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Getting started with BlackBerry web development

If you’ve created an XHTML Mobile Profile-based site, you might have wondered how well it works on a BlackBerry. Fortunately, RIM provide a BlackBerry simulator, so you don’t even need to own one to test your sites. They also provide an environment that allows you to simulate their web and email services, which ultimately means you can test your sites locally during development (rather than after deployment to a public server.) This environment is called the Mobile Data System, or BlackBerry MDS.

To set up a workable environment:

1. Download the MDS environment and a simulator from here
2. You’ll have to register for BlackBerry’s developer downloads
3. Once you’ve installed both files, run MDS and then the simulator
4. Using the simulator is slightly awkward: treat your mouse’s wheel like the BlackBerry trackball, pressing the wheel in to select items, or use the arrow keys and return. Press F9 instead of clicking the trackball’s button with the mouse
5. You should now be able to connect to web sites in BlackBerry’s browser

There’s a few caveats, however:

• The MDS and the BlackBerry simulators require Windows, which makes life slightly awkward if you’re a Mac or Linux-based developer
• The MDS seems to raise Java exceptions when I connect to websites that use HTTP auth
• To avoid having to switch between the mouse and keyboard for input, keep a close eye on the bottom of the simulator window to see what keyboard shortcuts can be used for the BlackBerry’s buttons

On to web development. RIM provide a PDF that lists BlackBerry support for WML, WAP CSS and XHTML MP: Wireless Handheld Browser Content Developer Guide

A lot is covered in this guide, but you really need to get your sites in the simulator to get a feel for overall support.

BlackBerry’s browser presents a few difficulties when creating XHTML MP sites:

• Table, stylesheet and background images must be turned on in the browser’s options by the user
• Since the browser only supports WAP CSS, you can’t use such esoteric CSS properties as margin and display, rendering most sites slightly messy
• -wap-accesskey and accesskeys in general are ignored

The limitations of the BlackBerry browser are such that you might be left wondering if there’s a conspiracy at RIM to push developers off web services into developing applications that run on their OS, but you can still make workable XHTML MP sites if you’re not too worried branding or anything else that’s typically style-sheet dependent.