BlackBerry® MDS Runtime Applications are lightweight, rich-client applications that are created using BlackBerry® MDS Studio or the BlackBerry® Plug-in for Microsoft® Visual Studio®. BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications communicate with an organization's systems through the BlackBerry MDS Integration Service, a component of the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications can range from simple to complex, but they are typically forms-based applications that users can use to access web services or databases that are located inside your organization's firewall. Web services or a database contain the data and operations that developers can use to create BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications. Web services or a database also process the data that they receive from BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications. For example, a developer can create a BlackBerry MDS Runtime Application so that users can look up data from a directory in your organization.

Using the latest versions of the BlackBerry MDS Studio Plug-in for Eclipse or the BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio, application developers in your organization can create BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications that standard applications on BlackBerry devices (for example, the contact list) and custom BlackBerry Java® Applications can invoke. Developers can also create BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications that can invoke standard applications on BlackBerry devices, custom BlackBerry Java Applications, or other BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications.

You must install and activate the BlackBerry MDS Runtime on BlackBerry devices before you install BlackBerry MDS Runtime Applications on BlackBerry devices.

For more information about developing and customizing BlackBerry Applications, visit www.blackberry.com/developers.