Hi Guys!
In this blog we'll see how we can run and use the Android application into the Blackberry Playbook tablet. we can use the
BlackBerry Runtime for
Android apps to run
Android 2.3.3
platform applications on the
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. To use the runtime, you must first repackage your
Android applications
to BAR file format, which is the compatible file format required for an
application to run on the
BlackBerry Tablet
OS.
Developer can use three tools to repackage android
application to BAR file format and also to check the compatibility of application during run time on the
BlackBerry Tablet
OS. Some of the APIs in the
Android SDK may not
be supported, or only partially supported by the
BlackBerry Runtime for
Android apps.The three tools are:
| Repackaging tool
|
Description
|
|---|---|
|
BlackBerry Plug-in
for
Android Development
Tools
|
This tool allows you to develop, verify for compatibility,
repackage it, and sign your app for the
BlackBerry PlayBook using the
Eclipse
IDE.
|
|
BlackBerry Packager for
Android
apps
|
This tool is a simple web interface that allows you to verify,
repackage, and sign your app without downloading additional software. Point the
tool to your
Android
APK file and the
Android SDK on your computer, and the tool will do the rest, with just few mouse
clicks required from you.
|
|
Command-line tools for
Android
apps
|
The tool or the SDK is a set of command-line utilities that
do everything the other tools do, just from the command line.
Get started with the command line tools. |
Minimal requirement :
|
Item
|
Requirement
|
|---|---|
|
Hardware
|
Memory of 4 GB RAM or more
Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ 2 GHz (or faster) 1 GB (or more) available hard disk space |
|
Software
|
Eclipse
version 3.7 (Cocoa 32 for Mac OS X)
ADT plug-in for Eclipse version 12.0.0 at minimum (recommended 16.0.1) Android 2.3.3 platform API 10 Java Runtime Environment 1.6 |
|
Operating system
|
Windows® XP SP3, Windows Vista® Ultimate or Enterprise,
Windows® 7
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion |
|
Virtual environment
|
VMware Player to run the
BlackBerry Tablet
Simulator on Windows
VMware Fusion to run the BlackBerry Tablet Simulator on Mac OS |
Before install and use the
BlackBerry Plug-in for
Android Development
Tools, users must have installed and configured ADT plug-in for
Eclipse rev12 (or newer) and Android 2.3.3 platform, API 10 in
Eclipse. Users also
need JDK 5 or JDK 6 (JRE alone is not sufficient) installed on your system.
Installation Process:
Install
Eclipse
Download and install
Eclipse. To download
Eclipse, visit
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-classic-37/indigor.
If you are using a
Mac, download
Eclipse for
Mac
OS X (Cocoa 32).
Install the
Android SDK
The command line and plug-in repackaging tools require that you have the
Android SDK
installed on your computer. If you don't have the
Android SDK on your
computer, you must install it.
- To download the Android SDK, visit http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html and download the android-sdk_r16-windows.zip file.
- Extract the file to your preferred location. The folder that you extract the contents of the .zip file to is the Android SDK installation folder. When using the plug-in repackaging tool you must reference the path to this folder. To simplify this path reference, define an environment variable for the installation folder.
- Open the Android SDK and AVD Manager. In the Android SDK installation folder, run the android-sdk-windows/SDK Manager.exe file.
- In the Android SDK and AVD Manager, click Available packages.
- In the
Packages available for download section, select
the following:
- Android SDK platform-tools, revision 16
- SDK platform Android 2.3.3, API 10
- Click Install Selected and accept any license agreements to install the selected packages.
- Restart your computer.
Install the ADT Plug-in for Eclipse
To download the ADT plug-in, visit:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html.
Install the BlackBerry Plug-in for Android Development Tools:
Before you begin, make sure you have installed Eclipse 3.7 and ADT plug-in for Eclipse 12.0.0 or Eclipse IDE version 3.6 and ADT plug-in for Eclipse 11.0.0.You must also install the SDK Platform Android 2.3.3, API 10, revision 2 in Eclipse. To download, on the Window menu, click Android SDK and AVD Manager.
- In Eclipse, on the Help menu, click Install New Software > Add.
- In the Name field, enter a name for the plug-in.
- In the the Location field, enter the URL of the update site for the plug-in. The URL of the update site is https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/downloads/eclipseplugin/.
- Click OK.
- In the Install window, in the Name field, select the BlackBerry Plug-in for Android Apps check box, and also select the check boxes for the items under it.
- Click Next.
- Complete the instructions in the Review Licenses window. Click Finish.
5 steps need to follow:
we can use the
BlackBerry Plug-in for
Android Development Tools to check our
Android application
package for compatibility, repackage it in the .bar file format, test it and
finally sign the application which is required to distribute our application
to the
BlackBerry App World storefront. The following workflow shows the steps required to
repackage your
Android application
for the
BlackBerry Tablet
OS.
Attention required before repackaged Android applications:
The
BlackBerry Runtime
for
Android
Apps allows users to run
Android
applications that were repackaged for use on the
BlackBerry
PlayBook
tablet. The following information outlines the differences that users can expect
to see in the UI after repackage of the application.
|
UI characteristic
|
What users can expect
|
|---|---|
|
Navigation
|
Since the
BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet does not have a Back key, users must tap the Back button that appears at
the bottom of the screen or use the Back gesture to display the previous
screen. To use the Back gesture, users swipe from the bottom of the screen at a
45 degree angle toward the left side of the screen.
Note: A navigation bar with a Back button appears at
the bottom of most applications. For applications that use full screen mode
(for example, games) users can swipe down from the top of the screen to display the
navigation bar.
|
|
Application menu
|
Since the
BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet does not have a Menu key, users must swipe down from the top of the screen to
display the application menu.
|
|
Notifications
|
Application notifications, including the status of
activities that are occurring in the background (for example, music that is
playing or files that are downloading), appear when users tap the exclamation
mark icon in the top-left corner of the home screen.
|
|
Scaling
|
If you created your application for a smartphone, UI
components will be scaled up for the
BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet. If you created your application for a tablet with a screen size that is
larger than the screen size of the
BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet (7 inches), then UI components will be scaled down.
|
If users want to optimize the layout of UI, can make
adjustments to the UI components based on the following characteristics of the
BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet:
- Application icon size: 86 x 86 pixels
- Screen dimensions: 1024 x 600 pixels (7" tablet-size of Android)
- Pixels per inch (PPI): 169.3
- Image bit size: 32
- Image file type: .png
Once app is signed, we can add and publish it on the
BlackBerry App World storefront by following the instructions available
here.
*our applications must target
BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 (or later) for them to be considered for approval.
Also, users can get the details of "unsupported features and APIs" of android applications into the Blackberry Run-time here.
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