Enabling users to stay connected with wireless access to calendars, corporate data, real-time e-mail, and a phone, BlackBerry devices have experienced an explosion in popularity. Many would argue that they have become a business necessity. In the first book to deal with the support and development of BlackBerry devices, authors Johnston and Evers cover everything from how the BlackBerry infrastructure works and the various components that make up its environment to installing a BlackBerry server and maintaining your BlackBerry environment.

You'll discover the different ways in which you can extend the functionality of the BlackBerry (versions 4.0, 3.6, and 2.2), how to roll out BlackBerry devices to your users, and how to create a BlackBerry intranet portal. Ultimately, though, you'll see how developing the BlackBerry platform further can result in a happier and more productive user community.

What you will learn from this book

• How to plan disaster-recovery scenarios to provide the maximum uptime for users
• How to take ideas learned in the book and apply them to your BlackBerry environment with the help of the sample scripts included
• The components that that make up the BlackBerry infrastructure and how they all work together
• How the Plazmic Media Engine allows the BlackBerry to display rich Web content while keeping the size of that content small
• Ways to create an internal BlackBerry portal and how to enhance it with a BlackBerry channel

Who this book is for

This book is for those who support and maintain the BlackBerry environment within their company or who conduct internal development within an organization.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author
Craig James Johnston of East Windsor, New Jersey, has more than 15 years of networking experience, most recently with the BlackBerry. He has done proof-of-concept BlackBerry projects and has actively supported BlackBerry devices in a Lotus Domino environment since 2000. His extensive knowledge of networking, hardware, and wireless technologies is coupled with writing and technical instruction.

Richard Evers of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is the editor of the BlackBerry Developer Journal. He is an expert in the areas of wireless communication and small-footprint application development. He has more than 25 years’ experience designing and developing commercial and custom applications. He has been editor and publisher of numerous publications, including Transactor magazine. He creates and publishes educational Web sites, and he develops customized Web software (including search engines, custom proxy servers, and browsers).