First and foremost, we've merged the Cascades and Native SDK sites into one site. The motivation behind the site merge is to make content more accessible for you, our users. When we first released Cascades, it made a lot of sense to build a separate site that was dedicated to Cascades development. Now, Cascades and Core native features and APIs are more tightly integrated, so the 10.2 release is a great time to bring the two approaches together. Also, we now refer to the previous Native SDK libraries and features as 'core', to distinguish them from Cascades.
The focus controller
The primary change that you should familiarize yourself with is the focus controller.
This controller always appears in the upper-left corner of the screen and allows you switch between development approaches. If you're interested in building an app that has the signature look and feel of BlackBerry 10, choose Cascades. If you're interested in gaming or porting from another platform, choose Core.
The development approaches are not mutually exclusive. Choosing a focus brings that content to the front and center of the site, but you can still access content from the other development approach if desired.
Upgrading your tools
Before you explore the new site and start developing, you should take a look at the Release Notes for information about Upgrading to 10.2 Gold. The upgrade steps vary depending on which version of the SDK you’re upgrading from.
If you're developing apps using Cascades, you can also read the upgrade guide for 10.2, which outlines some important API changes and development considerations. If you've already created an app, be sure to check out this section for any changes you might need to make to your app for this release.
What's new?
Want to know what features and APIs are new in 10.2? Check out the Highlights and New in this release sections of the Release Notes. Use the focus controller in the upper-left corner to switch between Cascades and Core features.
The documentation landing pages have been overhauled, too, but they still highlight new and updated information that you might find helpful. Visit the documentation landing pages to learn more.
Changes
There have been some API changes since the 10.2 beta release, so make sure to check out the Changes in this release so that you know if you need to make any updates to your app.
Take the tour!
When you visit our redesigned site for the first time, you might notice a pop-up box that offers to take you on a tour of some of the new features. We encourage you to do just that! You'll learn where all of our content lives, and you'll get a glimpse of the changes that we're especially proud of.
If you didn't take the tour on your first visit, you can start it again by clicking the links in the Getting Started section on our front page.
