With the coming release of BlackBerry 10.3, there is renewed interest in BlackBerry app development. This is a quick example of how to build and install the default BlackBerry 10 application that comes with WebWorks onto a mobile device.
WebWorks command line leverages Apache Cordova so many of the same commands work. Cordova requires Node.js. When you install the WebWorks SDK 2.0, it will come with Node.js. Get the WebWorks SDK at https://developer.blackberry.com/html5/download. I always install with administrator privileges.
Open up terminal or a DOS command prompt and make sure that you can type WebWorks and see that it is installed
webworks
WebWorks in the command line
Next you can create your mobile application project,
webworks create firstapp com.example.firstapp
and change to its project directory
cd firstapp
If you go a little further you will see the config.xml inside the www folder. This file gives instructions to the compiler when it builds your mobile app. To test this default application, you don’t need to change this. You can build the app with the following
webworks build
and this is what you will see:
WebWorks in the command line
To install the application, you can change directory to where it built it and then install it from there. Your device may need a debug token to install, it will let you know if you do.
blackberry-deploy -installApp -password your_password_goes_here -device 169.254.0.1 bb10app.bar
Since I put my device in developer mode, the IP address it gave me was 169.254.0.1.
Install App by Command Line
We can see installed app:
App Icon
Just tap on it to open it:
App running
So, pretty nice… Some extra thoughts: To install the app on a device, you will need signing keys. you can get them for free from BlackBerry: https://www.blackberry.com/SignedKeys/codesigning.html Be sure to register as a BlackBerry developer first, https://developer.blackberry.com which will attach your developer account with your BlackBerry ID; this can be the same one you use for BlackBerry Messenger!
Hope you enjoyed it. Have any comments, send me a message on my Twitter account, @georgemck.