This article is intended for organizations who want to deploy third-party Java applications wirelessly to BlackBerry smartphones. For information on the wireless deployment of applications over Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), see the Wireless Application Deployment over WAP technical advisory.
BlackBerry smartphones with BlackBerry Device Software version 3.6 and later can download Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME™) applications wirelessly using the BlackBerry® Browser. BlackBerry smartphone users can manage, run, and delete these applications using the BlackBerry Application Loader tool.
This implementation follows the majority of the Over The Air User Initiated Provisioning Recommended Practice for the Mobile Information Device Profile: Version 1.0 document, which is published by Sun Microsystems®. BlackBerry smartphone users can download both standard MIDlets, known as Java applications, and BlackBerry smartphone applications. To download applications wirelessly, the COD files for the application and a Java Application Descriptor (JAD) file must be provided with the appropriate parameters. In the BlackBerry Browser, the BlackBerry smartphone user selects the JAD file to download the application.
Note: The wireless application download functionality requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 3.6 and later for Microsoft Exchange or BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 2.2 and later for IBM Lotus Domino with the BlackBerry® Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS) enabled.
The BlackBerry smartphone verifies sufficient memory is available for the application. If sufficient memory is available, you can select to download the application. When installed, the application icon appears on the BlackBerry smartphone Home screen (if applicable). If an existing application already exists on the BlackBerry smartphone with the same name, it is replaced by the new application.
- To view the third-party application installed on the BlackBerry smartphone, click Options > Applications.
- To view information about an application, click Properties.
- To delete an application, click Delete.
Note: Core BlackBerry smartphone applications cannot be deleted from the Application Loader tool.
Deploying applications wirelessly
There are two ways to make BlackBerry smartphone applications or standard MIDlet applications available to download wirelessly to BlackBerry smartphones:
- Use the BlackBerry MDS feature of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to convert JAR files to COD files.
- Use BlackBerry JDE version 3.6 to build your projects, which generates COD files.
Deploying JAR files
The BlackBerry Mobile Data Service provides a built-in transcoder to convert JAR files to COD files, which enables you to download standard MIDlet applications. For example, administrators can maintain a list of approved standard MIDlet applications on an intranet site. BlackBerry smartphone users can link to the intranet page and select JAD files to download applications. The BlackBerry Mobile Data Service converts JAR files to COD files before the BlackBerry Enterprise Server sends them to the BlackBerry smartphone.
Note: For JAD files, the web server must set the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type to text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor. For JAR files, the web server must also set the MIME type to application/java-archive.
The following BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions include the transcoder as part of the BlackBerry MDS to convert JAR files to COD files:
- BlackBerry Enterprise Server 2.2 and later for Lotus Domino
- BlackBerry Enterprise Server 3.6 and later for Microsoft Exchange
Note: You can only download JAR files if you access the network with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (not a WAP gateway), and if the BlackBerry Mobile Data Service is enabled. If using a WAP gateway, download a COD file, unless a similar transcoder is implemented.
Deploying COD files
If you write BlackBerry smartphone applications using the BlackBerry JDE version 3.6, the BlackBerry JDE creates the required JAD file when you build the project. You can also use the BlackBerry JDE version 3.6 to convert MIDlet JAR files to the COD file format. The BlackBerry JDE creates the required JAD file when it creates the COD files.
You can make the COD and JAD files available on a web server for BlackBerry smartphone users to download. By making COD files available, you can deploy applications to BlackBerry smartphone users who do not have access to the network using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
Note: The web server must set the MIME type for JAD files to text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor. The web server must also set the MIME type for COD files to application/vnd.rim.cod.
If you use a BlackBerry JDE version that is earlier than version 3.6, in addition to the MIDlet entries, you can modify the JAD file created for the project to add the following required flags:
- RIM-COD-URL:
- RIM-COD-Size:
The following is an example of a valid JAD file for a BlackBerry smartphone application:
MIDlet-Name: sample
MIDlet-Version: 0.0
MIDlet-Vendor:
RIM-COD-URL:
RIM-COD-Size:
You can create a dual-purpose JAD file to support the downloading of MIDlets on both BlackBerry smartphones and third-party devices. Create a JAD file that contains both RIM-COD-URL and RIM-COD-Size entries, as well as MIDlet-Jar-URL and MIDlet-Jar-Size. On BlackBerry smartphones, the COD files are downloaded. On third-party devices, the JAR files are downloaded.
You can specify multiple COD files in a single JAD file by appending a number to the RIM-COD-URL and RIM-COD-Size headers, as shown in the following example:
RIM-COD-URL-1: expense_reporter.cod
RIM-COD-Size-1: 19292
RIM-COD-URL-2: expense_lib.cod
RIM-COD-Size-2: 12291
When you download the application on the BlackBerry smartphone, the multiple COD files are not displayed. The size of the application is displayed as the sum of the COD file sizes.
Administrative control
Administrators can set the following IT policies to control the use of third-party applications:
| IT Policy | Default | Description |
| DisallowThirdPartyAppDownloads | FALSE | - Determines whether the BlackBerry smartphone user can install third-party applications, either wirelessly or with the BlackBerry® Desktop Software
|
| AllowInternalConnections | TRUE | |
| AllowExternalConnections | TRUE | |
| AllowSplitPipeConnections | TRUE | |
| AllowThirdPartyUseSerialPort | TRUE | |
Additional IT policies enable the organization IT administrator to control the access of third-party applications to wireless channels of the BlackBerry smartphone.
Note: Refer to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange Administration Guide for more information on setting IT policies.
KB17081 - Wireless application deployment to BlackBerry smartphones
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