[alfer]

Hi All - New to the forum and blackberry development. I'm writing an app for the BB that I am targeting towards enterprise and consumer users (with and without a BES server). I want my app to connect to a server and wait up to 10 minutes for the server to issue an event. I need the app to recognize the event in real time and then display another screen to the user. I would like to use SOAP/web services, but that would be a simple one time request/response. I suppose I could poll my server every 2 or 3 seconds but that will generate a lot of unnecessary traffic. Also there is no way to have the BB listen for an incoming connection from the server AFAIK.

So, does anyone have a suggestion on how I can architect this?

[Dougsg38p]

I would investigate using the BlackBerry push service - see the Push SDK on the developer site.

[alfer]

Thanks for the suggestion Doug, I would love to use BIS-B and Push, but unfortunately Im just starting out and there is no way I can justify the $2000 expense to become an "alliance" member with access to those features. Instead I will need to use Direct TCP and hope that the users have their APN settings configured correctly, or find out what carrier they are on and specify them in the code.

Can anyone tell me how long an httpsconnection can stay open? I was thinking of maybe submitting my SOAP request to the server, then let it sleep for 30 or 60 seconds before returning the response. Is there a limit to how long the BB will wait for a SOAP response?

[Dougsg38p]

Keeping the TCP connection open is going to be a real battery-sucker. I would advise against it.

What is the nature of the data? Can you simply poll the host periodically (every few minutes?)

Another option might be to create your own push using an SMS or EMail message to trigger your HTTP request.

[alfer]

It really is just a confirmation from the server once processing has been completed. But due to the nature of the app, it needs to be displayed to the user on the screen in real-time. I could see polling at most every 10 seconds which would probably use even more data and kill the battery quicker than keeping the connection open.

[TeleBEEM]

You may try finding an outside developer who is an alliance member who could code this portion for you. It would be a lot less than the $2,000 to enroll in the program, and you could have them focus on just what you need, allowing you to keep most of your code private.