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Overview

A BAR file (extension: .bar) is an archive containing all the files required to install a BlackBerry 10 application. BAR files can be installed directly on a device without going through BlackBerry World or BES deployment through a procedure known as "sideloading". This article explains how to sideload an application on any BlackBerry 10 device.

Sideloading an application requires the following:

• a Windows PC or a Mac
• the application's BAR file, saved on the PC/Mac
• a BlackBerry 10 device
• a USB cable compatible with the device (usually, a Micro-B USB cable)

Installing the required software on your PC/Mac

The procedure requires the following software to be installed on your PC/Mac:

• Oracle Java; this is required for running the installation tool
• BlackBerry Link; this is required for connecting to your BlackBerry 10 device from your PC/Mac via USB cable

Downloading the BlackBerry Native SDK tools for your PC/Mac

The installation tool is part of the BlackBerry Native SDK. The Native SDK can either be downloaded as a stand-alone software or (if you have already installed it) from the Momentics development environment.

Downloading the Native SDK from Momentics

• Open Momentics
• Click the "Help" → "Update API levels..." menu. This opens the "API levels" window, with a list of all installed and available SDKs
• Open the "Gold" tab
• If the window shows the message "There are no Gold API levels installed", you need to install one of the available SDKs:
  • Scroll down to the "Available:" section
  • Click the "Install" button for the Native SDK with the highest version number
  • Wait for the selected SDK to be downloaded and installed
• Open the Momentics installation directory:
  • (on Windows) Momentics is installed by default in C:\bbndk: open it. If you installed it in a different directory, right click the Momentics icon on the Desktop or Start menu, and click "Open file location"
  • (on Mac) Open the Applications directory, and Ctrl-click on the Momentics application. Click the "Show package contents..." menu
• If a Native SDK was correctly installed, you should have one or more directories named host_10_x_y_z, where x.y.z is the version of the SDK
• Choose the directory with the highest version number, for example host_10_3_1_29. In the rest of this document, this directory will be referred to as host_10_x_y_z

Downloading the Native SDK tools for Windows

• Download http://downloads.blackberry.com/upr/developers/update/bbndk/ndktargetrepo_10.3.1.995/packages/bbndk.win32.tools.10.3.1.12.zip
• When the file is fully downloaded, right-click it and select "Extract all...". Follow the guided procedure
• You should now have a directory named bbndk.win32.tools.10.3.1.12 in the same directory as the bbndk.win32.tools.10.3.1.12.zip file: open it
• In the directory named bbndk.win32.tools.10.3.1.12, you should have a directory named host_10_3_1_12. In the rest of this document, this directory will be referred to as host_10_x_y_z

Downloading the Native SDK tools for Mac

• Download http://downloads.blackberry.com/upr/developers/update/bbndk/ndktargetrepo_10.3.1.995/packages/bbndk.macosx.tools.10.3.1.12.tar.gz
• We'll assume the file was downloaded to your Downloads directory with the name bbndk.macosx.tools.10.3.1.12.tar.gz
• Open the Terminal application (it's under Applications → Utilities)
• In Terminal:
  • type the command cd ~/Downloads and press Enter⏎
  • type the command tar xf bbndk.macosx.tools.10.3.1.12.tar.gz and press Enter⏎. This could take a while
• When the last command terminates, you should have a directory named host_10_3_1_12 in your Downloads directory. In the rest of this document, this directory will be referred to as host_10_x_y_z

Preparing your BlackBerry 10 device

The BlackBerry 10 device needs to be prepared to enable sideloading of applications:

• Open the Settings application
• In the Settings application, navigate back to the main screen if necessary, and then to Security and Privacy
• From Security and Privacy, navigate to Development Mode
• Enable Development Mode; enter the device password for confirmation
• Note down the IP address of the device: it should be in the form of 169.254.x.y (usually, 169.254.0.1)

Installing the application

Once everything's ready on the device and your PC/Mac, we can proceed with the installation:

• Connect the device to your PC/Mac with the USB cable
• (on Windows) Press Windows+R; this should open the Run window. Type cmd in the text box and press Enter⏎. This should open a command window
• (on Mac) Open Applications → Utilities → Terminal. This should open a command window
• enter the command cd <full path to the host_10_x_y_z directory> and press Enter⏎. To easily enter the full path to the host_10_x_y_z directory, you can drag and drop it on the command window
• (on Windows) enter the command cd win32\x86\usr\bin and press Enter⏎
• (on Mac) enter the command cd darwin/x86/usr/bin and press Enter⏎
• enter the command blackberry-deploy -installApp -device 169.254.x.y -password <device password> <full path to the BAR file> (where 169.254.x.y is the IP address of the device), and press Enter⏎. To easily enter the full path of the BAR file, you can drag and drop it on the command window
• If successful, the command should print output similar to the following:

Info: Application-Development-Mode is false, sync disabled
Info: Sending request: INSTALL
Info: Action: Install
Info: File size: 3277221
Info: Installing ...
Info: Processing 3277221 bytes
Info: Progress 6%...
Info: Progress 11%...
Info: Progress 16%...
Info: Progress 100%...
Info: Progress 100%...
actual_dname::com.privatewave.svoip.demo.gYABgIOlC5Mm_YdgsYtIT58APtU
actual_id::gYABgIOlC5Mm_YdgsYtIT58APtU
actual_version::1.0.0.1
result::success

• If everything went right, the application is now installed on your BlackBerry 10 device