Open Source Bluetooth PAN's Forum Nokia Blog

Symbian, Descriptors and Unicode

Carbider — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:41:47 +0200

While programming Bluetooth data transmission routines I've come across an encoding issue at Symbian. The task was to send and receive Unicode strings encoded in UTF-16. The data was moved by RSocket class.

The thing is, the RSocket's read and write methods are taking the 8 bit descriptors only (representing the binary data), so we need to convert the 8 bit descriptors to 16 bit and vice versa.
For example, we need to receive some UTF-16 string in Russian language from the server and display it on screen.

Some documents here suggest several solutions on converting descriptors, but they don't work as needed. Let me explain why.

The two common methods of conversion are:

1. To use Copy() method of first the descriptor to copy contents of the second one.

Example:

RBuf8  buf8     ;
RBuf16 buf16    ;


buf16.Copy(buf8);

As a result, the contents of buf8 descriptor would not be simply copied to buf16, but each character would be expanded to 16 bits.
So the string “Hello” would become something like “_H_E_L_L_O” after expanding.

Image 1 – Example of how the Copy() method works, and what we actually need.

On the contrary, when converting the 16 bit descriptor to an 8 bit descriptor, the contents of the first would be collapsed.

That is a behavior of Copy() method.

2. The second method is to use a CnvUtfConverter class provided in Symbian.

Example:

HBufC8 *heap8;
HBufC  *heap16 = CnvUtfConverter::ConvertToUnicodeFromUtf8L(*heap8);

This method will convert between the Unicode and UTF-8. That is again is not what I needed. What I need is the conversion between the descriptor classes themselves but not transforming their contents, that should stay without any change.

Solving

So to read the Unicode string presented in binary format from socket and display it on screen, we need to convert the descriptor's body (8 bit descriptor to 16 bit descriptor) but not the descriptor's contents.

Here is a method on how can it be done.
To pass the descriptor's contents from the descriptor of one type to another, we have to copy contents somehow. I chose the memcpy() function. If you find a better (or safer) way, please submit it here.
Example:

Copy the contents of 8 bit descriptor to the 16 bit one.
(without memory allocation routines)

TBuf8       sourceBuf8        ;
TBuf16      destBuf16         ;


TInt len = sourceBuf8.Length();


aOutDest.FillZ(len/2         ); // necessary to set the size
memcpy((TAny *)destBuf16.Ptr(), (TAny *)sourceBuf8.Ptr(), len);

This works smoothly for S60 3rd FP1, both emulator and Nokia E90 device.

I wrote the CBinaryConverter class that has two methods, doing these operations. It is attached to this post.

Example of using CBinaryConverter class:

RBuf8 source                      ;
RBuf   dest                       ;  // the same as Rbuf16
TInt destLength                   ;
source.Create(100                );


// Receive the 8 bit descriptor from socket that contains 16 bit data
iActiveSocket->RecvOneOrMore(source, 0, iStatus, iLen ); 


destLength = source.Length() / 2  ;  // 16 bit chars instead of 8 bit


dest.CleanupClosePushL()          ;  // to  Cleanup Stack
dest.Create( destLength          );


//Conversion
CBinaryConverter::copy8BitInto16BitDescriptorL(source, dest  ); 


// Show the note
CAknInformationNote *iInfNote     ;
iInfNote = new (ELeave) CAknInformationNote();
iInfNote->ExecuteLD(dest         );


CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(&dest); // Pop RBuf from the Cleanup Stack

Screenshot of the application, that controls Juke Box holding songs in English and Russian languages over Bluetooth:

Download the source code

Download zip package:
BinaryConverter_class.zip

Or view directly:

BinaryConverter.cpp

view

BinaryConverter.h

view

--
Cheers
Konstantine

PAN service advertise

Carbider — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:47:37 +0300

It is interesting the PAN (Bluetooth Personal Area Networking) profile is listed at Symbian 9.2 abilities.
The PAN overview is here:
...symbian.com/developer/techlib/v9.2docs/...

And a small API mention is here:
...symbian.com/developer/techlib/v9.2docs/...

Despite the fact that there is no completely ready PAN API in S60 3rd there are some type definitions and constants related to the deal. They are defined at btsdp.h header file here:
...symbian.com/developer/techlib/v9.2docs/...

