Andreas Jakl's Forum Nokia Blog

Andreas Jakl's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog As an Assistant Professor, I'm teaching Symbian OS at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria. My company "Mopius" is developing mobile software with a special focus on Symbian OS. mopius 2009-11-24T02:57:52Z Explore .sis-files Online http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/04/whatisinmysis <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/whatisinmysis_overview.png" alt="whatisinmysis.com logo" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">whatisinmysis.com analyzes the contents of your.sis files. </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Ever wondered what's inside your .sis files? Which certificate was used to sign it? Does it have the right capabilities? Of course there are utilities that can help you with analyzing the contents. One of them is the <a href="http://www.symbian-toys.com/sisxplorer.aspx">SISXplorer utility</a>, or you can also use the <a href="http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jpsukane/sisinfo.html">sisinfo Python-script</a>. Both are available for free. But what if you don't want to install an application just to take a look at the contents of the .sis-file? Or what if you are working on a friend's PC that doesn't have the same, perfect setup as your own? <a href="mailto:stefan.damm@fh-hagenberg.at">Stefan Damm</a> got into this situation from time to time, and then decided to make an online tool available. The website <a href="http://www.whatisinmysis.com/">whatisinmysis.com</a> is an online interface to the <a href="http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jpsukane/sisinfo.html">sisinfo Python-script</a>. You simply upload the .sis-file to the website, and it will display all the information about its contents. Easy, fast and free. No setup on your PC is required. The privacy statement on the site ensures that your uploaded files are deleted immediately after analysis. <a href="http://www.whatisinmysis.com/">whatisinmysis.com</a> will display the following: <ul> <li>Contents of .sis file and installation directory of each entry</li> <li>Capabilities of each executable (exe, dll, .pyd)</li> <li>Certificate chain</li> </ul> If you find online services like the new one from Stefan Damm interesting, you might also want to bookmark <a href="http://www.whythefuckwontmysisfileinstall.com/">WhyTheFuckWontMySisFileInstall.com</a>. It has got a slightly different focus: it provides information about the signing status and prints reasons or suggestions why installation of this .sis-file might fail on a device. Of course, <a href="http://www.whatisinmysis.com/">whatisinmysis.com</a> has now also been added to <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/whatisinmysis.php" title="WhatIsInMySis.com @ symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a>. General S60 Symbian C++ Testing 2009-01-04T18:27:09Z mopius Efficiency Boost - New Carbide.c++ Panic Lookup Plug-In http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/02/04/paniclookup Everyone who has spent at least a few hours developing in C++ for Symbian OS will know about Symbian OS system error and panic codes. No doubt one of the most “famous” is the KERN-EXEC 3 (null pointer exception). But what if you encounter an E32USER-CBase 71? What is the error -5? Nobody can know all the codes by heart, so you have to look them up:<ol start="1"><li><table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/PanicLookup2.png" border="0" alt="The PanicLookup-Plug-in also supports manual search of panics as well as standard Symbian OS error codes." width="250" height="196" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">The new PanicLookup-Plug-in allows comfortably searching panic and system error codes.</td></tr></tbody></table>Of course, the panics are documented in the SDK-doc. But accessing it means going through the start menu to open the SDK doc and then navigating through a huge hierarchy of the index to get to the list: Symbian OS v9.x -> Symbian OS reference -> System panic reference -> KERN-EXEC -> ... go through a long list to find your code... The search function will list the codes as well, but somewhere hidden in lots of results. Error codes are even more difficult to find. </li><li>The famous <a href="http://newlc.com/Symbian-OS-Error-Codes.html" title="Symbian OS error codes at NewLC">NewLC Symbian OS Error Codes-list</a>. This has been one of my favourite pages since I started Symbian OS development. A very comprehensive list, containing almost all codes. However, you have to start the browser, fire up the bookmark or search in Google for something like “Symbian error codes” and then search the error on the page. Additionally, it does not list the panic codes. </li><li>Similar lists are of course available at the <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Symbian_OS_Error_Codes" title="Symbian OS error codes at the Forum Nokia Wiki">Forum Nokia Wiki</a>. But it has the same restrictions as the previous list, requiring you to fire up the browser and get to the relevant page somehow. </li><li>Some <a href="http://developer.symbian.com/main/downloads/papers/error_codes/ErrorCodesLatest.zip" title="Error code Excel-spreadsheet">Excel-spreadsheets</a> are floating around the web from time to time. They’re nice, but who really wants to fire up Excel just for looking up an error? Again, no panic codes included. </li><li>There’s a <a