Network Programming in .NET

When converting JSON to XML in C# using JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader, then you will find that it’s quite alot stricter at interpreting JSON than Javascript.

For Example { a:”b” } is valid JSON for javascript, but with JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader, it will return an error such as The token ‘”‘ was expected but found ‘a’.

This is some handy code that fixes malformed JSON for use with JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader, If Json is Malformed, i.e. no inverted commas around field names, then this function adds them back in

public static string NormalizeJson(string json)
{
    const string strFindRegex = @"(?[,{]\s*)(?\w+):";
    const string strReplaceRegex = @"${prefix}""${field}"":";
    var strWellFormedJson = Regex.Replace(json, strFindRegex, strReplaceRegex);
    // functions are valid in javascript, but not valid for a JsonReader
    const string strNoFunctionRegex = @"function..\s+{.*}";
    strWellFormedJson = Regex.Replace(strWellFormedJson, strNoFunctionRegex, "false");
    // Json should end with a close-curly-bracket
    if (!strWellFormedJson.EndsWith("}"))
    {
	var intLastCurlyBracket = strWellFormedJson.LastIndexOf("}");
	strWellFormedJson = strWellFormedJson.Substring(0, intLastCurlyBracket + 1);
    }
    return strWellFormedJson;
}

Here is a simple bit of code that can create an ORM (Object Relational Mapping) using reflection on the types being inserted or updated. It’s still a work in progress, since it assumes a flat object structure, each field being stored as a varchar(1000) and field names in the database must exactly match that in the object. I’ve based this on MySQL, but by simply changing “Limit 1” to “top 1”, that should be MSSQL sorted too.

using System;
using System.Reflection;
using MySql.Data.MySqlClient;

/// <summary>
/// Creates an object / relational mapping using reflection
/// </summary>
public class ReflectiveORM
{
private static string sqlConnection = “Server=…;Database=…;Uid=…;Pwd=…;”;

public static void InsertOrUpdateObjectInDB<T>(T o, string table, string uniqueField)
{
if (CheckIfAlreadyExists(o, table, uniqueField))
{
updateObjectInDB(o, table, uniqueField);
}
else
{
insertObjectIntoDB(o, table);
}
}

public static bool CheckIfAlreadyExists<T>(T o, string table, string uniqueField)
{
PropertyInfo piUnique = typeof(T).GetProperty(uniqueField);
string strSQL = “select ” + uniqueField + ” from ” + table + ” where “;
strSQL += uniqueField + “='” + piUnique.GetValue(o, null).ToString().Replace(“‘”, “””) + “‘”;
strSQL += ” limit 1″;
string strReadBack = getSingleValue(strSQL, uniqueField);
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(strReadBack))
{
// No record in db, do insert.
return false;
}
// record in db, do update
return true;
}

public static void updateObjectInDB<T>(T o, string table, string uniqueField)
{
PropertyInfo[] fields = typeof(T).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
string strSql = “update ” + table + ” set “;
string strSeperator = “”;
foreach (PropertyInfo field in fields)
{
string strValue = field.GetValue(o, null).ToString();
strSql += strSeperator + field.Name;
strSql += ” = ‘” + strValue.Replace(“‘”, “””) + “‘”;
strSeperator = “,”;
}
PropertyInfo piUnique = typeof(T).GetProperty(uniqueField);
string strUnique = piUnique.GetValue(o, null).ToString();
strUnique = strUnique.Replace(“‘”, “””);
strSql += ” where ” + uniqueField + “='” + strUnique + “‘”;
ExecuteNonQuery(strSql);
}

public static void insertObjectIntoDB<T>(T o, string table)
{
PropertyInfo[] fields = typeof(T).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
string strSql = “insert into ” + table + ” (“;
string strSeperator = “”;
foreach (PropertyInfo field in fields)
{
strSql += strSeperator + field.Name;
strSeperator = “,”;
}
strSql += “) values (“;
strSeperator = “”;
foreach (PropertyInfo field in fields)
{
string strValue = field.GetValue(o, null).ToString();
strSql += strSeperator + “‘” + strValue.Replace(“‘”, “””) + “‘”;
strSeperator = “,”;
}
strSql += “);”;
ExecuteNonQuery(strSql);
}