Here are some constants that seem to be tempting for my Bluetooth inquisitive mind:

Listing - 1

/** PAN Service Class UUID */
static const TInt KPanUUUID = 0x1115;
/** PAN NAP Service Class UUID */
static const TInt KPanNapUUID = 0x1116;
/** PAN GN Service Class UUID */
static const TInt KPanGnUUID = 0x1117;

These values represent identifiers of Bluetooth(c) services that could be advertised by device.

There is a Chat example that advertises the Serial Port service. I decided to try one's luck with PAN.

const TInt KServiceClass = 0x1101; // SerialPort

Chat example supplies the service's identifier constant by returning this value from function below:

Listing - 2

TInt CChatServiceAdvertiser::ServiceClass()
{
return KServiceClass;
}

The KServiceClass constant is assigned to '0x1101' by default. I've changed the function to this manner:

Listing - 3

TInt CChatServiceAdvertiser::ServiceClass(TInt aAttemptNumber)
{
    switch(aAttemptNumber) {
    case 0 :
        return 0x1115; // PAN
        break;
    case 1 :
     return 0x1116; // PAN NAP
     break;
    case 2 :
     return 0x1117; // PAN GN
     break;
    }
}

This gives me a possibility to supply the AttemptNumber parameter to the function - so to test all 3 service classes by turns.

In the similar manner I had rewritten the function that returns the service's symbolic name.

Listing - 4

const TDesC& CChatServiceAdvertiser::ServiceName(TInt aAttemptNumber)
{
switch(aAttemptNumber) {

  case 0 :
     return _L("PAN"    ); // PAN
     break;
  case 1 :
     return _L("PAN NAP"); // PAN NAP
     break;
  case 2 :
     return _L("PAN GN" ); // PAN GN
     break;


}
}

Each time I've started the chat server I’ve outputted the qualifying message in this way:

iLog.LogL( _L("Attempt#"), iAttemptNumber );

After building the application under Phone release (GCCE) I had signed it myself and sent to my device.

As a Contributor of the Month I have got one. It's a Nokia N95 8GB.
With that one I can test a lot. It really helps in development. And also that multimedia computer is cool one ;)

Then I started the app on the phone and turned on the PAN search service on the WinXP SP2 machine.
However after all three service classes were advertised one by one, the XP machine did not detect any.

Lost in the dark

Carbider — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:32:00 +0200

As you know, I've worked a lot to figure out a way of how to realize the BNEP protocol on Symbian platform.

The simple idea of catching and processing all the TCP stream with help of IP hook is impossible until purchase non-publick API.
Also, the idea to create a networking interface or serial protocol modules (this blog entries:attempt-to-create-a-csy-module, serial-protocol-modules, symbian-networking-interface) failed to due to lack of examples.

Now, I'm moving like in a dark. And can't find a way to realize the BNEP.
Boss said me to try for 2 more weeks, to find out.
I do not see much sense if this blog ends with purchasing a non-publick API.

If anyone can provide an idea, let me know.

Attempt to create a CSY module

Carbider — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:55:52 +0200

So yes.
I've stand on the way of creating my own CSY module.

It is some kind of a reckless scheme for me. I have no any assurance it will help me in my researches. Furthermore, the web-search on "create custom CSY module" brings me back to my own blog post about serial protocols. Cool.
I call this adventure as a crazy attempt because it demands to throw together a lot of components without strong hope it will bring to essential result.

But the rays of hope are:

1. When creating new IAP, one of the Data Base fields is: "MODEM_CSY_NAME".
Some previous adventurers used it to set as "BTCOMM". Hmm good.
2. It is possible to create new serial modules. How? The search returns me back to my posts. The discussion boards speak only about connecting to modules.
3. There is a framework on Symbian OS called "Ecom". Ecom provides interaction between clients and polymorphic DLLs, which CSY modules, at my sight, are.

The Ecom's (symbian.com/../v9.2docs/../EcomArch) so-called plug-ins are polymorphic DLLs. Those DLLs provide the interface, the implementation and the factory functions (which instantiate concrete classes).

As it is said here, Serial protocol modules also have Service providers (interface implementations), Protocol Factories (that are called to instantiate serial service provider) as well.

Looks pretty familiar to understand the serial modules are finally polymorphic DLLs too.

Thus let’s try to accommodate my own DLL instead of BTCOMM.CSY.

