BlackBerry® Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 2

The new BlackBerry® Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 2 consists of the BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 2, a BlackBerry smartphone simulator, the BlackBerry Email and Connectivity Simulator (this is an HTTP Proxy and is needed to develop widgets), documentation and code samples.

The BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 2 is a new tool that allows web developers to package up their web assets into BlackBerry Widgets (small, discrete, standalone web applications that use HTML, CSS and JavaScript®). A BlackBerry Widget looks, behaves and has the same security mechanisms as a native BlackBerry smartphone application. BlackBerry Widgets can be installed on a BlackBerry smartphone like any native application and extended to use device-specific information and data using the BlackBerry Widget APIs.

New Functionality for this Release
--> Combined both the BlackBerry smartphone simulator and BlackBerry Email and
Connectivity Simulator into the same product bundle as the BlackBerry Widget Packager
--> Added the ability to choose which transport (e.g. Wi-Fi®, BlackBerry® Enterprise Server,
etc.), the order and timeout value
--> Ability to white list a wildcard to allow all outside domain content into your widget (Note:
wildcard doesn’t allow for access to BlackBerry Widget APIs)
--> Top-level domains for white listing are no longer allowed
--> Bug fixing
Core Functionality
--> BlackBerry Widgets leverage the rendering capability of the 5.0 BlackBerry® Browser
--> Leverage Gears APIs for storage, location, multi-threading and more
--> Ability to specify Custom Header Addition to all communications for seamless blend
between server and client content
Security
--> Ability to digitally sign the BlackBerry Widget using the COD signing mechanism
--> Definition of a domain white list with which the BlackBerry Widget is allowed to
communicate
--> BlackBerry Widgets will be packaged the same way a native BlackBerry smartphone
application is packaged and distributed via a website, the desktop manager or BlackBerry
App World™, using the same security model and maintained just like native BlackBerry
smartphone applications
-->All BlackBerry Widgets must be signed to ensure any BlackBerry Widget APIs will follow
User Access Control policies