/// <summary>
/// Executes a query that returns no data
/// </summary>
/// <param name=”sql”>The sql statement to execute</param>
public static void ExecuteNonQuery(string sql)
{
using (var conn = new MySqlConnection(sqlConnection))
{
var cmd = new MySqlCommand(sql, conn);
conn.Open();
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
conn.Close();
}
return;
}

public static string getSingleValue(string sql, string field)
{
string returnVal = null;
MySqlConnection DSN = new MySqlConnection(sqlConnection);
DSN.Open();
MySqlCommand Database = new MySqlCommand(sql, DSN);
MySqlDataReader dr = Database.ExecuteReader();
if (dr.Read())
{
returnVal = dr[field].ToString();
}
DSN.Close();
return returnVal;
}

}

To use it, set the connection string in this class, then call

ReflectiveORM.InsertOrUpdateObjectInDB(product, “product”, “Code”);

The table “product” must be set up in advance..

This morning, I decided to take a look at the Blackberry support for phonegap. So far, their sample app works a charm.

Here is the steps to create and build this sample app:

ant create -Dpro
h=E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sample
Buildfile: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\build

clean:

build-javascript:
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\build\javascript
[delete] Deleting: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\Web
ild\javascript\phonegap.0.9.4.min.js.tmp

build-extension:
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\build\ext
[zip] Building zip: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry
s\build\ext\phonegap.0.9.4.jar

create:
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\Sample
[copy] Copying 10 files to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Blac
ebWorks\Sample
[copy] Copying 2 files to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Black
bWorks\Sample\www\javascript
[copy] Copying 1 file to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackB
Works\Sample\www\ext
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\Sample\lib\phonegap.0.9.4
[copy] Copying 3 files to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Black
bWorks\Sample\lib\phonegap.0.9.4
[echo]
[echo] Project Creation Complete!
[echo] ==========================
[echo]
[echo] Getting Started:
[echo] —————-
[echo]
[echo]   cd E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks
[echo]
[echo]   ant help
[echo]

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 9 seconds

E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks>cd sample

E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sample>dir
Volume in drive E is Data
Volume Serial Number is 9E79-47CC

Directory of E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sa

22/03/2011  10:33    <DIR>          .
22/03/2011  10:33    <DIR>          ..
22/03/2011  10:33             9,193 build.xml
22/03/2011  10:33    <DIR>          lib
22/03/2011  10:33             1,966 project.properties
22/03/2011  10:33    <DIR>          www
2 File(s)         11,159 bytes
4 Dir(s)  99,064,516,608 bytes free

E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sample>notepad p
roperties

E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sample>ant build
Buildfile: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sampl
xml

generate-cod-name:
[echo] Generated name: PhoneGapSample.cod

clean:

package-app:
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\Sample\build\widget
[copy] Copying 9 files to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Black
bWorks\Sample\build\widget
[zip] Building zip: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry
s\Sample\build\PhoneGapSample.zip

build:
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing command line options
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing bbwp.properties
[exec] [INFO]                      Validating application archive
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing config.xml
[exec] [WARNING]                   Failed to find the <author> elem
[exec] [INFO]                      Populating application source
[exec] [INFO]                      Compiling BlackBerry WebWorks ap
n
[exec] [INFO]                      Generating output files
[exec] [INFO]                      BlackBerry WebWorks application
g complete

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 32 seconds

E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sample>ant load-
r
Buildfile: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\WebWorks\Sampl
xml

generate-cod-name:
[echo] Generated name: PhoneGapSample.cod

clean:
[delete] Deleting directory E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Black
bWorks\Sample\build

package-app:
[mkdir] Created dir: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry\
\Sample\build\widget
[copy] Copying 9 files to E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\Black
bWorks\Sample\build\widget
[zip] Building zip: E:\research\phonegap\phonegap-0.9.4\BlackBerry
s\Sample\build\PhoneGapSample.zip