By these conditions I've imported the Ecom example from SDK to launch and explore.
The example is situated in SDK folder:
/Symbian/9.2/S60_3rd_FP1/Examples/SysLibs/ECom/

and has 3 sub-folders:
-» InterfaceClient
-» InterfaceDefinition
-» InterfaceImplementation

After unsuccessful build I’ve noticed the given project depends on extra sources at the 'examples' folder.
It was 'CommonFramework' situated at '/Symbian/9.2/S60_3rd_FP1/Examples/'.

So I’ve copied entire 'CommonFramework' inside ‘Ecom’ and modified some paths.

In '/InterfaceClient/InterfaceClient.mmp'
USERINCLUDE ../..CommonFramework
to
USERINCLUDE ../CommonFramework

The familiar change at file: 'Ecom/.cdtproject'

So to be exact with my creepy idea we need:
-» Create new IAP,
-» Go to CommDB database and change this IAP record field 'MODEM_CSY_NAME' to newly-fledged polymorphic DLL.
-» See if there is any way DLL can be launched after user picks hackneyed IAP.
-» Maybe to rename DLL to CSY as well.
-» Of course, the final goal is that DLL to start working as serial module plug-in.

Besides there is work to divine the appropriate entry point to serial module DLL.

Meanwhile the project was built successfully and I've got two DLLs as a result.
The 'ExampleResolver.dll' and the 'EComExample.dll'.
As expected, they are not extension ".csy" provided.
The 'ExampleResolver.dll' is an Interface Definition.
The 'EComExample.dll' is an Interface Implementation.

Putting their names to CommDB records didn’t bring any results.
Even giving them 'csy' extension wouldn't help.

Being on this stage I'm still wondering if anybody knows:
1. How to write a proper CSY module.
2. How to create a Bluetooth Access Point. Which tables and rows of CommDB should be affected for this purpose.

I'll appreciate any comments on this subjects.

Serial protocol modules

Carbider — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:57:36 +0200

Continuing the last blog entry I can say it is impossible attach to an existing interface (with help of RConnection) in such a way that I can listen to all passing packets (or rather those sockets that I don’t own).

What is keeping me busy is creating Bluetooth® IAP (internet access point) after what I can get all the TCP/IP packets incoming to that IAP. As you read my blog I need this to transfer TCP packets over Bluetooth.

As I try to create BT IAP I mostly face with articles and forums related to distant 6th and 7th versions of Symbian.
Like this one.

Figure 1 – list of IAPs.

In Symbian_OS_Overview_To_Networking I’ve read that on Symbian OS there are Serial Protocol Modules (CSY) that are used to implement software serial port services. The Serial Protocol Module API (cs_port.h) allows developing new CSY modules.
Theoretically one can substitute the already existing BTCOMM.CSY with new module.

So current questions are:

Is it really possible (I didn’t find yet) to create new serial protocol modules (CSY). And how-to.
How to bind new IAP (see figure 1) with a new CSY so one can listen to all it’s packets.

And yes, have a nice Holidays!

Symbian Networking interface

Carbider — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:57:38 +0200

I've spent some time to examine the Symbian's networking architecture.
Since the TCP/IP connection should be established over Bluetooth® the new entry to CommDB database should be entered.
This can be performed by CCommsDatabase class.
After user selects the PAN record, all TCP traffic should be encapsulated into BNEP packets and transmitted over wireless link.

Inside the application, the IAP (internet access point) is selected by RConnection class with RConnection::Start() or RConnection::Attach() methods.
This methods associate the connection with underlying interface.

But no documents can be found about creating those underlying interfaces.
In my mind that should be something like device or DLL library.

I asked for help from expert on FN Discussion Boards. This method was recently introduced. And now wait with the impatience.

Accomplish SSL connection from S60v3

Carbider — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:47:24 +0200

The PAN profile defines how to enable Bluetooth devices to participate in a personal area network.

One of the roles in PAN profile is a Network Access Point (NAP) that provides an Ethernet bridge to support network services to the PAN user. Read about it here: PAN specification.

For now I will try to simulate connection to a NAP from my phone. Why simulate? Because to achieve the real connection I need realization of BNEP protocol class which will transmit Ethernet payloads via Bluetooth.

Since Bluetooth can be eavesdropped in on, we want to use SSL as David said here in comments.

So the goal for now is to connect to some server using secure internet connection on my phone.

I chose the www.mozilla.org SSLv3 site as a server to connect to.

