marc paradise

BBSSH 1.1.3 is now available for download.  This should work with any device running BB OS 4.6 or higher. Here are some features from this alpha release:

• Public/private keypair import is now working. Imported keys can be used for authentication.  In order to be loaded, private keys must be stored at a non-password protected http/https location, in OpenSSH format.   (A wider range of import methods will be coming soon.)
• URL scraper – this will scrape phone numbers, email addresses, and web sites and display them a in list.  The context menu will give appropriate actions for each type of entry.
• Multiple concurrent connections, with quick-switch between connections.
• Integration with Blackberry notifications and alerts – you can set your alert preferences via the BB Profile settings

There is still plenty of work to be done, but this version has replaced MidpSSH as my day-to-day client.   Though some functionality is missing (namely macros and a subset of the special keystrokes), I have found it to be very stable.

Grab the latest version now OTA from the sourceforge.net project site:

BBSSH 1.1.3 OTA (Alpha)

Default Keybindings (these will be configurable and viewable in-app  in the near future):

• SYM - control key: The next key you press will be combined with the CTRL key. For example: pressing SYM , then “c” will send “CTRL+c”
• Volume Up: Show input window overlay
• Volume Down: send Tab key
• Left-side convenience key: send ESC key
• Alt+Left-side convenience key: display the URL scraper
• Right-side convenience key: show popup menu of active session, allowing you to quickly switch between them.
• Directional roller: send arrow keys
• Alt+Direction Up/Down:  Page Up/Dn
• Alt+Direction Left/Right: Home/End
• Shift+Navbutton: Paste
• Ctrl+Navbutton: Copy current terminal contents to clipboard.
• Top button (Mute/Suspend): Toggle between Hybrid and Direct Input modes.

Give it a try, and let me know of any issues.

RIM provides us with a powerful API for developing Blackberry applications.  They’re making improvements in the ready availability of good documentation (slowly).  They really seem to be responding to both their community and the threat posed by iPhone and Android.  For all of that, though, their toolchain still sucks.

Presently, we have two supported options for developing Blackberry projects: use the RIM JDE (if you’ve tried to use it, you know that this isn’t an option at all); or use their Eclipse/JDE plugin.  Outside of that, you’re pretty much on your own.

I’m a long-time Netbeans fan — I’ve tried Eclipse multiple times, and I just don’t get along with it.  With a bit of headache and digging, I’ve been able to get most BB development tasks working in Netbeans.   Until this week…

In working on BBSSH, I realized that people may eventually want translations, so I set out to use the provided localization features of the Blackberry platform. (Also, all those raw GUI-related strings in my code were annoying me.) Unfortunately, because I don’t fall into the “JDE” or “Eclipse” categories mentioned above, I fell into the third: pretty much on my own.  In hopes of preventing the next person who attempts this from falling into the same category, I figured I would write up how I worked this.  Note that this isn’t necessarily the best or the only way – but it does work, and it does not add a lot of pain to the process.

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with Netbeans, and have some familiarity with the JDE. Read on for more. For the impatient, you can skip straight down to “3. The solution”.

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Here’s a kind of loose roadmap for BBSSH’s planned development combined with a planned feature list and status. As it stands now, it is actually functional to the point where I’m using it on my own BB, but I’m more forgiving of certain issues than I’d expect anybody else to be.

Expect the first public OTA download beta in 2-3 weeks.  If you’d like to play with it before then, I would appreciate any early feedback – just drop me a comment here and I’ll send you the link by this weekend (or later if you contact me later…)   If you’re not able to provide feedback and bug reports, please don’t request an early build at this time.

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Some early screenshots of BBSSH, an upcoming free SSH client for the Blackberry platform:

I have long been a fan of Karl von Randow’s midlet SSH client, “MidpSSH“.  I’ve been using it for years now on various model Blackberry devices, and overall have been satisfied with it.  However, I have always wished it was a bit more tailored to Blackberry’s feature set — I even looked at the only commercial Blackberry SSH client on the market  in hopes of finding something a bit more BB-specific.  While it had some good ideas, the commercial client did not work very well on my device, making that a dead end.

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