. Will blog about when I’m back.

I’m also speaking at 2 Sessions: JAM56 and JAM69.

JAM56 InvocationFramework – the heart of your business apps.

Using InvocationFramework it’s easy to develop cool apps with less coding. My apps (OpenDataSpace, Conference2Go EclipseCon, Conference2Go JAX, SerCar10, ekkes TeaTimer) are all using MediaPlayer, Twitter, Evernote, BBM, Maps, Foursquare, Calendar, Notifications and more. I will explain how this can be done and also have some demos on this – so come and attend JAM56.

The last missing point (Background Services) are coming soon to BlackBerry 10 – Session JAM47 will tell more.

JAM69 Maps in your Apps

Most apps today need some kind of maps, geolocation and more. BlackBerry provides BlackBerry maps with an easy to use API for Cascades / QML. You can invoke BlackBerry Maps from your app or include custom maps directly. At JAM69 I will demo both and explain HowTo use Maps together with different sensors, howto navigate to a destination, howto bind your data and give some tips and tricks.

Q10 – the speedy BlackBerry10 device with physical keyboard

Last months were heavy months for BlackBerry developers: updates to IDE and API and new devices like the Q10 with a physical keyboard.

New API let you work with KeyListeners and ShortCuts (Command Keys) boosting the speed of workflows.

Most apps for touch devices will run on keyboard devices without any changes, but sometimes the Q10 is too fast

I added UNDO functionality to apps because of this: DeleteActions are mapped to the DEL key and now it can happen that a user tipped on this key by accident. I don’t want to ask him/her “Do you really want to delete…” because such a dialog would interrupt the work. Instead I implemented UNDO for this in a seamless way.

read more here.

On touch devices the situation is different because the user has to tap on the Overflow Menu first and then again tap on the delete action. On Q10 all of this can be done simply using the DEL key. Same way you can edit a datarecord using the “e” key, seraching data with “s”, open the Map with “m” … While playing more and more with Q10 I really like this device even with a smaller touch screen: 720×720 instead of 768×1280. API 10.1 has some cool features to give users more space: auto-hiding ActionBars, Sticky / non-Sticky TitelBars, some reduced control sizes and more. will blog on this later.

MDC Nürnberg

If you’re not at BBLive / BBJam – my next conference will be MobileDeveloperConference in Nürnberg, where I will demo HowTo develop a native BlackBerry10 app in one hour. live. code-hacking. no slides.

Trainings and more

If you want to learn HowTo develop for BlackBerry 10, you can attend one of my workshops.

Only less places left for next Cascades workshops from June-10 … June-14.

In next (german) Eclipse Magazin a new part of my series about BlackBerry 10 vs Android 4 will be published.

If you’re going to EclipseCon France – stay tuned – a new update will come for Conference2Go EclipseCon APP !

cu in Orlando

Now looking forward to the conference and meeting developer friends from all of the world and have a great party at Universal Studios including “The Keep Moving Experience” produced by Alicia Keys, Global Creative Director at BlackBerry.

Also as a BlackBerry Elite Developer there are some special events on top

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(c) 2013 Creative Commons License 3.0 (BY-NC-SA) by ekkescorner

Conference2Go EclipseCon Updated: dynamic Overview

EclipseCon Boston just closed the door and next EclipseCon conferences are waiting in the queue:

• EclipseCon France
• EclipseCon Europe

so I’m doing some more work on my brandnew Conference2Go EclipseCon APP built with Eclipse Momentics IDE and Cascades as native app.

Feedback of first version from EclipseCon Boston was great – please let me know what you’re missing for a perfect Conference App.

Update at BlackBerry World (FREE)

Today an update was approved at BlackBerry World.

New Video available

There’s also a new Video:

If you haven’t done before you should also watch the first video of this app, where I demonstrated all the other features:

what’s new ?

Now you can easy select / unselect your favorites and there’s a toggle to switch the ListViews between all or only favorites.

Hint: Screenshots on BlackBerry 10 devices done by Heiko Behrens http://shapeitapp.com service - so you can click on the image and zoom in to see the details.

Easy toggle between all or only favorite sessions / workshops

Starting the app gives you the list with all Sessions or Workshops:

Your favorites are marked with a flag. The ActionBar allows easy switching to your favorites – one tap and the same list displays only your favorites:

the Action is a toggle – so with one tap you’re back to the list of all sessions.