I found the CSecureSocket example at symbian.com/.../v9.2docs/.../ but not everything went of smoothly rather the connection was not established and system was completed with panics.

It seems that that example is pretty old even not for 3^rd edition. But I can’t assert so.

However I scoped the similar problems and documents over here and here.

When got tangled I used some parts of S60v3 Chat code example with insecure internet connection.

The “guiSetBluspan” application that was initiated at previous posts looks like this now:

you need to click “Options” menu then pick “Connect/Disconnect” item and then pick “NAP” item.

Diagram 1 – Connecting from application

After some seconds server will send SSL certificate. You need answer “Continue”.

Diagram 2 – Certificate question

After all steps of connection, handshaking, page request, getting server response and closing connection the notification will appear about successful operation.

Diagram 3 – Connection finished

The objects of these routines were to establish connection to secure HTTPS connection where NAP’s authorization page will be.

At next researches I need to connect to NAP server, provide user’s login and password. NAP is connected to Radius server which will verify user existence and will start accounting on him.

The source codes of application above are provided by this link: guiSetBluspan Zip archive v 0.003 (Nokia’s wiki)

See this posts here to know how to use sources.

The Secure Connection engine in focused in /Core/ folder and is called from “guiSetBluspanSettingItemListView.cpp”

Insert Multiselection list into GUI

Carbider — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:09:53 +0200

One of my favorite classes that Symbian grants to build User Interface is Multiselection List. I’ve learned about it recently.

This is a type of Vertical lists which draws a set of elements each of them can be marked by checkbox.

At future BluSPAN GUI there is “Chat settings” view. User can determine which types of files can be accepted by chat. Example: .bmp, .jpeg, .avi, .mpeg, wav and so on. See diagram 1.

Diagram 1 – Multiselection list at Chat settings view.

To build Multiselection List into my application I had to read about a lot of stages how to use it.

I divided this stages to:

» Defining Multiselection List in resource (.rss) file

» Code implementation in source (.cpp) to Popup it.

» Get results of user choice.

1. Defining Multiselection List in .rss file

I’ve read the Resources_Dialogs.pdf at S60_Platform_Avkon_UI_Resources documentation series. Upon this I’ve formed the resource definition as below:

Listing 1

// Multiselection list query dialog

RESOURCE DIALOG r_accept_type_multiselection_query

{

flags = EGeneralQueryFlags;

buttons = R_AVKON_SOFTKEYS_OK_CANCEL;

items =

{

DLG_LINE

{

type = EAknCtListQueryControl;

id = EListQueryControl;

control = AVKON_LIST_QUERY_CONTROL

{

listtype = EAknCtSingleGraphicPopupMenuListBox;

listbox = LISTBOX

{

flags = EAknListBoxMultiselectionList;

height = 3;

width = 3;

array_id = r_accept_types_multiselection_query_list_item;

};

heading = "Select types:";

};

}

};

}

RESOURCE ARRAY r_accept_types_multiselection_query_list_item

{

items =

{

LBUF { txt = "1t.Bmp"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Jpg"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Avi"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Mp3"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Wav"; }

};

}

I have put this listing to [project_name].rss file. After that you can call ExecuteLD() function with Reference to this resource object. This will be shown below.

2. Popuping list. Code implementation.

With UI designer help, choose the Event tab for “Accept types” menu item. Double click on event to generate Handler function.

In this function we need to create an Instance of CAknListQueryDialog class and Execute it. The source code below shows it.

Listing 2

// Run a dialog of “Acceptance of data types”

CArrayFixFlat<TInt>* indexArray = new(ELeave)CArrayFixFlat<TInt>(5);

CleanupStack::PushL(indexArray);

CAknListQueryDialog* dlg = new (ELeave)

CAknListQueryDialog(indexArray);

if ( dlg->ExecuteLD(R_ACCEPT_TYPE_MULTISELECTION_QUERY ) )

{

Here we will take results of User’s choice

}

CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy();// indexArray

By this code the Multiselection List will Popup and user can mark preferable items.

3. Geting results of user choice

That task was not easy due to Specific Array type of CArrayFixFlat<TInt>. I could not retrieve data from it. I found a way with help of the similar topic of this forum.

The source code below should be placed at Listing 2 to the “if ( dlg->ExecuteLD)” branch. This source code takes result from List and shows indexes of selected items on screen (diagram 2).