build:
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing command line options
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing bbwp.properties
[exec] [INFO]                      Validating application archive
[exec] [INFO]                      Parsing config.xml
[exec] [WARNING]                   Failed to find the <author> elem
[exec] [INFO]                      Populating application source
[exec] [INFO]                      Compiling BlackBerry WebWorks ap
n
[exec] [INFO]                      Generating output files
[exec] [INFO]                      BlackBerry WebWorks application
g complete

load-simulator:
[echo] Simulator directory=C:\BBWP\simpack\5.0.0.469
[echo] Simulator executable=C:\BBWP\simpack\5.0.0.469/9550.bat
[echo] MDS directory=C:\BBWP/mds
[copy] Copying 4 files to C:\BBWP\simpack\5.0.0.469

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 19 seconds

SCM 4.1.5.32 32 2008/04/23
<2011-03-22 10:36:53.631 GMT>:[0]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = SCM, J2SE 1.6.0_24 Charsets supported:Big5,Big5-HKSCS,EUC-JP,EUC-KR,GB18030,GB2312,GBK,IBM-Thai,IBM00858,IBM01140,IBM01141,IBM01142,IBM01143,IBM01144,IBM01145,IBM01146,IBM01147,IBM01148,IBM01149,IBM037,IBM1026,IBM1047,IBM273,IBM277,IBM278,IBM280,IBM284,IBM285,IBM297,IBM420,IBM424,IBM437,IBM500,IBM775,IBM850,IBM852,IBM855,IBM857,IBM860,IBM861,IBM862,IBM863,IBM864,IBM865,IBM866,IBM868,IBM869,IBM870,IBM871,IBM918,ISO-2022-CN,ISO-2022-JP,ISO-2022-JP-2,ISO-2022-KR,ISO-8859-1,ISO-8859-13,ISO-8859-15,ISO-8859-2,ISO-8859-3,ISO-8859-4,ISO-8859-5,ISO-8859-6,ISO-8859-7,ISO-8859-8,ISO-8859-9,JIS_X0201,JIS_X0212-1990,KOI8-R,KOI8-U,Shift_JIS,TIS-620,US-ASCII,UTF-16,UTF-16BE,UTF-16LE,UTF-32,UTF-32BE,UTF-32LE,UTF-8,windows-1250,windows-1251,windows-1252,windows-1253,windows-1254,windows-1255,windows-1256,windows-1257,windows-1258,windows-31j,x-Big5-Solaris,x-euc-jp-linux,x-EUC-TW,x-eucJP-Open,x-IBM1006,x-IBM1025,x-IBM1046,x-IBM1097,x-IBM1098,x-IBM1112,x-IBM1122,x-IBM1123,x-IBM1124,x-IBM1381,x-IBM1383,x-IBM33722,x-IBM737,x-IBM833,x-IBM834,x-IBM856,x-IBM874,x-IBM875,x-IBM921,x-IBM922,x-IBM930,x-IBM933,x-IBM935,x-IBM937,x-IBM939,x-IBM942,x-IBM942C,x-IBM943,x-IBM943C,x-IBM948,x-IBM949,x-IBM949C,x-IBM950,x-IBM964,x-IBM970,x-ISCII91,x-ISO-2022-CN-CNS,x-ISO-2022-CN-GB,x-iso-8859-11,x-JIS0208,x-JISAutoDetect,x-Johab,x-MacArabic,x-MacCentralEurope,x-MacCroatian,x-MacCyrillic,x-MacDingbat,x-MacGreek,x-MacHebrew,x-MacIceland,x-MacRoman,x-MacRomania,x-MacSymbol,x-MacThai,x-MacTurkish,x-MacUkraine,x-MS932_0213,x-MS950-HKSCS,x-mswin-936,x-PCK,x-SJIS_0213,x-UTF-16LE-BOM,X-UTF-32BE-BOM,X-UTF-32LE-BOM,x-windows-50220,x-windows-50221,x-windows-874,x-windows-949,x-windows-950,x-windows-iso2022jp>
<2011-03-22 10:36:53.786 GMT>:[1]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Default Job Pool size = 10>
<2011-03-22 10:36:53.787 GMT>:[2]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = SCM, maxMem: 518979584 maxPoolSize: 10>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.270 GMT>:[3]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Connected, TOPSERVICE = SRPH, LOWERSERVICE = GME>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.271 GMT>:[4]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Connected, TOPSERVICE = IPPP, LOWERSERVICE = GME>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.271 GMT>:[5]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Connected, TOPSERVICE = GME, LOWERSERVICE = MDP>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.272 GMT>:[6]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Connected, TOPSERVICE = MDP, LOWERSERVICE = GPAK>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.273 GMT>:[7]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Connected, TOPSERVICE = GPAK, LOWERSERVICE = UDP>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.275 GMT>:[8]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<EVENT>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = MDS-CS server has started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.453 GMT>:[9]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = MDP, EVENT = Initialization>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.453 GMT>:[10]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = MDP, EVENT = Started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.455 GMT>:[11]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = MDP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = MdpLayerHigherLayerListeningThread:GME>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.456 GMT>:[12]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = MDP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = MdpLayerLowerLayerListeningThread:GPAK>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.457 GMT>:[13]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = MDP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = MdpLayerDatagramGC>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.528 GMT>:[14]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = UDP, EVENT = Initialization>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.529 GMT>:[15]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = UDP, EVENT = Started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.531 GMT>:[16]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = UDP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = UdpLayerSenderThread:GPAK>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.531 