BlackBerry have announced the release of the BlackBerry Native Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio v3 Gold.
The 3.0 Gold release of the BlackBerry Native Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio now supports only Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2013 running in Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 are no longer supported.
The Gold release brings many updates which improve usability.
- Rewrote the GDB parser from C++ into C#
- Updated the UI to facilitate:
- Managing targets
- Managing API Levels
- Registering code signing keys
- Requesting debug tokens
- Added new UI features for managing:
- Logging
- General settings
- Added a new menu structure on the BlackBerry tab
- Integrated the BlackBerry menu into Microsoft Visual Studio Options dialog box
- Added a new project template for creating BlackBerry project types
- Increased stability and efficiency.
- Updated the MSBuild process
- Added a Target Navigator to show command-line and environment variables for processes
- Fixed numerous bugs
Redesigned UI for configuring your environment
There’s a new way to access all of the setup options that you need. The new menu is found under Tools > Options > BlackBerry. You can also access the BlackBerry dialog box from the BlackBerry tab by clicking Options. Here you can find all of the tools that you need to register, choose an API level, and set up your device. There are also other useful tools to help you develop your app.
In the API Levels window, you can:
- See the currently installed API level
- Change to a previously installed API level
- Use the Install button to install other API levels, simulators, and runtime libraries
- Use the Status button to check the progress of an installation, if there is one underway
In the Logs window, you can:
- Set a folder to store logging information from the plug-in
- Control how logging works
In the Signing window, you can:
- Register with BlackBerry
- Create your BlackBerry ID token and developer certificate
In the Targets window, you can:
- Create and manage device and simulator targets
- Create and manage debug tokens
Create or import a project
The BlackBerry Native Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio now offers several project templates. These templates give you a quick start for developing several BlackBerry app types, such as Cascades, Native Core, and OpenGL ES versions 1.1 and 2.0. You can also import a project from the Momentics IDE for BlackBerry and add the necessary platform and bar-descriptor.xml files on the BlackBerry tab.
Target navigator
The target navigator shows the command line and environment variables for processes that are running on the device. You can connect to a device or simulator using USB or Wi-Fi and view the processes, sandboxes, shared files, and developer and system files that are related to the device.
Code signing with BlackBerry ID
You can use your BlackBerry ID to create a token to sign your apps and then distribute them to users. If you don’t already have a BlackBerry ID, you can create one. You don’t have to worry about which computer you’re using to work on your app; you can access your debug token from anywhere.
You can download the Visual Studio Plug-in here and those of you interested in the Source code can download it here.
