One of the fantastic resources that BlackBerry inherited when they acquired Good Technology was the Good Developer Network, a portal for enterprise developers and ISV’s developing apps for the Good platform.
BlackBerry has now publicly unveiled the new re-branded and enhanced Good Developer Network, re-branding it “BlackBerry Developers for Enterprise Appsâ€Â.
The company has been spending months on this and as well as re-branding the portal, they have introduced a bunch of new features.
If you have previously been a member of the Good Developer Network, you will find the following new sections are now available:
- Get Started steps new developers through the process of building their first Good Secured app
- Webcasts provides registration for upcoming live webcasts and an archive of previous webcasts
- Newsletter Signup enables you to sign up for the new BlackBerry Enterprise Apps Newsletter for industry and BlackBerry news, webcast invitations, best practices, updates on product releases and more
All the valuable resources developers rely on today will remain, conveniently grouped under “Resourcesâ€Â.  This currently includes:
- Downloads
- Documentation
- API Reference
- Shared Services
- Samples
- Developer Community
The Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform from BlackBerry consists of the Good Dynamics (GD) SDK services that provide a powerful set of tools to ISV and enterprise developers. It allows them to focus on building their commercial and business apps rather than learning how to secure, deploy and manage those applications. The Good Dynamics Platform includes:
- Lifecycle management
- Security and compliance policies
- Secure connectivity to enterprise services
- Secure storage
- Secure inter-app communication
The simplest way to understand the Good Dynamics platform is to think of it as 3 parts: the Good Dynamics SDK and BlackBerry servers connected by a Network Operations Center (NOC). GD provides the services and architecture to build, securely deploy and manage applications. BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12 (BES12) includes the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform and delivers the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution to securely manage your device (or a work or enterprise space on that device).
With the acquisition of Good Technology by BlackBerry, BlackBerry has created a unified product with best-in-class Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), EMM and Mobile Device Management (MDM).
Good Dynamics (GD) Secure Mobility Platform
The GD platform consists of GD Runtime, GD Network Operation Center (NOC) and GD servers.
GD Runtime is included in every GD mobile application. The runtime has an API that gives the application access to user authentication, secure communications, secure storage and communication behind the firewall, enforcing security policies on behalf of the organization. To work with the GD Runtime, you need to download the GD SDK for your target platform (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS). Plugin support for cross platform technologies such as Apache Cordova, HTML5 and Xamarinis also available.
By including the GD Runtime in your app you will have access to such features as application policies, Secure Communications, GD App to GD App / Inter-app communication, Secure Storage, Secure Channel Push Channel, Shared Services, Authentication delegation, Single Sign-on (KCD and GD auth Tokens), user and application config information and much more.
Good Dynamics SDKs
The Good Dynamics Platform by BlackBerry provides a range of SDKs and plug-ins, allowing developers to work in familiar environments to build native, hybrid and web apps. Once apps are built, developers can assume the role of IT admin to quickly validate the management and distribution of their apps through the Good Dynamics Platform.
The Good Dynamics SDK is available natively to all major platforms and development technologies including iOS, Android, Windows phone and desktop, and macOS. In addition, BlackBerry supports cross-platform development frameworks via dedicated Good Dynamics SDKs for Cordova/PhoneGap, HTML5 web apps and Xamarin
Security Services
Security Services enable you to address security concerns about making sensitive company information available on mobile devices. Ensure content stored on devices, exchanged with resources behind the corporate firewall, or shared between Good-secured apps is always encrypted. Because the platform uses government-grade device-independent crypto libraries, content is always encrypted. The Good Dynamics SDK includes support for the following security services:
- Identity & Authorization APIs
- Secure Storage APIs
- Secure Communications APIs
- Secure Inter-App Data Exchange APIs
Mobile Services
Mobile Services enable you to quickly create engaging apps that will improve user productivity. Shorten development time by using existing services — no more building everything from scratch. And because the Good Dynamics Platform is the foundation for all services, government-grade encryption ensures end-to-end security. The Good Dynamics SDK includes support for the following mobile services:
- Presence Service
- Send Email Service
- Transfer Files Service
- Push Service
- Directory Lookup Service
- Docs Service
- Launch Service
Platform Services
Platform Services make it easy to integrate apps with enterprise infrastructure (e.g., Active Directory, SharePoint, Exchange, Office 365, Lync). Focus on creating innovative apps without worrying about programming for the backend, server maintenance or deploying complex infrastructure. Single sign-on, horizontal scaling, HA/DR, VPN-less access to the intranet — simply building on the current version of the Good Dynamics Platform enables it all. The Good Dynamics SDK includes support for the following mobile services:
- Identity & Access Management
- Single Sign-on Authentication
- Reliable App Deployment at Scale
- Secure Access to Corporate Data
- App-Level Controls for IT
Developers can check out the new Developers for Enterprise Apps site here.
BlackBerry Enterprise Apps Newsletter
BlackBerry have also launched a new newsletter where enterprise developers and isv’s can stay on the leading edge of cross-platform secure mobile app development by signing up for the BlackBerry Enterprise Apps Newsletter. Get important updates about industry trends, best practices and BlackBerry solutions delivered to your inbox.
You will learn more about development best practices, and the best in class platform SDK that does all the heavy lifting for you like; Security, Mobile Back-End Services, and Connectivity, so you don’t have to worry about it as a developer.
Developers can sign up for the newsletter here.
