Install MIDlet on a Motorola C380

Yesterday I had some problems when installing a MIDlet on a Motorola C380. Before doing this I believed that this was something I could do fast and easy. As it turned out, this was not the case. Here is the story.

As in all good cooking programs I had prepared myself. The document "Java ME Developer Guide for Motorola OS" seemed to be the right one. It describe the following ways of downloading a MIDlet to your mobile device;

1. OTA (Over The Air)
2. Bluetooth
3. IrDA
4. USB Cable

These are all standard ways of downloading a MIDlet. Using OTA for downloading from my laptop would imply to much works, so one of the other ways should be used in this case. Hmmm... Bluetooth should do the trick. Looking through all the menus, but no Bluetooth settings. The specification for the C380 confirmed this. IrDA was not possible either, since my laptop does not have an IrDA port. Lets try to use the USB cable then. Nice that Motorola devices uses a standard USB mini cable. My desktop is full of different brand specific USB cables. I wish that all manufacturers would use standard USB cables, which could simplify things for me.

I used the brute force method for USB connections. Attach the mobile device through USB to your computer, and see if Windows figures out which drivers to install. My Windows Vista installation did not. But I was a little bit surprised when Windows Vista suggested that I should download the Motorola Device Drivers. The link worked and within minutes the device drivers where downloaded.The documentation described a tool called MIDway which could be used for downloading MIDlets to your mobile. This was possible if you could find the "Java App Loader" in the Java menu on your mobile device. It was written that the "Java App Loader" is NOT available on devices that you buy from a standard consumer outlet. You should use the MWay tool found in Motorola MOTODev Studio for Java ME V2 instead. No problem, it was only a "small" download about the size of 112 MB. Estimated download time; 1 h 30 min. This gave me time to be a little bit social with my family. What a bummer :)

I installed the device drivers and Motorola MOTODev Studio. This worked like a charm. I attached my mobile device through USB and now it worked. The device manager showed that a Motorola US modem was installed, as well as some other devices. Now it was time to start MOTODev Studio. Surprise! The MOTODev Studio is Eclipse in disguise. Me like a lot! I found a document about Motorolas MWay Tool v1.0, which was the tool that I was supposed to use. The first step was to find the configuration tool, the second was to activate the "Java App Loader" menu. But wait... the other document stated that this was not available on mobile phone purchased in the consumer market. Appearently it was possible. After restarting the phone the menu was finally available. Connected the phone once more and used the deployment tool to install the MIDlet. Rather easy once you figured it out. But it took quite some time; I started right after the dinner at five and finished about eleven.

I now comes the short version, the version that you could use and save yourself a lot of time.

Prerequisites
Some kind of Windows environment. Windows Vista worked for me.

Preparations

1. Download the Motorola device drivers
2. Download the MOTODev Studio.
3. Optional; if you have a slow Internet connection you could take a long coffee break, watch a movie or something.

The real stuff

1. Install the device drivers
2. Install MOTODev Studio.
3. Connect your Motorola mobile phone. Wait for Windows to do the installation of the drivers.
4. Start MOTODev studio.
5. Open the "JavaME" view and select the "Tools" tab.
6. Select the "Config tool".
7. Refresh the "Config Tool" and you it should now show some information such as IMEI number etc.
8. Select the "JAL" option (short for "Java App Loader").
9. Disconnect your mobile device and restart it.
10. Choose the "Java Settings" menu found in the settings menu. Select the "Java App Loader". You are now prompted to connect your mobile device. The mobile device should confirm that your JAL link is active.
    
11. Select the "Deployment Tool". This is also found under the "Tools" tab.
12. Select the JAD file that you want to transfer. The JAR file shall be in the same directory.
13. Select the COM port for your Motorola USB modem. This is found Windows device manager.
14. Press the "Deploy" icon found in the upper right corner of the "Deployment Tool" view.
15. Accept the download on your mobile device. Follow the instructions on the mobile device.

You should now be executing your own MIDlet on your mobile device. I tried it on the Motorola C380, but this should be applicable on other Motorola devices as well. Good luck!

I hope that you could save an hour or two when using this guide. Unfortunately you have to download a couple of megabytes, but hopefully you have a faster Internet connection than I have. If you have any problems, you could still use the Motorolas MWay Tool v1.0 document to figure out how to do it.