Whether
you want to install from a pre-downloaded package or use the
over-the-air installer, you must use a wizard in Eclipse to do it. So to
get started, launch Eclipse and navigate to Help | Software Updates....
The first tab of this dialog shows all of the component packages that are installed in Eclipse currently. The second tab, the Available Software tab, is where you go to add new component packages.
The
provided list has a few packages that they think you might be
interested in, but BlackBerry is not part of that list. Click on the Add Site button to add the site for BlackBerry updates manually. If you would like to use the on-the-fly installer enter the URL http://www.blackberry.com/go/eclipseUpdate into the Location field in the dialog. Note the capitalized U in Update! Using this site you can download all versions of the Eclipse plugin component packages, which can be very handy. Click on OK to return to the Software Updates dialog.
Note: The BlackBerry.com
documentation indicates that this download link works only in North
America. I don't know if this is true or not, so be warned that your
mileage may vary.
Now you can see that BlackBerry is in the list of Available Software.
Also note that even though version 4.5 of the component package is
already installed, it is still available in the list. To hide the
components that are already installed, uncheck the checkbox at the
bottom of the dialog labeled Include items that have already been installed.
If you do happen to select a package that is already installed, it will show this "Confusing" dialog.
But, after clicking on the Yes button, you get another dialog with a better explanation. That is, you have that package already installed.
If
the package is not already installed, Eclipse will do some thinking
about the size and space requirements and then present a "Confirmation"
dialog before continuing with the installation.
In
order to download the component package directly from the website, you
must be registered with the BlackBerry Developer Zone. Downloading the
software through Eclipse is no different. You must log in using your
Developer Zone ID and password.
Once this is successful, the installation will continue without bugging you anymore. You can click on<<Details to see the progress or click on the Run in Background button to hide the dialog entirely and finish the installation in the background.
When
the installation is completed, a dialog is shown advising you that
Eclipse should be restarted for the changes to take effect.
What just happened?
We demonstrated
installing other component packages using the over-the-air install
approach. Using this approach, there is no need to download the files
and run a setup program in two different steps. Of course, you can
install the JDE component packs that way if you want to, but we won't
cover how to do it at this time.
Installing over the air is the
cleanest way to install new SDK versions, but there can be problems that
may be simplified by installing the package separately. For instance,
there is a network connection involved that could pose problems. Also,
the login dialog doesn't give any feedback about whether there are
problems or not, so it is easy to be unsure whether you entered the
login correctly or if there are other networking issues going on.
I'd like to say that I've
never had problems using this feature, but I can't. I find it best to
log into the BlackBerry Developer zone in a separate browser window just
so that I have my login and password fresh in my mind.
If you do decide to download and
install the JDE Component package rather than use the over-the-air
installer, you follow many of the same steps we did for installing it
over-the-air.
Each component package does
not come with an installer that can be run and therefore can't be
installed the way we do for most applications. Instead, the download
yields a ZIP archive file. You can unzip the file into a directory (say
as part of the C:\Program Files\Eclipse tree where we installed everything before), but you don't have to.
For each version of the
component package that you want to install add a new site in the same
way we did before, but instead of adding the website, click on either
the Local or the Archive button and select the directory or file as appropriate.
If you unzipped the file into a directory, click on the Local button and select that directory. If you want to use the archive directly, click on the Archive button and select the .zip file that was downloaded.
From this point, the
installation steps are the same with one exception. A login is no
longer required because you have already done a login in order to
download the file.
This process is also
quicker because there are no delays, as all of the files are already on
the local drive and don't need to be downloaded.
Have a go hero - installing other versions of the SDK
We've just covered how to
install another version of the SDK, but you can use these same steps to
install any version. It can't hurt to have many different versions
installed so why not take this opportunity to install other versions of
the SDK.
Pop quiz
The Java package we installed really installed two different packages, both of which are needed. What are they?
a. Java SE and Java EE
b. JDK and JRE
c. JVM and JRE
d. Java ME and Java SE
We've been working with Eclipse so far, but there is another development environment available. What is it?
a. Visual Studio
b. Java Development Environment (JDE)
c. BlackBerry IDE
