The BlackBerry WebWorks SDK 2.0 Beta is now available for developers.
There are two main themes for this release: alignment with Apache Cordova, and the delivery of a new GUI interface for common developer workflow tasks.
Apache Cordova
This release of WebWorks is completely built on top of the Apache Cordova engine. In essence, WebWorks is a distribution of Cordova with a number of custom enhancements focusing on improving the developer experience. WebWorks automatically includes all of the Apache Cordova core APIs, as well as all of the existing WebWorks APIs (which have now been implemented as Cordova plugins, and are available here for use with other Cordova based tools). Of course, it also includes the aforementioned GUI tool, as well as a new command line interface (CLI) based on the Cordova command line but with some extra BlackBerry 10 enhancements.
The New WebWorks SDK
With this version of the SDK, the installer now creates a shortcut to the SDK in your Start Menu. This will start the new GUI tool in your default browser, and it is where you will spend much of your time during development. The new tool helps you manage your projects, set basic config.xml information, and build/sign/deploy your application to the simulator or device for testing. This is the first step in building a set of higher level tools to make the development of WebWorks apps better than ever.
Powering the GUI tool underneath the covers is the new WebWorks CLI. As mentioned, it is built on the Cordova CLI, but does some additional tasks, such as auto-detection of USB connected devices, automatic creation and deployment of debug tokens.
Compatibility
Existing WebWorks apps work on all versions of BlackBerry 10; newly created apps and apps migrated to the new WebWorks SDK will work on all versions of BlackBerry 10. This allows you the flexibility to determine when it is best to move your application to the 2.0 SDK. Just note that the new SDK based on Apache Cordova is the version that will evolve in the future and receive new updates, so you’ll want to migrate at some point.
The alignment with Apache Cordova as a foundation also opens doors when looking at ease of cross platform support, as Cordova provides a common development layer and makes adapting the output to multiple mobile platforms much simpler. You can create an app using the languages you know, and Cordova handles the bindings to the native layer of the various platforms, making it easier to port your app to and from other platforms (iOS/Android) since you can reuse many of your existing web assets.
Additionally, many top enterprise solutions, such as IBM and SAP, are adopting Apache Cordova. WebWorks 2.0 makes developing for the enterprise segment that much more accessible.[signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]Via