href="http://twmdesign.co.uk/theblog/?p=21" title="Python-tool for error lookup">Python-tool</a> that allows easily looking up the error codes on the command line. But you have to remember it, fire up the command prompt and enter some command to fire up the tool (which you have to remember, again). Again, only error codes and no panics. </li></ol>Unless you are a perfect developer with centuries of experience, you will regularly experience errors codes. Therefore, the idea is obvious – an integrated error and panic code lookup tool for the <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/tools_and_sdks/carbide/index.html" title="Carbide.c++">Carbide.c++ IDE</a> would be a considerable timesaver.PanicLookup-Plug-in<a href="mailto:wolfgang.damm@fh-hagenberg.at">Wolfgang Damm</a> and <a href="mailto:andreas.pum@fh-hagenberg.at">Andreas Pum</a>, two “<a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc" title="Mobile Computing">Mobile Computing</a>”-students from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, have just finished a <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/paniclookup.php" title="PanicLookup Plug-in">plug-in for Carbide.c++</a>, which allows fast and efficient lookup of error codes.Quite some time was spent on optimizing the integration, in order to maximize the efficiency. For example, the plug-in automatically parses the debug output for panic codes – you just have to switch to the plug-in window to read the description, which is in turn directly taken from the latest Symbian OS 9.3 system panic reference.FeaturesAdditionally, the plug-in allows manual lookup, featuring specialized auto-completion. Once you entered the first few letters of the panic category, you can jump to enter the number by pressing TAB. The standard Symbian OS error codes can be retrieved by searching for “Error -5” or in the other direction by entering “KErrNotSupported”.By default, the devices do not display the error codes so that end-users are not confused. To enable error display, copy an empty ErrRd-file to the C:Resource-folder of your phone through the pkg-file of your application. It’s even easier if you just install a small <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/cgi-bin/schlabo/dl.pl?ErrRd" title="ErrRd Installation File">ErrRd-SIS file</a>, which creates this file for you.DownloadThe plug-in along with documentation and installation instructions can be downloaded for free from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/paniclookup.php" title="PanicLookup-Plug-in">symbianresources.com</a>. Of course, the developers would like to hear your feedback, so don’t hesitate to comment here or email them if you find it useful or if you have any ideas on how to further improve the plug-in!<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/PanicLookup1.png" border="0" alt="The PanicLookup Carbide.c++ Plug-in automatically prints the full error description for any panic reported by the emulator." width="450" height="253" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">For additional comfort, the plug-in automatically parses the debug output and instantly displays the description, which was taken right from the latest SDK documentation.</td></tr></tbody></table> General S60 Symbian C++ Testing 2008-02-04T14:28:21Z mopius Freeware Symbian Signed: 2 Months+? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/04/18/freeware-symbian-signed-2-months <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="5" width="250"><tbody><tr><td><img src="https://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=439&file=journey_full.png" border="0" alt="The Journey" width="240" height="294" /></td></tr><tr><td>New title screen of "The Journey" - now based on pure vector graphis. </td></tr></tbody></table>Currently, I’m trying to release the S60 v3-port of the location based freeware game called “<a href="http://journey.mopius.com/">The Journey</a>”. It uses the cell ids of the mobile phone network to determine the relative movement of the player, and connects this real-world information to the virtual gaming world of a small detective story. Back in the days when the game was initially released, retrieving the cell id had been an undocumented feature. Meanwhile, the situation has changed and it’s possible to get the id through an official API. Unfortunately, accessing it requires Symbian Signed. So I decided to go through the Freeware Symbian Signed process. Well, this was two months ago. If you go to the <a href="http://journey.mopius.com/">game website</a>, you’ll see the game is still not released. This is not because the game has failed the tests. The reason is that I’m still waiting for the results. I contacted the Symbian Signed-team twice. They told me that they can’t do much as the whole process is in the hands of Cellmania. So I decided to contact Cellmania, but never got a response… Improvements I think that it’s great that there is an opportunity to get freeware applications signed for free. However, in my opinion there are a number of things that have to be improved (well, in case this has not already happened lately):<ol start="1"><li>Improve the test criteria: It took me a very long time to go through the extensive test criteria document.  