Listing 3

if ( dlg->ExecuteLD(R_ACCEPT_TYPE_MULTISELECTION_QUERY ) )

{

TBufC<136> resultString;

TPtr ptr = resultString.Des();

//temporary string to convert from TInt to text

TBufC<136> temporaryString;

TPtr ptrTemporaryString = temporaryString.Des();

TInt intValue;

//How much elements did user select from Multiselection list

TInt elementsAmount = indexArray->Count();

//Retrieve all element that user have picked up

for (TInt elementI = 0; elementI < elementsAmount; elementI++) {

intValue = (*indexArray)[elementI];

ptrTemporaryString.Format(_L("%d "), intValue);

ptr.Append(temporaryString);

}

//Show the elements user have picked up

CAknInformationNote* Notelnformation;

Notelnformation = new (ELeave) CAknInformationNote;

Notelnformation ->ExecuteLD(resultString);

} // If

Diagram 2 – Results of user’s choice. Indexes of selected items

Download source code here: guiSetBluspan Zip Archive v 0.002 (Nokia’s wiki)

See this posts here to know how to use sources.

Code implementation for GUI

Carbider — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:28:15 +0300

At post: Assembling GUI set reflecting future BluSPAN functionality I have shown the GUI that will take place at BluSPAN application. Now I will tell you about some difficulties I’ve faced during this.

Since the “Status” menu-item in Options menu was created, I wanted it to perform Query List popup for user can select his status. This was done with “List Single Query Dialog” component.

After lots of research, and looking at examples, I knew that after this component is placed onto designer, the “RunListQuery1L();” is generated.

So I’ve implemented the “selected” event with call to it:

… ::HandleStatusMenuItemSelectedL( TInt aCommand )

{

// Run the Single Query list Of Status

int resultIndex = RunListQuery1L();

return ETrue;

}

And it worked.

Picture 1 – Event tab in Carbide С++

Creating new UI design in current application

To allow user customize the “USER”, “PAN” and other settings I had to create new designs with Settings Lists.

To do that, just right click on a project, and select:

“New->Other->Symbian OS->S60 UI Design”

Select “Setting Item List” type of interface. Write appropriate name. For example: “SettingsPAN” and click Finish. After that you can start customizing new UI design by arranging the components.

Once a User Settings design, was created, I’ve put “Text Editor” component there for user’s nickname . After Build the error occurred:
“object 'KEdit1MaxLength' redefined”.

But that was not so definitely, because I’ve made a lot of Designs to that time, and I’ve got a lot of similar errors. After examination it was clear that UI Designer generated the same code for newer “Text Editor” as it was for main application’s design (there was “Text Editor” too). Is it so clear?

But I’ve changed Component’s name from “edit1” to “User_edit1”. The errors stepped back.

At current stage I have a lot of Design screens with BluSPAN settings. But I don’t know how to switch between them. When new Design is created, the remark is shown: “Use View Switching: Avkon View-Switching architecture uses the View Server to activate your designs”. But I did find how to use it.

Picture 2 – The questions is: How to switch UI designs in application?

Did anybody face this challenge?

Assembling GUI set reflecting future BluSPAN functionality

Carbider — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:31:51 +0300

Hello. Recent days I was busy on assembling the GUI set which should reflect the functionality of future BluSPAN application.

I used Carbide’s C++ UI Designer tool. It’s pretty handy to drag-and-drop elements at design’s workspace while the appropriate code is generated. But I’m still confused with that code, which is too complicated to novice’s sight.

Documentation

I tried to approach this task reading a lot of material.

» I observed the possibilities of UI with help of
“Introduction_to_S60_UI_Components” and I’ve got good notion about it.

» Very basic information about UI Designer
UI Designer White Papers

» The manual for developers is: Avkon UI Resources

» Downloaded and executed some examples:

landmarks example

dynamic setting list example

Current results

So I started creating my GUIs. Here is a picture of those, I’ve created:

Picture 1 – Screen of Main app’s window

Picture 2 – Options menu

Picture 3 – Settings screens of all parameters BluSPAN will care

At next posts I’ll tell you what difficulties I’ve faced, the troubles I could overcome and those ones which are still barrier for project progress.

Bluetooth Driver for S60 SDK

Carbider — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:45:02 +0300

To use Bluetooth in S60 emulator you have to install BT driver.

After some customizing emulator will use your hardware - Bluetooth Dongle.