GMT>:[17]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = UDP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = UdpLayerReceiverThread>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.824 GMT>:[18]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = IPPP, Sending Queue Size per device =200>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.839 GMT>:[19]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = IPPP, IPPP: Receiving Queue Size =20>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.840 GMT>:[20]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<LAYER = IPPP, IPPP: Receiving Queue Size =20>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.868 GMT>:[21]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.870 GMT>:[22]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ConnectionsInputStreamesReader0>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.871 GMT>:[23]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ConnectionsInputStreamesReader2>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.871 GMT>:[24]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Initialization>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.873 GMT>:[27]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ListenForClientsPackets>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.873 GMT>:[26]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ConnectionsInputStreamesReader3>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.875 GMT>:[29]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ConnectionsInputStreamesReader4>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.872 GMT>:[25]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ConnectionsInputStreamesReader1>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.877 GMT>:[31]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = IPLayerHttpClientIdleConnectionTimeoutThread>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.876 GMT>:[30]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = ListenOnDatagramStatus>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.874 GMT>:[28]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = IPPP, EVENT = Started, THREAD = QueuesManager>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.882 GMT>:[32]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<INFO >:<maxMem: 518979584 maxQueueSize: 250>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.885 GMT>:[33]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.887 GMT>:[34]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Started, THREAD = SRPHprotocolMainThread>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.888 GMT>:[35]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Started, THREAD = SRPHListenForClientsPackets>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.890 GMT>:[36]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Started, THREAD = SRPHQueuesManager>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.890 GMT>:[37]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SRPH, EVENT = Started, THREAD = SRPHListenOnDatagramStatus>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.896 GMT>:[38]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = GPAK, EVENT = Initialization>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.897 GMT>:[39]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = GPAK, EVENT = Started>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.899 GMT>:[40]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = GPAK, EVENT = Started, THREAD = GpakLayerHigherLayerListeningThread:MDP>
<2011-03-22 10:36:54.900 GMT>:[41]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = GPAK, EVENT = Started, THREAD = GpakLayerLowerLayerListeningThread:UDP>
22-Mar-2011 10:36:55 org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded start
INFO: Starting tomcat server
22-Mar-2011 10:36:56 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/5.5.23
22-Mar-2011 10:36:56 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost start
INFO: XML validation disabled
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig defaultWebConfig
INFO: No default web.xml
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext logINFO: AdministrationController (Status):init
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext logINFO: C:\BBWP\mds
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext logINFO: AdministrationController (Statistics):init
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext logINFO: C:\BBWP\mds
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol initINFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-28080
22-Mar-2011 10:36:57 org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol startINFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-28080
<2011-03-22 10:36:57.581 GMT>:[42]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, Web Server Started>
<2011-03-22 10:37:03.157 GMT>:[43]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Expire records from device storage that are expired or older than 0 hours; 0>
<2011-03-22 10:37:03.158 GMT>:[44]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Expire records process ended; 0>
<2011-03-22 10:37:03.234 GMT>:[45]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Admin. Task- refresh media management>
<2011-03-22 10:37:03.235 GMT>:[46]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = The push service is ready to receive requests>
<2011-03-22 10:37:03.236 GMT>:[47]:<MDS-CS_MDS>:<DEBUG>:<LAYER = SCM, EVENT = Admin. Task- pending push messages>

