Just watched an excellent ”Broken Promises” commercial from Apple:
Monthly Archives: October 2009
How To: Check Whether String is a Valid Path String
Sometimes it’s needed to verify if given string with path is valid in terms of syntax to make sure that we can work with it (meaning it doesn’t contain symbols not allowed in path). This can be done pretty simply:
bool isValid = (path2Check.IndexOfAny(Path.GetInvalidPathChars()) == -1);
Posted in How To, Programming
Android 2.0 is Released
Android 2.0 has arrived with plenty of new features:
More details on new features on Android Developers web site.
Posted in Programming
Converting Documents to PDF in a Minute
Convert.io is a great service for converting documents of many different types to PDF files. I’m using it when I need to read documents in MS Office 2007 format primarily.
It works really simple: just e-mail document to pdf@convert.io and wait a minute to receive PDF version.
Posted in Tools
How To: Determine What Version of .Net CF is Installed on Device
List of .Net Compact Framework versions installed on device are available in registry under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETCompactFramework
This key contains a set of DWORD values with names in format X.Y.BBBB.mm that correspond to build numbers of .Net CF (build numbers can be found in Wikipedia). Each of these values can have data of 0 (installed in RAM) or 1 (installed in ROM). So to verify if specific version of .Net CF is installed we need to check if value with corresponding name exists.
Here is a method that checks for .Net CF 2 (I wrote it today to verify available .Net CF versions in setup.dll of cab installer):
BOOL IsNetCF2Installed() {
BOOL bNetCF2Found = FALSE;
HKEY hKey = NULL;
if (RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _T("Software\\Microsoft\\.NETCompactFramework"), 0, KEY_READ | KEY_QUERY_VALUE, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
DWORD dwIndex = 0;
TCHAR szName[255];
DWORD cName = 255;
while ((!bNetCF2Found) && (::RegEnumValue(hKey, dwIndex, szName, &cName, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) == ERROR_SUCCESS)) {
if (szName[0] == '2') {
bNetCF2Found = TRUE;
}
dwIndex++;
}
RegCloseKey(hKey);
}
return bNetCF2Found;
}
Posted in How To, Programming
Updating Application That Has Custom Actions in Setup.dll
Recently I was creating installer for application that is suppose to be updated regulary. Also cab installer for this application used setup.dll to perform custom actions during install/uninstall.
Since cab installer doesn’t have “update” feature installing update is done as a sequence: uninstall_old > install_new. Calls to setup.dll will be as follows:
- Install_Init() from new setup.dll is called with fFirstCall=true and fPreviouslyInstalled=true.
- Old installation is removed. This leads to calls to Uninstall_Init() and Uninstall_Exist() from old setup.dll (which is stored in \windows\AppMgr).
- Install_Init() from new setup dll is called with fFirstCall=false and fPreviouslyInstalled=false.
- New files are extracted by cab installer.
- Install_Exist() is called.
To control updating process I needed to use some kind of a marker that will be available at all of those steps.
Originally I tried to use named Mutex (mainly because it is an in-memory object), but for some reason it didn’t work as expected. So I considered key in registry and a file. Creating/removing file just to use it as a marker is not very good idea and my final solution was to use a key in registry:
#include "windows.h"
#include <string.h>
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Methods to work with marker.
void SetInstallingStartFlag() {
HKEY hKey = NULL;
DWORD dwDisposition;
if (::RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _T("\\SOFTWARE\\MySoftwareInstall"), 0, NULL, REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, NULL, &hKey, &dwDisposition) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
::RegCloseKey(hKey);
}
}
void RemoveInstallingStartFlag() {
HKEY hKey = NULL;
if (::RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _T(""), 0, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
::RegDeleteKey(hKey, _T("\\SOFTWARE\\MySoftwareInstall"));
::RegCloseKey(hKey);
}
}
BOOL OpenFlagKey() {
BOOL bOpened = FALSE;
HKEY hKey = NULL;
if (::RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _T("\\SOFTWARE\\MySoftwareInstall"), 0, KEY_READ, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
bOpened = TRUE;
::RegCloseKey(hKey);
}
return bOpened;
}
BOOL IsRemovingDuringUpdate() {
return OpenFlagKey();
}
BOOL IsInstallingDuringUpdate() {
return (OpenFlagKey() == FALSE);
}
Posted in Programming
TortoiseSVN and Password to SVN
TortoiseSVN does not allow save password to SVN. This forces entering it many times during the day. Fortunately there is a workaround and Ditching the Password Prompts in TortoiseSVN explains how.
Posted in Tools
What is BuildMax Property in .inf File for Cabwiz is Actually For
When installing cab file on devices that have square screens or support screen rotation (last is applicable to all devices starting from WM 2003 SE) you may receive an error message:
“because it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software” is not really correct because actually cab installer complains about screen on WM, not OS version.
To omit this error MaxBuild property declared in Vestion section of .inf file can be used. According to Microsoft:
The BuildMax value can be used to indicate that the application supports
square screens (BuildMax=0xA0000000),
screen rotation (BuildMax=0xC0000000),
or both (BuildMax=0xE0000000).
This is one of those odd things that we can found sometimes. Error message leads us to wrong direction and name of property doesn’t have any connection to what it does 
Posted in Programming
How To: Hard Reset HTC S730
Yesterday HTC S730 that I use for development hang and after soft reset I couldn’t start it again.
So I had to perform hard reset using special key combination: holding both soft buttons press power button. At first it didn’t work. After spending couple of minutes on Internet I found that there is a trick: power button must be pressed only for a second and then released.
After very first try I successfully reset the phone
Posted in How To
Creating Cab Installer for Windows Mobile Applications
I’m working on installer for Windows Mobile application. Here are some great articles I found:
- How to create a windows mobile (Smart Device) .Cab installer
- Setup.dll Sample and Walkthrough: Terms & Conditions / End User License Agreement for a Smart Device CAB installer
- CAB Wizard describes manual creation of installation using cabwiz utility together with information files.
Posted in Programming
