Lucian Tomuta's Forum Nokia Blog

Do a little more with the UI Designer

2009-01-31T19:00:41+02:00

Can you create some menu items like these?

Of course you can. But can you do it with Carbide.c++' UI Designer?

Unfortunately the UI Designer does not let you control a menu item's flag so you cannot design menus with either radio group or check (tick) features. Not that big of a problem since you can still write the code to add these flags at run time, each time they are loaded. Still, if you want to have the possibility of controlling these menu item appearance flags at design time too all you have to do is unpack the attached .zip file in your Carbide.c++ v2.0 installation.

Then start Carbide.c++ and ... there you have it:

Obviously this is not a big achievement but it should be a reminder that if some thing does not appear to be supported (yet) by Carbide.c++ there's always room for a little personal contribution ... Be it project or code templates or even UI Designer controls one can create/optimize them and then share with the community.

P.S. The current version of the hack only generates static resources, you still have to write code in order to manage the dynamic changes in a menu item's state.

Update (22.02.2009): Here it is, gamma.coder. I was trying to integrate it into Carbide.c++ but I stil have some problems with that so while I might still publish a full solution I hope you'll find this project helpful.

S60 development on Windows 7

2009-01-15T11:00:40+02:00

One of the first comments to my S60 SDK and tools on Windows Vista - a success story article was that we should hurry up with making the tools compatible with Vista because what do you know, Windows 7 is around the corner and we will be again trailing behind ... :)

Well, Windows 7 (beta, Ultimate edition) is now available for download and is surprisingly stable. On a modest IBM Thinkpad T41 the OS installs ok and although it has some bells and whistles disabled (or because of that, after all Aero is cute but resource hungry) I find it to be fast and fresh ...

So, how do Carbide (now version 2.0) and the S60 SDK (now the S60 5th Edition SDK v0.9) behave on this Windows release?

As with Vista, the key is to be careful and as much as possible in control of what you're doing. There seems to be only two rules to follow: install the tools with admin rights and verify the result after each step.

I've followed roughly the same steps and compared with the previous results the following are to be noted:

The only ActivePerl package I've found for download was in *.msi format. This is basically a document to be handled by the Windows Installer and does not have a "Run as Administrator" option.
Holding the Shift key down while accessing the context menu one can find a "Run as other user..." option but in an attempt to use that I found out that the Administrator account was by default disabled.
I ended up enabling this account, setting a password for it and then running the Windows Installer from the command line (just to be sure):

> runas /noprofile /user:administrator "msiexec /i c:\users\lucian\desktop\ActivePerl-5.6.1.635-MSWin32-x86.msi"
Aside from this small complication all went ok and at the end I could verify that Perl was correctly added to the path and can be invoked (tools verification as described in How do I start programming for Symbian OS?).
As in the previous post, I've chose to install the GCC compiler myself rather than let the SDK setup to start it. However, despite running it with administrator privileges the installer was not able to modify the %PATH% environment variable so I had to edit it manually and set it as %PATH%=c:\Program Files\CSL Arm Toolchain\bin;%PATH%
The emulator is running OK with no hacks applied (like DEP deactivation), just the usual firewall blockage removal

That's it. Unofficially and with a "only for hackers" recommendation I declare the S60 development tools Windows 7 ready. :)

Btw, as in the previous tests, I found that I don't need the official Vista patch provided with the SDK or any of the many hacks documented in the Migrating to Windows Vista wiki article. Or at least I did not need them ... yet.

Carbide.c++ - new and free (yes, like in "free beer")

2008-12-05T12:03:46+02:00

The new Carbide.c++ 2.0 has been released today and there's a bit of extra surprise coming with this news: all the Carbide.c++ editions are now free of charge.

In fact the Express version as such no longer exists, and while the installer still prompts you to select one of the three remaining editions they are all available to you for free so you may as well pick the ~~OEM~~ Professional edition and have all the product features enabled.

On device debugging now available for everybody. Isn't this the best piece of news yet?

More information in product's web pages.

Update (09.12.2008): There seems to be a little licensing problem with the Developer edition and a patch is available in a Discussion Board post. Also changed edition recommendation to Professional, nobody* really needs the OEM specific feature.