Dynamic Session Overview with pinch&zoom

Besides the ListView there’s now also an overview of all sessions (workshops) of the selected day:

• Sessions ordered in columns per room
• Sessions ordered in rows by start time and duration
• Height of sessions depends on length of session in minutes
• Pinch & Zoom to make it easy to get an overview or to see the details
• Tap on a session marks this as selected and opens details view
• Peeking back shows you the selected session colored
• Landscape and Portrait is supported
• All work done dynamically for selected day
• Sessions filtered to get only the favorites
• Only rooms will be displayed where sessions will happen (or if favorited)
• Scheduled items (Break, Lunch, Party, …) with grey background to easy distinguish
• Keynotes always fill a complete row

Let’s take a look at some screenshots – here’s an overview page:

Tap on a session opens Session Details page. Peeking back shows the selected session:

Here you only have favorited two sessions in two rooms – the page is adjusted to display only 2 columns for the rooms:

Same overview exists for workshop sessions: you see that there are only 2 sessions a day in each room:

A common problem with such views to be displayed on a smartphone is the limited size. So I tried to find a way to handle this. Overview can be done in Landscape or Portrait – switch back and force as you like. And pinch & zoom allows to see the overview or the details.

Use this overview as an addition to the ListViews – esp while planning your personal conference schedule.

The overview in Landscape:

or zoom in:

Cascades: create complex UI dynamically – performs blazing fast

How’s this done ?

All is native Cascades – no HTML-Web. All UI Elements are created dynamically while the Page is opened. If you take a look at the details of sessions, rooms, Keynotes, schedule items, timeline, room headers and footers … you can imagine what must be done to create the overview page for a complete day.

As I started developing this overview I wasn’t sure if it will work from a users POV or from performance. I’m really fascinated how fast these UI controls are created – there’s no visible delay, so I removed the Progress Animation I had already prepared.

And be aware – all is bound to an underlying data model. I managed to have data structures in JSON performing very well and easy to develop against with Cascades / Qt.

If you have a BlackBerry 10 Z10 (Touch) or Q10 (Keyboard) or DevAlpha – download the app and try it out. It’s FREE.

If you like it – please write a review at BlackBerry World – if you have requests or other feedback use the built-in feedback action from Application menu.

Some more updates will follow. stay tuned ….

… and see you at EclipseCon Europe or an Eclipse Democamp.

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(c) 2013 Creative Commons License 3.0 (BY-NC-SA) by ekkescorner

Conference2Go EclipseCon APP at BlackBerry World

Now at BlackBerry World

good news for my eclipse fellows attending EclipseCon 2013 in Boston: the conference app now is available at BlackBerry World

If you have sideloaded the developer preview to test – please delete this app at first from your BlackBerry 10 device: long-press on the icon, tap on the trash and delete the app. Then open BlackBerry World APP on your device and search for EclipseCon and download. It’s FREE.

Conference2Go at BlackBerry World to download for FREE

Updated Version: Favorites and more

From first developer preview I wrote about here there was some more work on the app. First steps to manage your own schedule – your Favorite Sessions and Workshops done.

Session Details

There’s a new Action on the bottom bar, if the session / workshop you have selected is not marked as your favorite: set favorite. I also have restructured the ActionBar: only the most important Actions like “Where’s the room” and “Favorite” are at the bottom ActionBar – other Actions available through Overflow Menu:

If you mark the Session as Favorite, a flag appears on the Session Details and the Favorites Action changed to “remove favorite“:

Session flagged as Favorite

If you open the Session Details (or Workshop Details or Speaker details) the selected row from the list remains the selection-color. If peeking back you now know exactly what was selected:

Peek back to the list

If going back to the list, all favorite sessions are also marked as Favorite (flagged):

Favorite – Selections are stored localy inside your app’s sandbox.

stay tunded

stay tunded…. more updates will follow next weeks / months to get a perfect app for EclipseCon Europe.

I’m just working on a toggle to see all Sessions vs Favorite Sessions with one tap from ActionBar at the lists. also for next conference planned: Login, Vote, Sessions sorted by Tracks (Category) and overview pages for a day or a room and more….

So if you plan to attend one of the next EclipseCon conferences: download this app and send me Feedback (Action from Application menu) about your requests if you miss a function.

If you like the app: Please write a review at BlackBerry World: Action available from Home Screen of the APP and invite your BBM contacts to downlaod the app – Action also available from Home Screen.

Have fun at EclipseCon Boston – enjoy the last conference day and see you at EclipseCon Europe

see you at the next EclipseCon Europe and have fun in Boston !

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(c) 2013 Creative Commons License 3.0 (BY-NC-SA) by ekkescorner