Part of the PDK that you can download from palm includes a Device browser that allows you to easily send and recieve files via a GUI.

I’ve also heard that you can use WinSCP to do this also, giving more control (checkout port 10022)

Palm kindly left the source code in the JAR, which you can view here

http://zip.webtropy.com/default.aspx/gO8cYb

With the help of Lutz Roeder’s reflector, and Denis Bauer’s FileDissassembler I’ve started to pick apart the source code for Microsoft’s TFS libraries.

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TestManagement.Client

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.QueryLanguage

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.VersionControl

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client

One of the fun things you can do with a Palm Pre is access the underlying Linux OS via a terminal program, which I’ve used NovaTerm

By navigating around the file system I could find a list of installed apps, by navigating to /media/cryptofs/apps/user/palm/applications

navigating into these apps gives the source code… you can use the vi editor to view file contents (use : x to exit)

Looking into the source code of NovaTerm, it connects to localhost on port 6968, recreating this on Telnet, It reports

3517 a339f527fe6d98a2b95b9f2ef036d503042181c9 usb castle-linux

Then closes the port.

3517 is another port number, and the long hex number is the NDUID or DeviceID

This is a protocol developed by OpenSubtitles.org for getting subtitles for films, here’s the basis of it:

http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/sublanguageid-all/moviename-terminator+2/simplexml

http://dl.opensubtitles.org/en/download/sub/3592583

Unzip:

Gives SRT file.

—————-

Or:

1. Download IMDB Dump –
http://www.opensubtitles.org/addons/export_movie.php
Second number is IMDB ID (i.e. 34763    438488    Terminator Salvation    2009)

2. Get OSDB XML
http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/sublanguageid-all/imdbid-438488/simplexml

3. Download Zip
http://dl.opensubtitles.org/en/download/sub/4127259

And here’s, for example, movies by year:

Select Movie Year:
1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Every once in a while you come accross a website that really does something that you’ve never seen before, one of which is Palm ares (Ares.palm.com). There is a button, where you can download an app onto your Palm phone via a USB cable. I never saw this before, so I descided to take it apart.

First file of interes was app-build.js, which connects to an applet webOsConnect on the page, which appears to do the magic. I ran the applet through JD-GUI decompiler to see how it worked. The Intall class looked interesting:

public void installPackage(INovacomDevice device, File ipkFile) throws InstallerException
{
if ((!ipkFile.isFile()) || (!ipkFile.canRead())) {
throw new InstallerException(“error reading ” + ipkFile);
}

String developerDir = getDeveloperDirectory();
try {
NovacomUtil.mkdir(device, developerDir, true);
} catch (NovacomUtil.NovacomUtilException e) {
throw new InstallerException(e);
}

String dest = developerDir + “/” + ipkFile.getName();
try
{
try
{
NovacomPutCommand cmd = new NovacomPutCommand(device, ipkFile, dest);
cmd.run();
} catch (NovacomCommand.NovacomCommandException e) {
throw new InstallerException(e);
}
try
{
AppManagerUtil.installApp(device, dest);
} catch (AppManagerUtil.AppManagerException e) {
throw new InstallerException(e);
}
}
finally {
try {
doCleanup(device, dest);
}
catch (InstallerException e)
{
}
}
}

Under the hood, this appears to make a connection to localhost on port 6968, guessing by the constants:

public static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 6968;
public static final String DEFAULT_HOST = “127.0.0.1”;

