Customer Reviews

BlackBerry Development Fundamentals

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you intend to develop BlackBerry apps, this is a great book. It doesn't teach you programming, it doesn't spoon feed you on how to create apps like some of the other iPhone books.

What it does provide is that it has all the relevant information you need to know about developing for the BlackBerry platform in one location. The author is clearly very knowledgeable.

I have developed apps for the BlackBerry platform since 2002. I only wish this book was available earlier. Highly recommended for both experienced and beginners. Just don't expect this to be a book that teaches programming or J2ME fundamentals.

I'm just finishing this book (last few pages tonight) and I have to say this: FANTASTIC!!!

I've been a developer for over 30 years. I've read a lot of books, but this is one of only ones that talks to me as if I were a student in a classroom.

I'm one of those people who prefers hands-on, classroom environments (OK, so I've taught a few times myself) to sitting at a desk and reading. But I have to tell you, I've been reading this book at my desk, and even at my kitchen table at night, and I haven't fallen asleep (no old guy jokes please). I wish everyone would write technical books this way, at every level. I felt like John was there explaining it to me.

I've tried going thru RIM's developer site in the past, but have had nothing but issues. This book is clear, well organized, well written, UP-TO-DATE and right to the point. It finally clears up a lot of the mystery that I've been experiencing getting started and if you've never coded on a BB before, I'm sure it will help you too. My only other wish would be another book from John devoted solely to writing BB apps on Domino, but hey, that's what I do for a living.

To everyone reading this, keep in mind that this is strictly a "Fundamentals" book. It does an excellent job of setting the foundation for success in developing BB apps, but you still need to go out there and learn things on your own (do I hear an opening for a more advanced book?). If you are a developer, you already know what to do. This just gets you started that much faster and with less pitfalls.

George Paglia, M.B.A. in M.I.S.

This book does a good job of discussing what a Blackberry can and can't do such as web signals, push service and other infrastructure topics. This is need to know information if you want to develop apps for this device. The writing style is good and easy to understand. This takes up close to 35% of the book. I am not sure if most of it is necessary to create the kind of Blackberry apps that perhaps I and other beginning developers are thinking about at this stage.

However, people like me need code, code and more code. This is where this book is sorely lacking. The Anthony Rizk book, "Beginning Blackberry" would compliment this book. Websites for both authors are minimal at best.

Information on Blackberry development is a bit lean right now but mostly terse to those needing information.

Hopefully, another writer will emerge to combine the best of both books with more code and practical topics of interest such as reading text and html files, pulling and pushing data from web server, bar code scanning to name a few.

If you are looking for useful code examples, forget it. You will not be able to code a basic Blackberry app after reading this book. Nonetheless, this book is a worthwhile purchase to fill in some gaps, but at a lower price.

The key word in the title of this book is "Fundamentals". This is not a highly produced "Dummies Guide" but a "guide" in the true sense. Reading it is like sitting in a cube next to a BlackBerry developer helping you learn the ropes.

Coding comes naturally to the successful programmer regardless of platform. It is the explanation of the nuances of the BlackBerry platform and how to best leverage the fundamentals: plug-ins, simulators, OS specific peculiarities, security and performance optimization; that shine in this guide.

Like any acquired skill, once you know the fundamentals, you either sink or swim on your own capabilities. This book has comprehensively sifted out all of the good information RIM provides on BB app/dev and logically arranged it for someone who needs to get started quickly and with best practices. This is the best reference guide available for anyone tasked with knowing the key pieces of the BlackBerry development platform in short order.

My team has been developing apps for BlackBerry for nearly 2 years. Wish we had this book then. We now make this book mandatory for our new hires and contractors.
In fact, the book is great preparation for becoming a BlackBerry Certified Application Developer with the BCP-810 certification exam.

As the author says himself, this book is about understanding the fundamentals of the BlackBerry platform: "A developer must have a thorough understanding of the features, capabilities and even limitations of a platform in order to build useful, effective and efficient applications."

I wish I had this book about a year ago. I've been writing code for corporate Blackberries off and on for 18 months. The book covers Blackberry tools and the logic of the ecosystem. Its not a tutorial but it does talk about a few coding tricks and its not a bad overview. The best way to learn is still to go through the RIM sample code.

The book makes it clear that the real advantage of Blackberry over iPhone and other competitors is BES - hosted services. I don't think we appreciated that, but its something to consider going forward.

One thing I learned from the book is that the MDS server was scheduled to be deadended by the end of 2009. I wish I hadn't spent so much time learning what it was and how to use it. The book has lots of timely advice for 2009/2010 and is worth buying now if you are either a Blackberry developer or thinking of becoming one. If you are reading this after 2 years then try something more recent.

I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, there the target audience seems to be at the managerial level. This book contains very little technical information that is directly applicable to coding up a real application.

This book filled a lot of gaps in my BlackBerry development knowledge, but I doubt it could have stood on its own as an initial foray into learning how to write BlackBerry apps.

BlackBerry application development is a complex maze of new terminology, new concepts, and new tasks that I as a Java developer was totally unfamiliar with. As someone who was thrust headlong into this world, I found the documentation provided by RIM worse than just lacking - it was confusing and frequently totally befuddling, more often than not no help at all. I scoured the internet for resources, and while there are some good forums and blogs, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Thus I started looking at books on this subject.

I also own the APress book, Beginning BlackBerry Development, which I think is a better starting point, but doesn't go into enough depth about the development and deployment process for my needs. This book alone would not have gotten me started along the road to writing BB apps. On the other hand, the APress book Beginning BlackBerry Development may have been a good introduction, but didn't go into enough details for me. So while this proved a useful book providing details I could not get elsewhere, I don't consider it an ideal learning tool for new BB developers. If you are looking for a beginner's book, and not much beyond that, go with Beginning BlackBerry Development. On the other hand if you are less than a total novice when it comes to BB development and need in-depth information, this book might be better for you.

The book is a huge fluff piece , I found basically nothing in the book that was unique or that was helpful. The samples were dull and the writing was as well. I had HUGE expectations for this book and if I could of extracted a few things that were not in other docs , I would of been grateful. This continues a tradition of sucky Blackberry programming books. The APress one was more useful than that , but come on there has to be some talented writers who can write an interesting useful Blackberry book.

I had high hopes for this book based on the description. However, I am greatly disappointed and found it a huge waste of money. The book tells you that a feature like Location Services exists, then points you to the [...] documentation. Obviously, I didn't find the BlackBerry documentation to be enough or I wouldn't have bought this book. The APress book has more information than this one and it is half the size.