If you try to customize it by yourself (without installing driver) in purpose to use Bluetooth Dongle, than, for sure, emulator will die.

If you have S60 SDK FP2, the BT driver will be located at

“<S60_SDK_installation_directory>S60ToolsS60Bt” directory.

But I have S60 FP 1, so I've downloaded it from

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/9d50801f-1f95-4c83-87bc-cb83d4a21bef/S60_SDK_BT_Driver.zip.html

The installation procedure is described in this distribution package as *pdf.

After that you need to start emulator, and at PAN tab set HCI to USB, then restart it.

Everything is described in detail in previous guide.

As I restarted it, I've immediately got an advertisement message :) from the juke-box which is assembled in our office.

Now I can play with Bluetooth examples which are provided with SDK.

Difference between the pointers in Carbide c++ and C++

Carbider — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:11:16 +0300

One more difference between Carbide C++ and standard C++ that I found while porting is pointers maintaining.

If you have a pointer 'p'

void *p = other_pointer;

in C you can sum it up with integer value to walk through memory:

p += sizeof(uint8_t);

That is frequently used in BlueZ libraries.

But Carbide doesn't allow such manipulation motivating with:

"illegal operands 'void *' + 'unsigned int'"

That is because Carbide is more strict with types than C is.

So to move through memory I need that pointer 'p' would be a pointer to specific data type, not ‘void’.

I decided, 'p' should be a pointer to 'uint8_t' because it is used as type’s length to determine data’s displacement step.

So the final declaration looks like this:

uint8_t *p;;

p += sizeof(uint8_t);

BlueZ port using P.I.P.S. environment

Carbider — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:01:58 +0300

After unsatisfactory attempt to port BlueZ system to Symbian due to <sys/signal.h> differences, David advised me to look at P.I.P.S libraries. P.I.P.S. are Symbian libraries that are compatible with POSIX standard.

http://developer.symbian.com/wiki/display/oe/P.I.P.S.+Home

That could mean reducing efforts while migrating the project to mobile device.

That was true on several positions. But there still was a trouble with <sys/system.h>.

It has sigaction{} structure inside. But BlueZ needs sigaction() function too.

I don’t know, if the trouble is that BlueZ doesn’t support POSIX. Or it is a Symbian’s trait.

But there is a paragraph here http://developer.symbian.com/wiki/download/attachments/1411/PIPS_Essential_Booklet.pdf

[PIPS_Essential_Booklet.pdf]

Which says: “The P.I.P.S. environment does not support signals”.

Other functions that are not supported:

sigfillset()

sigdelset()

I had to examine what Signals are used for. I came to conclusion that they are used to halt child processes.

Sigaction()function was used to specify the action to be associated with a specific signal. After that the process generates his child instance (with fork and exec) which can be killed by sending “halt” signal with this statement:

kill(pid, SIGHUP)

So, I did not still find the replacement to this function to kill child processes. I’m thinking about Symbian’s RProcess class. Any ideas?

I found that Carbide C++ is very strict to data types. Even more strict than unix c.

I had to replace statements like:

struct bnep_setup_conn_req *req;

req = (void *) pkt;

req = (struct bnep_setup_conn_req *) pkt;

At this 2 documents:

http://www3.symbian.com/faq.nsf/0/D23BCB0AF8B1DC168025729F003FF465?OpenDocument

http://www3.symbian.com/faq.nsf/0/0C3AC88AA406F6108025729F00402E3A?OpenDocument

I found recommendations how to substitute ther “fork”, “exec” operations with other posix functions. The main is posix_spawn().

I tried to follow this idea, outflanking the forks and execs with posix_spawn().It worked well.

At run_script() function there is instruction:

execv(script, argv);

Before run_script()is used, the fork()function is called to create the instance of program itself.

This “execv+fork”pair is replaced by one

posix_spawn(&Childpid,script,NULL,NULL,argv,NULL);

call.

There are still lots of goals to reach. I don’t know how to pass command line arguments to Carbide’s console application.

The sdp.c is not implemented in this version of port because it still makes too much errors and it will take time to solve.

I think there will be resulting GUI application which will run main PAND console instances. After that they should get into single signed SIS installation file.

Please look the sources of port using P.I.P.S. at my CVS repository http://bluspan.cvs.sourceforge.net/bluspan/pand_port_06/

The CVS checkout process to Carbide C++ IDE is described in my post: Get project from CVS to Carbide C++.