Looking at the “beautified” version of app-build.js  (I used jsbeautifier.org), then the launch method has two interesting lines:

wc.installCloudPackage(deviceId, url, info.id + “.ipk”, dojo.toJson({
“Cookie”: “auth_tkt=” + authtkt
}));
wc.launchApp(deviceId, info.id);

Where “wc” stands for WebOsConnect (the applet). InstallCloudPackage has the following code:

public boolean installCloudPackage(String deviceId, String location, String pkgName, String headers)
{
try
{
AccessController.doPrivileged(new PrivilegedExceptionAction(location, headers, deviceId, pkgName)
{
public Void run() throws Exception {
InputStream input = null;
try {
HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection)new URL(this.val$location).openConnection();
JSONObject headerObj = new JSONObject(this.val$headers);
Iterator a = headerObj.keys();
while (a.hasNext()) {
String key = a.next().toString();
connection.addRequestProperty(key, headerObj.getString(key));
}
connection.connect();
if (connection.getResponseCode() != 200) {
throw new Exception(connection.getResponseMessage());
}
input = connection.getInputStream();
new Installer().installPackage(NovacomUtil.connect(DeviceConnection.findNovacomDevice(this.val$deviceId)), input, this.val$pkgName);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
throw e;
} finally {
if (input != null)
try {
input.close();
}
catch (IOException e) {
}
}
return null;
}
});
return true; } catch (PrivilegedActionException ex) {
}
return false;
}

Now, the calling parameters are as follows

DeviceID = either “desktop” for the simulator, or the device UID as returned from gerDefaultNovacomDevice

Location = the URL of the IPK

pkgName = the name of the IPK

header = An authorisation ticket of some form * (I’ve yet to find what this is)

In a somewhat related vein, I’ve also taken a look at the source code for WebOSQuickInstall, which at it’s lowest level runs the following command to implement an installation

private String palmAppInstallCommand(String file, String id) throws Exception {
String pid = null;
String out = “”;
out = runProgram(“/usr/bin/luna-send”, new String[] { “-n”, “1”, “palm://com.palm.appinstaller/installNoVerify”, “{\”target\”:\”” + file + “\”}” });

if (out.contains(“\”returnValue\”:false”))
throw new Exception();
do
{
if (fileExists(“/media/cryptofs/apps/usr/lib/ipkg/info/” + id + “.control”)) {
pid = null;
break;
}
try {
pid = runProgram(“/usr/bin/pgrep”, new String[] { “-f”, “ipkg” }).split(“\n”)[0];
}
catch (Exception e) {
pid = null;
}
}
while (pid == null);

while (!fileExists(“/media/cryptofs/apps/usr/lib/ipkg/info/” + id + “.control”))
{
runProgram(“/bin/kill”, new String[] { “-0”, pid });
try {
pid = runProgram(“/usr/bin/pgrep”, new String[] { “-f”, “ipkg” }).split(“\n”)[0];
}
catch (Exception e) {
pid = null;
}

}

return out;
}

Followup: The Novacom code also appears in the WebOs Emulator

I’ve just set up a webservice to perform OCR (optical character recognition) in C#, It’s at http://www.free-ocr.co.uk

The code’s pretty simple:

  
Stream sFile = fileUploader.PostedFile.InputStream;
Bitmap bmp = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(sFile) as Bitmap;
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
bmp.Save(ms, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
ocr webservice = new ocr();
lblResult.Text = webservice.Analyze("Your Email", ms.ToArray());

Here, the ASPX file is as follows:

<form id="form1" runat="server" enctype="multipart/form-data" >
<input type="file" runat="server" id="fileUploader" />
<asp:Button type="button" id="btnUpload" Text="Upload" runat="server" onclick="btnUpload_Click"  />
<asp:Label id="lblResult" runat="server" ></asp:Label>
</form>

This is a handy utility to execute javascript within the context of your Palm WebOs mobile phone. It also includes the PhoneGap API, so you can test the advanced features offered by that platform.

The Code to this is quite similar to the Nokia version:

$(‘#evaluate’).click(function(){

var result = “”; try { result = eval($(‘#taJS’).val());

} catch(err) { result = err; }

$(‘#taResult’).val(result);

});

Update: This is now available on Palm’s App Store