BlackBerry dev tools target Eclipse, Visual Studio

Research In Motion has released new and updated tools for developers who want to build BlackBerry web applications.

The smartphone maker made its first BlackBerry Web Development Plug-In for Eclipse available on Tuesday, along with version 1.2 of its plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio. The tools allow developers to build BlackBerry web applications within the widely used Eclipse and Visual Studio environments.

"The BlackBerry developer tools portfolio aims to bring together the best of Java and web development for the creation of web applications that are integrated with core BlackBerry smartphone functions for a seamless, intuitive and robust user experience," BlackBerry platform group chief Alan Brenner said in a statement.

Both plug-ins include BlackBerry smartphone simulators for application testing, together with application profiling for checking on the data traffic and load time implications of web content used in the applications.

The Eclipse plug-in, which is compatible with version 3.4 of the environment, allows the debugging and profiling of HTML and CSS-using web pages, and of rich internet applications using Ajax, Silverlight, PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, JSP and Python.

The new Visual Studio plug-in — the first version of which came out two years ago — targets the 2008 version of that environment, and aids the creation of simple web pages or rich applications using Ajax and ASP.NET.