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To publish a BlackBerry (legacy) OTA app via a web server you will need the .cod files and associated .jad file. I’ll leave it up to you to do your own research on how to generate these files – if you don’t already have them then what follows will not be of use to you yet.

Once you have the files you will need to place them on your web server where they are publicly available. You will want to point users to the .jad file, either by creating your own index page or giving them the direct URL. The BlackBerry should know what to do with a .jad file and begin the app installation when the browser encounters this file.

But that’s not all. You need to configure your MIME types!

Setting MIME types will vary on your web server. Here are a few common ones:

Edit (Apache) .htaccess file

In the .htaccess file you should place the following two lines of text:

AddType text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor .jad
AddType application/vnd.rim.cod .cod

Configure IIS

The Internet Information Services Manager tool will vary based on which version of IIS you are running. But, browse to the MIME types and add a new MIME type with the following properties:

Extension: .jad
MIME Type: text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor

If you are running a later version of IIS you will find that .cod extension already exists. So you will edit the existing one. If it does not exist, create new. Set the properties as follows:

Extension: .cod
MIME Type: application/vnd.rim.cod

You may need to restart IIS services for changes to take effect.

Additional Resources:

• Microsoft Knowledge Base: Add a MIME Type (IIS 7)
• Microsoft TechNet: Configure MIME Types (IIS 6.0)
• .htaccess Guide: Adding MIME types