Native Development

[schwartzberg]

Like to create an App ABC that does the following - are the points below possible for the Blackberry OS 6 and 7?  Yes/No :-)  - and if yes links to code examples.

(0) always is active (though in the background, possible?), while in background mode it will do as described in points (2), (3), (4), and (5) below.

(1) sees the other apps on the phone (which type of apps are possible?)?   The following points (2) and (3) are mostly possible if (1) is possible.

(2) can activate the apps/activities seen in (1)? . (according to user configuration in app ABC)

Can the apps be started with parameter input?

(3) sends messages to background apps on the phone (from app ABC, according to the user configuration in app ABC), that are running in the background.  (3a) Does the Blackberry Sandbox model allow Apps to share (file) data?

(4) can you do (2) and (3) above according to say a time event

(5) tracks the users location (if the user allows) and does (2) and (3) if the user reaches or crosses a specific location.

Thanks,

Paul

[Innovatology · Accepted solution]

You cannot (yet) run background apps, though there has been much demand for such a feature and many valid use cases provided. I can't imagine it's not in the pipeline.

You cannot (yet) start other apps or communicate with them, though that has been announced for BB10 and is called "invokation framework". Details are still sketchy at best.

[schwartzberg]

What events would the background app listen too?
time based events?
location based events?
there are many reasons to have background programs listening to the above two sort of events is just two of many. The devil is in the details of Blackberry own notion of "sandboxing". I am not suggesting anything here, but knowing what they are allowed to do "in the background" is of essense. Maybe someone from "pipeline" could be inclusive concerning the debate of pluses and minuses of the different ways of doing it.