Please, checkout the newest pand_port_06 version.

Obtaining Carbide license

Carbider — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:50:23 +0300

After Carbide C++ v.1.2 product was downloaded at http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/tools_and_sdks/carbide_cpp/

there was a period while all features were enabled. I used Carbide professional edition.

Then the test period was over, and Carbide came to Express(free, test) edition automatically.

For now I could not use UI Designer tool.

As a S2F blogs author, I was linked up with https://pro.forum.nokia.com/ launchpad program. We ordered there license of Carbide Developer edition.

It took some time to understand, why the license is not still available for me though it was ordered. The reason was that there are different statuses of launchpad members. They are: the account owner and the account users. After purchasing Carbide, the account owner directs the license to account user. At this step user can activate the license.

There are “Node-locked” and “Floating” licenses models. The first means, that the license will be tied to concrete user’s computer by mac-address. The floating license allows to use several carbide products on several computers inside one development team’s network.

My license was node-locked. I clicked “Activate” link in front of license in my account.

The activation page has appeared. There I putted in my mac-address. I have Windows XP machine, so I used “IP CONFIG /ALL” command in prompt to retrieve those address. The license’s text appeared on screen, I copied it to Carbide’s “Help->Carbide Licenses->Install License”.

That was it. After IDE restarted I have had already enabled UI Designer feature.

The S60v3 SDK wants to be registered after 14 days too. It is simple free registration. The code would be send to your e-mail.

The license installation is described step-by-step while you’re ordering and retrieving it at http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/e-store/.
The most full description is in pfd: http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/images/1/1b/EStore-UM-v3.0.pdf

Port of PAND (BlueZ) system

Carbider — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:44:03 +0300

To build a system's skeleton we decided to construct all the GUIs which will be presented at final BluSPAN program. But after 20 days have passed, my Carbide License was expired and I could not use the UI designer. While the license gets outlined (via https://pro.forum.nokia.com/)

I decided to look at the existing PAN and BNEP sources. The first I found was “BlueZ” linux bluetooth protocol stack (http://www.bluez.org/).

It is written on C language, so I supposed it will be a good attempt to port it into Carbide C++ as Symbian application.

I’ve downloaded two archives.

“bluez-libs-3.18.tar.gz” and “bluez-utils-3.18.tar.gz”

at http://www.bluez.org/download.html

As Carbide C++ project base I chose Bluetooth Chat example that still available with expired license. I took Chat example, because I thought it has all headers and libraries included to work with BT.

To do that, I created new directory for future workspace, and copied “S60ExChat” folder there.

Then opened Carbide, switched workspace to which I recently made.

Next step was importing example.

Choose File->Import->Symbian OS Bld.inf -> Browse to “workspaceChatgroupbld.inf”.

So Chat example is imported.

Then I created new files: pand.h, bnep.h, bnep.c .... which are copy-pasted from BlueZ.

Now there was a time to see how Unix C code would be compatible with Symbian one. Of course, they were not so alike. I started porting, that means to make Unix source code and algorithms functioning. For that time my idea was to achieve just out of error compilation.

The first problem I saw were type definitions undefined for carbide. So I wrote “myPortedTypes.h” header file which typedefs some Bluetooth types known in Symbian. Some types were available from <systypes.h> library.

I made some type definitions out of “myPortedTypes.h” also.

At bnep.c I defined

#define AF_BLUETOOTH 31

#define PF_BLUETOOTH AF_BLUETOOTH

#define BTPROTO_BNEP 4

This types were expected at <syssocket.h> library but were absent there. So I had to determine them.

At bnep.h I defined

#define ETH_ALEN 6 // That was expected at <netethernet.h> lib

One more pain was connected with lib <sys/ioctl.h>.

Carbide has a little different implementation of <sys/ioctl.h> than BlueZ expected.

<ioctl.h> has the macroses _IOR and _IOW which are used by bnep.h.

But Carbide’s ones have 2 arguments , but BlueZ expects 3 arguments…

I passed through 3 ways before solve this problem.

»The first.

I thought I have to use other source code of <ioctl.h> (and <ioctl.c>) library. I’ve found some sources in the web, and used them in my project. Everything seems to be ok. But there are 2 disadvantages:

1. The Symbian’s one ioctl should be much more effective, because it’s native to their phones.

2. I’m not sure that new trouble will not appear because of possible conflicts with hardware.

»The Second.

