Determining the Network

In the BlackBerry project that I am in now we are having the requirement to detect the mobile network the phone is currently in.
Basically in BlackBerry mobile network is uniquely identified by the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and the Mobile Network Code (MNC).
To get these details from your code what you have to do is to call

RadioInfo.getMCC()
and
RadioInfo.getMNC()

These will return the codes in decimal.
You can find a full list of MNC codes of the mobile phone operators and a list of country codes by following the following URLSs to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Code
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Country_Code

If you need to access the BlackBerry knowledge base article describing the above process you can follow the following link.
http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgecenterpublic/livelink.exe/fetch/2000/348583/800332/1467358/How_To_-_Determine_the_MCC_and_MNC_of_the_current_network.html?nodeid=1467359&vernum=0

Setting APN

APN or Access Point Name is a setting which needs to be set on the mobile when we need to get connected to internet using the phone.

APN changes from one mobile service provider to the other. For example Dialog will have http://www.dialogsl.com/ Rogers will have internet.com set as their APN.

But letting users set the APN manually is always not the preferred way. Recently we developed an application for BlackBerry which the user needed to get to the internet without he manually setting the APN. The application was supposed to be delivered through BlackBerry App World so manually setting APN was not an option. In a case like this what you have to do is set the APN programmatically into the connection.

String URL = “www.SomeServer.com”;
StringBuffer bfURL;
bfURL = new StringBuffer ();
bfURL.append (URL);
bfURL.append (";deviceside=true ;apn=internet.com");
bfURL.append (";tunnelauthusername=UserName;tunnelauthpassword=Password");
String FinalURL = bfURL.toString ();

In the above code I have set the Rogers APN in to this connection.

If you need more details on the parameters used or need to know about the other parameters you are eligible to use such as WapGatewayIP, WapGatewayPort, WapGatewayAPN, etc visit the following link to view full details of the connector class.

http://www.blackberry.com/developers/docs/4.2api/javax/microedition/io/Connector.html

Benz Show 2009

Recently I managed a project which targeted iPhone and SharePoint server. This was a project for Dimo who are the dealers for Mercedes Benz in Sri Lanka. Total software services were provided by IronOne Technologies.

When we finalized the technologies I thought that this project will be an interesting one.
But the real interesting part was on the day when I saw all the Benz models present on the day. Even though I have seen international car shows before this, this is the first time I have seen this much of cars of the same manufacturer on the same place live.
You will agree after you see the photos.

SharePoint Content Placeholders

I found the following image describing the content placeholders in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 master page.
I think I got this from Microsoft. Thanks Microsoft.

Hope it helps to you.

iPhone / iPod Not Shown in iTunes

Is your iPhone or iPod not getting detected by iTunes?

If yes here is the way to get your device back to the iTunes.

iTunes is using two background services (Apple Mobile Device Service and iPod Service) while it is running. These services will be watching your USB ports and if an iPhone or iPod is connected they will detect those.

If your device is not getting detected first thing you need to do is to check the service statuses. It is always good to stop and restart the services using the Services in your machine.

To check the statuses first making sure iTunes is closed and your device is disconnected from USB ports then go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.

There you will find Apple Mobile Device Service and iPod Service.

Right click on each service and Restart (Better to Stop and Start) them.

Then start iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod and the device will get detected again in iTunes.

If this fails you need to restart your machine and check again and if that also fails better try reinstalling iTunes with the latest version from Apple.

Missing Textbox in BlackBerry Application

Recently in one of my BlackBerry projects my development team faced a peculiar error.

We were targeting the device BlackBerry 8900 Curve for the project.

The device we purchased was having OS version 4.6.1.114 and our application was functioning properly on that.

But when we sent the application to our client suddenly he was complaining that one textbox was missing completely. Only difference was that the client was using a BlackBerry 8900 Curve having the OS version 4.6.1.250.

Following are the view at the two ends.

At our device.

At the customer site.

To find out the issue we had to even upgrade the BlackBerry OS and we found that in the new OS version the HorizontalFieldManager is having its default width wrong. So our textbox was hidden. We corrected it by the following change, making the sub layout always have a width that we prefer.

hfmtxtPassword = new HorizontalFieldManager() {

protected void paint(net.rim.device.api.ui.Graphics graphics) {

graphics.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE);

graphics.clear();

super.paint(graphics);

}

protected void sublayout(int maxWidth, int maxHeight) {

super.sublayout(278, maxHeight);

}

};

Updating the OS of Blackberry 8900 Curve

Recently I needed to update the OS of the BlackBerry 8900 Curve device from 4.6.1.114 to 4.6.1.250.

To do this first you need to download the BlackBerry Desktop Manager Latest Version (5.0) and the OS required (4.6.1.250).

You can download the files required at,

Desktop Manager

https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=A8BAA56554F96369AB93E4F3BB068C22

and select the desktop manager software and download it.

OS

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp

Downloading the correct OS is bit tricky. You need find the correct version for the service provider (Dialog Sri Lanka, T-Mobile, Rogers, etc...). All the available service providers are listed in the above link.

When the download is complete you will get a file similar to 8900jEastAsia_PBr4.6.1_rel378_PL4.2.0.113_A4.6.1.250_Dialog_Sri_Lanka.exe

After completing the download, first install the Desktop Manager and then run the executable (8900jEastAsia_PBr4.6.1_rel378_PL4.2.0.113_A4.6.1.250_Dialog_Sri_Lanka.exe) of the OS. That will add the OS files to a place where desktop manager can use them to update the device.

Browse to the place where the Desktop Manager is installed (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader), then delete the "Vendor.xml".

Now run the "Loader.exe" to start the application loading process. Make sure your BlackBerry is connected to the computer. In the second screen you need to select the connection which your device is using (for e.g. USB).

Then after few clicks of the next button the wizard will start installing the new OS to the device.

It will take about 25 minutes to complete the updation process. While that is happening make sure that you are not pressing any buttons on the phone and as also make sure you keep the USB connection alive.

After sometime the BlackBerry will get restarted with the new OS. Enjoy.

I you are having any problems please contact me, I may be able to help you.