How to enable support for old SDKs in Carbide.c++ v1.3

2008-07-16T10:00:20+03:00

Let's start with a bit of a warning: the tool no longer supports the old SDKs and this decision is final. Applying the hack described here will at best restore the support for the old SDK to the 1.2 level but enhancements are not to be expected. You should not ask for support from the Carbide.c++ team ( nor from me ) for any issues that might be a side effect of applying this hack.

OK, now that all this is clear let's start hacking.

Task 1 - Restore the S60 2nd Edition and Series 80 project templates

This is going to be quite easy since none of the needed files have been removed from the instillation, instead the templates have been commented out from the xml file that acts as a index in the templates collection. So, go to the installation folder (let's call it $(INSTALL)), and open the file .\plugins\com.nokia.cdt.templates_1.3.1.036\plugin.xml (you should make a copy of the file before modifying it).

The lines we're looking for are clearly marked

You can either remove these comment pair lines or neutralize them by closing the comments tags on the same line, with nothing in-between. That's it, now the project templates should be fully visible in the New -> Symbian C++ Project dialog. Start Carbide.c++ and check the templates.

Note: it may happen that the templates are not visible when you start Carbide, there seems to be some sort of a cache mechanism. Here's how you flush that cache: close Carbide.c++ then go to the installation directory and locate the file .\plugins\com.nokia.carbide.templatewizard_1.3.1.036.jar. Change its extension so that Carbide.c++ cannot recognize it anymore and then start Carbide.c++. There might be a error message and the entire templates dialog is gone but that is fine. Close Carbide.c++, restore the extension of the templatewizard file and then start Carbide.c++. If all goes as expected you should see the welcome screen again, sign that the cache was flushed, the templates dialog is back in and all the templates are visible (unless filtered out based on the available SDKs)

You can start creating projects and if you're going to use Carbide.c++ Express only then you're done hacking, the rest of the story is only relevant for commercial versions of the product.

If you start creating a GUI project using the UI Designed feature, you will pretty soon run into problems since, while the project compiles just fine the IDE reports some UI Designer validation errors (like toolbar member not found in the definition of com.nokia.sdt.series60.CAknView). So here comes the next task:

Task 2 - Troubleshoot the UI Designer

It has to be said from the start that I have not tested the entire set of GUI application types and components. I've only tried one empty container design and only fixed its problems. Shoud you run into other problems, with other type of UI Designs, the fix for it must be similar and I'm sure you can manage it. Having a copy of the Carbide.c++ v1.2 plug-ins at hand would of course help you identify what is different and thus how to workaround the problem.

So, here we go: I've started from a reference to a toolbar missing from the definition of com.nokia.sdt.series60.CAknView

A search for the above resource identifier led me to .\plugins\com.nokia.sdt.series60.componentlibrary_1.3.1.036\components\view, a promising looking directory with some files that appear to be holding the definition of the same resource, the CAknView.

The relevant files are: CAknView_2.8.component and CAknView_common.inc. As the file name suggests, one file contains the definition of the resource with 2.8 and later specific tags while the other includes the resource elements that are common to all the variants of that resource. The common file is included with a special tag in the specialized component description thus keeping together the resource description. It is in this CAknView_common.inc that I've found the toolbar resource and to fix my problem I need to get rid of it.

The initial situation:

CAknView_2.8.component defines the component for S60 2.8 or later using the common elements from CAknView_common.inc

After the change the file structure should be:

CAknView_2.8.component defines the component for S60 2.8 using the common elements from CAknView_common_2x.inc
CAknView_3.0 component defines the component for S60 3.0 or later using the common components from CAknView_common.inc

To do that: make a copy of CAknView_2.8.component and name it CAknView_3.0.component. Make a copy of CAknView_common.inc and name it CAknView_common_2x.inc. Next, from CAknView_common_2x.inc remove the "toolbar" definition, the <select property="[com.nokia.sdt.series60.Toolbar]"> … </select> element.

Now, in the CAknView_2.8.component file, locate the include tag

<!ENTITY common_srcgenAndSourceMapping SYSTEM "CAknView_common.inc">

and make it point to CAknView_common_2x.inc

<!ENTITY common_srcgenAndSourceMapping SYSTEM "CAknView_common_2x.inc">

Finally review all the files containing the component definitions, make sure that the minimum and maximum SDK version values are appropriate (e.g. minSDKVersion="2.0" maxSDKVersion="2.7.9") and that they include the proper CAknView_common*.inc file.