Especially time-consuming was the privacy dialog at the beginning, as it required a new .ini-file, a dialog, translated text, etc. It would be a lot easier if there was a reference implementation for something like that, along with the standard text translated to all major languages. To go even further, wouldn’t it be possible to make the criteria less strict for freeware applications, where some unpaid developer has to do everything himself? Are the privacy dialog, low memory startup, backup and restore, … really crucial to a small freeware app.? </li><li>Improve the test criteria, part II: Even more time consuming has been figuring out that the backup process can’t be tested with a developer certificate. Also the AppTest Lite-tool didn’t recognize the incoming call and failed this test (along with a few similar ones). I had to search the internet to find “solutions” for those two common problems. As everyone will experience them, issues like that should be highlighted in the test criteria, instead of letting developers test the backup process over and over and read long documents - until they finally decide to consult some developer forums and discover that everything was correct in the first place. </li><li>Improve the signing process: There should be immediate feedback that the application has been received and is starting to be processed. Then, there has to be a way to query the current status, along with a guaranteed maximum time, which should be shorter than two months :)</li></ol> Summary <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="5" width="285"><tbody><tr><td><img src="https://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=440&file=streets_landscape.png" border="0" alt="Screenshot of "The Journey"" width="275" height="232" /></td></tr><tr style="font-style: italic"><td>"The Journey" lets you walk around in your real surroundings.</td></tr></tbody></table>Developing mobile applications can be fun – as some of you might remember, I recently released <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/hourpower.php">HourPower</a>, which was developed in just one day and was released the next, as it didn’t require Symbian Signed. Up to now, it has already been downloaded more than 1000 times, with many positive comments and not a single complaint. As I said, it's fun. For “The Journey”, the story is different. In total, I spent a week working on Symbian Signed (eating up the limited free time). While this isn’t very motivating, the fun is now really gone when I already have to wait more than two months to be finally be able to release the otherwise 110% finished application. I don’t think the quality improved so much that all this is justified. Please don’t understand this article as a criticism to Symbian Signed in general or the team working on it at Symbian. They’re doing a great job and are quick and helpful with their responses. However, the good idea of the Freeware Symbian Signed process has to be taken further and improved in many areas. It might also be possible that I just had bad luck. I’d be very interesting in comments from other developers who have already gotten their freeware applications Symbian Signed – or are still waiting for it. General Testing 2007-04-18T22:48:32Z mopius Checking your code with SymScan in Carbide.c++ http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/01/30/checking-your-code-with-symscan-in-carbide.c A few days ago, I was appointed as one of the new Forum Nokia Champions and am really glad to be part of the team! Nearly at the same time, the developer resources portal at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/">http://www.symbianresources.com/</a> was updated with the latest material from the Symbian OS-courses that I held this winter-semester at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg. <o:p></o:p> Many typical Symiban OS-topics are covered in a very detailed and up-to-date fashion, for example the Descriptors-part already contains exercises for the RBuf-classes. Generally, I try to explain everything in a rather graphical way with (for the most part) some code samples. Apart from introducing this site, I want to post about one thing at the Forum Nokia Blogs, as I have not found similar instructions elsewhere. SymScan and Carbide.c++ <a href="http://developer.symbian.com/main/tools/devtools/code/index.jsp#symscan">SymScan</a> is a tool from Symbian that checks your code for potential problems as well as if it adheres to the Symbian OS coding guidelines – especially related to Leaves. I think it’s very useful to check the code from time to time, e.g. it can easily happen that you forget to add or remove the trailing L of a function name when tweaking your code. After some research, I found a solution on how to integrate this tool with Carbide.c++. It’s not perfect – due to the way it’s integrated, the project will be compiled before running this tool. But that shouldn’t be an issue at all. To integrate it, follow these steps: <ol> <li>In Carbide.c++, select Run -> External Tools -> External Tools...</li> <li>Create a new tool called SymScan for the “Symbian”-perspective. Set the location of the SymScan-Tool (e.g. C:Program FilesCommon FilesSymbiantoolsSymScan.exe). For the “Arguments”-field, enter: “${resource_loc}” – including the quotes (“”).</li> <li>Add it to the favourites menu (Common-tab of the External Tools-Menu).</li> <li>When a Symbian OS source file is open, run the tool through Run -> External Tools -> SymScan. The results will be displayed in the Console-window.</li> </ol> <img width="730" height="229" align="middle" alt="SymScan and Carbide.c++" src="https://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=360&file=symscan_carbide.png" /> S60 Symbian C++ Testing 2007-01-30T12:22:45Z mopius