Due to _IOR is a macros declared with #define directive, The #undef directive is applicable to it. In this case I can apply new definition to that macros using other source libraries.

By this manipulations I reached redefinition just of the part of <ioctl.h> library. So it was more effective way.

»The Third.

The third way was to examine, how Bnep.h uses those macros, and to transform the Bnep.h code to use 2 arguments instead of 3.

During the code examination, I found out that the third argument of _IOR macrosis not used. It was just drowned by useless int type. So the only thing I had to do is to cut every third parameter from _IOR macros call. This was a best way to leave standard <ioctl.h> macros definition.

The current problems that brake porting are signal operations.

I created new file “mySysSignal.h” which includes <sys/signal.h> header and determines some definitions from <signal.h>. Yes, they are different.

Furthermore, <sys/signal.h> doesn’t want to declare “sigaction” struct, because _STRICT_ANSI was defined. So I had to #undef it and then #define back.

But I could not find the sigaction() function implementation at this headers!

I tried to adopt other sources where sigaction()is implemented, but no result. Those codes want more and more implementations. Does anyone know which sigaction()implementation would be the best for Symbian? Please, write your comments if you do.

I downloaded some sigaction sources from:

http://www.google.com/codesearch?hl=ru&q=+sigaction.c+sigvec+show:AgRC3LpYoiU:1H180pELpu8:1yxJZQz8fw8&sa=N&cd=1&ct=rc&cs_p=ftp://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX/current/distrib/tetex-src.tar.gz&cs_f=tetex-src-3.0/libs/ncurses/ncurses/base/sigaction.c#a0

ftp://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX/current/distrib/tetex-src.tar.gz/

I started CVS project at Sourceforge.net. You can download my sources and examine them here:

http://bluspan.cvs.sourceforge.net/bluspan/pand_port/

You can checkout this source codes directly to Carbide C++. To do this look for my post: Get project from CVS to Carbide C++.

The source files I worked with are:

Bluetooth.h

Bnep.h

Getopt.h

Hci_lib.h

Hci.h

L2cap.h

myPortedTypes.h

mySysLog.h

mySysSignal.h

pand.h

poll.h

sigaction.h

sigvec.h

and their *.cpp implemenation at "src/".

The written code is pretty chaotic because of Porting process. So don’t be wonder for that : -)

Thanks

Start of development on Carbide

Carbider — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:09:48 +0300

To develop programs for nokia phones running S60v3 I chose Carbide C++ IDE.
Carbide C++ is a tool to create applications for Symbian OS.

My machine is running Windows XP SP2.

There are several variants of Carbide C++. I've chosen Professional Edition.

So i downloaded Carbide c++ v1.2 using this link:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.......

To use IDE you first need to install:

»ActivePerl 5.6.1.x

I've downloaded ActivePerl 5.6.1.638

Direct link is:

http://www.activestate.com/store/.....

Download page is: http://www.activestate.com/store/dow.....

»Java Run-Time Environment

My choice was JRE v 1.4.2 by link:
http://javashoplm.sun.com/ECom/......

»Platform SDK

First of all we want to create application for S60v3 platform.

So we need download S60 Platform SDK by this link:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw......

How to handle all of that.

I recommend to install all of we've downloaded in this order:

1. Install ActivePerl

2. Install JRE

3. Install Carbide c++

4. Install S60 Platform SDK (install it to folder path which is out of white spaces)

My experience was successful and Carbide started correctly.

To make my first steps I've read Carbide.c++ Introduction
http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.....
and found it as an excelent document.

My first impression was: "Hey! The environment seems to be like Eclipse Platform!".

But after reading introduction PDF I knew that Carbide IDE is based on Eclipse open source development platform.

I started my first project, just using one of given wizards. After building and running project, the phone emulator appeared. And my program was available there in "Installed" folder. During development and emulating I discovered that my Pentium 4 2.6 GHz, 256 Ram notebook works slowly but stable. Now I'm looking for some hardware here, in my office to satisfy the needs of recently installed platforms. I'll tell you if I find optimum.

I was told to use CVS at SourceForge.net for collaboration,

the account is registered. I made a home page, there isn't much to see yet,

but I will post the URL here and if you want to help on the project you can join!

S.F. link: http://bluspan.sourceforge.net/