Ok, that's it. Refresh the project in Carbide, build (hopefully without further errors) and enjoy the IDE.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-07-14T09:00:47+03:00

Somehow these pictures do not fit together. Or do they?

Are there any updates available for Carbide.c++ ?

2008-06-28T10:00:52+03:00

The banner above is obviously not reflecting the reality anymore. Carbide might have reached an intermediary finish line but that does not mean that it stopped running :)

As you might know Carbide.c++ is able to search for software updates and when found download and install them. The process is however manual and you there are no update available notifications so the question that immediately comes to mind is: "Are there any updates available for Carbide.c++ ?"

This blog post is the answer to that question. As long as everything goes well with the Yahoo! Pipes script I've put together, the Flash RSS reader below will display the latest version information for Carbide.c++'s features. Since it only looks for information about the Carbide.c++ plug-ins and does not scan all the other repositories this solution is definitely faster than a regular scan for updates from the IDE.

Important note: before you start updating make sure that you read carefully the upgrade instructions from Carbide's help. The basic idea is that " ... Replacing any standard Eclipse plug-in with an updated version from a non-Nokia update site can result in Carbide.c++ no longer working as intended. ... "

One thing for you to do now: bookmark this page so you can check on it every now and then. That of course unless you would prefer to use Widsets and get your notifications on the phone. If so, just click on the button below:

Or maybe you would prefer having a Google widget:

S60 SDK and tools on Windows Vista - a success story

2008-06-15T20:30:56+03:00

The following is a copy of a Discussion Board post from a thread discussing - again - the level of support of the S60 tools and SDK for the Windows Vista, or more likely the lack there of.

This thread finally made me curious enough to try installing the SDK on Windows Vista. Here are my results:

OS: Vista Home Premium + SP1
SDK: S60 3rd FP1
IDE: Carbide.C++ 1.3 Pro (eval)
Tools: Active Perl 5.6.1 build 635, GCCE 2005-q1c

1) Install Carbide
setup.exe -> next -> ... the usual ... -> finish.

To be noted that the installation is done in C:\Apps rather than the protect c:\Program Files\...

2) From the html page displayed by Carbide at the end of the install download Active Perl

Since Perl was already reported to be tricky (and since it will try to touch at least the %PATH% env. variable) I've made sure to run the setup.exe in Administrator mode. All went just fine.

3) SDK download

Again, the SDK installs files under c:\Program Files\... so Admin mode is preferable. All went swell until I was prompted to ...

4) Install GCCE

Since I was not sure if the installation is to be run in Admin mode I've decided not to perform the install at that time. Once I've answered NO to the prompt the SDK install finalized with OK status.

Now, the GCCE installer can be found under %EPOCROOT%Epoc32\tools\distrib so the next step is to start the install from there with Admin rights. And all goes well.

5) Quick inspection of the tools (like in How do I start programming for Symbian OS?) and environment settings. Since all seems fine is time for ...

6) Carbide.c++ test

The usual restart after detecting the SDKs. Then example project import and build for emulator. All seems ok except for some warnings about non-existing pipe, I guess they are safe to ignore.

Unfortunately here I pause with the good news since I find that the emulator fails to start somewhere in the area of font loading.

Resuming the good news flow the GCCE build worked just fine and I ended up having a signed SIS file.

My conclusions:

- Installing the environment on Vista is not impossible and, at least when it comes to the actual install sequences it does not require any extra effort, maybe just a bit of patience and environment awareness
- Since there are some known problems with the emulator and certain hardware drivers I cannot blame Vista for the emulator problems. Not yet anyway :)
- Despite of the relative success of the test, and even after I'll solve the emulator issue, I still do not see Vista as the OS of choice for Symbian development. If anything I'll try to get back to XP which is more stable, less bloated and more importantly fully supported by the tools.

Update:

Ok, solved the emulator problem too. It was the much debated "FAULT: Exception 0x10000000" problem, with the fix being a change on Vista's Data Execution Protection (DEP) settings.

So, now I have a fully working environment. The next task will be to delete it, but that can wait until tomorrow. ;)

Well, I hope someone will find this useful.