Android to BB in 3 minutes

Reach A New Market
In 3 Minutes (or less!)
developer.blackberry.com/android

Larry McDonough
Principal Evangelist
@LMCDUNNA

Android Onboarding & Virtual Office Hours
 What is BlackBerry 10?
 How does BlackBerry 10 run Android apps?
 Repacking & testing your Android app on
BlackBerry 10
 Submitting your Android app to BlackBerry
World


2

BlackBerry 10
What is BlackBerry 10?
 New mobile computing platform and hardware





Brand new hardware/software based on QNX
Best-in-class browser (491 HTML5 Test score)
Cutting-edge multimedia capabilities
More apps than any first-generation platform at launch

 Full-touchscreen and keyboard-based smartphones
 Bringing your Android app to BlackBerry 10 can take as little as
3 minutes
BlackBerry Z10


3

BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps
 Open-source Jelly Bean (Android
4.2.2) Application Framework running
on top of BlackBerry 10 OS and
Libraries
 Enables repackaged Android apps to
be installed and run inside it

C++

 Deep integration with BB native
framework to make Android apps
indistinguishable from native apps

WebKit

Dalvik
VM

 Repackaging your Android app can
take as little as 3 minutes

4

BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps
Increased Compatibility: Over 80% of converted Android
apps work without any changes to source code

Support for Android Native, Accessibility, Bluetooth,
MapView v1, Share Framework, Spellcheck, Wi-Fi Scanning

Broader Reach
Integrate with the BlackBerry ecosystem and get access
to the BlackBerry World distribution channel, more
customers, and additional revenue opportunities.

5

The Android Runtime In Action
► Songza

6

► Flipboard

7

► Deezer & WordPress

8

Android Roadmap
10.2 - August 2013



Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean/API 17)
Improved Stability

Support for the end-user to hide/show back bar

10

Android Roadmap
10.2.1 Gold– January 2014

11

Unsupported APIs
 Around 80% of all Android apps are compatible today on
BlackBerry 10.2.1 requiring no changes to source code
 Not all Android APIs are supported

Hardware and OS dependencies
 Limited to the personal perimeter
 Full compatibility list is available at
developer.blackberry.com/android/apisupport

13

Push Support
Both c2dm and GCM are supported:
Client
 Register with BlackBerry Push Services
 Create android.cfg file
 Package the android.cfg file within BAR
 Sign app

Server
 Push JSON payload to both Google &
BlackBerry app servers
 Pushes are queued until app is open

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android>
<push>
<appid>some_appID</appid>
<ppgurl>http://cpXXX.pushapi.eval.blackberry.com</ppgurl>
<tokenprefix>bb-</tokenprefix>
</push>
</android>

developer.blackberry.com/android/apisupport/creating_push-enabled_android_apps.html

14

In-App Billing Support
 Test using BlackBerry World sandbox
 Use the same ItemID values for your
digitalSKU items in vendor portal
 One-time purchases, no subscriptions, no
refunds through API
 Which OS? Which Device?
java.lang.System.getProperty("os.name") returns ("qnx")
android.os.Build.DEVICE returns “Q10”, “Q5”, “Z10”, or “Z30”

developer.blackberry.com/android/apisupport/apisupport_inapp_payments_support.html

15

Android Native Code
 Android NDK lets you write parts of your app in C/C++
 Meant for self-contained, CPU-intensive operations, shared x-platform libraries, third-party libraries
 When moving between Java and Native code, the Java Native Integration (JNI) bridge is crossed,
requiring Android system resources

 Android only provides header support for the following:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

libc (C library) headers
libm (math library) headers
JNI interface headers
libz (Zlib compression) headers
liblog (Android logging) header
OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0
libjnigraphics (Pixel buffer access) header
A Minimal set of headers for C++ support
OpenSL ES native audio libraries
Android native application APIS

developer.blackberry.com/android/

17

Android Native Code
 BlackBerry 10.2.1 OS
o

Both the ARMv5TE and ARMv7-A machine code instruction
sets are supported

 Android Tooling 2.0
o
o
o
o

New toolset to account for various IDEs via Device Profiler
Simple GUI
Tooling will no longer report *.WRN file errors related to
Native code, Bluetooth or Google Maps v1
Native on-device debugging

 Support
o

Same level support for libraries as Google publicly offers (9)

developer.blackberry.com/android/apisupport/unsupported_api_android_ndk.html

18

Repackaging Android Apps

Verify

Repackage

Deploy

Verify
- Run blackberry-apkpackager to generate a *.WRN file which will call out unsupported
APIs and repackage the APK to a BAR file
Repackage
- Run blackberry-signer to sign the BAR file
Deploy
- Run blackberry-deploy on an up-to-date OS, testing functions called out in the *.WRN file

Repackaging APK Files
► Option 1: Command-line SDK
Repackage your APK to a BAR file in 3 easy steps…
1) blackberry-apkpackager
- runs a compatibility check on your APK file
- packages your APK file as a BAR file

2) blackberry-signer
- sign your application

3) blackberry-deploy

C:Androidandroid-sdkbin>
blackberry-apkpackager
HelloWorld.apk
blackberry-signer –storepass
pass123 HelloWorld.bar
blackberry-deploy –installApp –
device 169.254.0.1 –package
HelloWorld.bar –password pass123

- test your app
21

► Option 2: GUI-based SDK
 Append the –gui parameter to use a GUI
window for point-and-click repackaging
blackberry-apkpackager –gui
 Provide the APK file location, target
location and select Package
 Sign and deploy within the same step!

bin>blackberry-apkpackager –gui
22

Signing Your Application
 Sign your resultant BAR file, or configure your BlackBerry ID signing account

bin>blackberry-signer -gui
24

Setting Up Your BlackBerry ID Signing Account
 From the BlackBerry Signer window, select Configure Signing
 Provide what will be your CSK Password (signing password)
and Author Name
 Select Request and log into/create your BlackBerry ID account
 Select Create

bin>blackberry-signer -gui
25

Deploying Your App
 Deploy your resultant BAR file to a
BlackBerry 10 simulator or device
 Provide the BAR file location, device IP
address and password10 simulator or device
 Ensure that your physical device has
Development Mode enabled

bin>blackberry-deploy -gui
26

BlackBerry 10 Devices
► BlackBerry Z10
 Icon: 114 x 114 pixels
 Resolution: 1280 x 768 (15:9)

 Screen size: 4.2” diagonal
 Project structure: res/drawable-xhdpi

 Current OS: BlackBerry 10.2.1
 Testing: BlackBerry 10 Device Simulator
developer.blackberry.com/android/documentation/port_android_app_to_bb_device.html

► BlackBerry Z30
 Resolution: 1280 x 720 (16:9)

 Screen size: 5” diagonal Super AMOLED
 Project structure: res/drawable-xhdpi


► BlackBerry Q10
 Resolution: 720x 720 (1:1)

 Project structure: res/drawable-square


► BlackBerry Q5
 Resolution: 720x 720 (1:1)

 Project structure: res/drawable-square


Additional Resources
 Device OS autoloaders
https://developer.blackberry.com/blackberry10devalphas/update/
 Simulator & SDK download
https://developer.blackberry.com/android/tools/
 Pulling Android logs
http://devblog.blackberry.com/2013/11/pull-android-logs-from-your-blackberry/
 Programmatically disabling the back bar
http://devblog.blackberry.com/2013/12/android-developers-eliminate-the-back-bar-inyour-10-2-1-app/

developer.blackberry.com/android/

Android to BB in 3 minutes

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Android to BB in 3 minutes