Held off on this release for a few of hours, with the hope that some more bugs (or features) would turn up from beta 2. Beta 3 includes a couple of SIP enhancements, a major bug fix for some menu items, and a bug fix for category handling. Download Beta 3 and read the FAQ for more info.
With the SIP stuff, I made three changes for an easier-to-use form. The Entry and Extended fields will now resize themselves when the SIP is open; this helps with data entry via the SIP. The fields on the Advanced tab were re-ordered so the only controls that are covered by an open SIP window don’t need keyboard entry; the three drop down lists are now at the bottom of the screen and the three edit boxes are at the top.
The category bug is something that happens in both Pocket SharpMT and SharpMT. Just an oversight that could have caused a category to be sent to the server twice (or an extra category that you didn’t know you had selected) when posting a draft. Easy enough fix for this beta and it will be in SharpMT 1.3.
The menu bug fix is actually a Pocket PC issue. Refreshing the Categories and Text Filters worked OK when you let Pocket #MT refresh itself after changing Blog options but it would hang when refreshing from the menu. Seems that if I tried to set the ComboBox.SelectedIndex property of a disabled ComboBox control from a thread, the UI crashed. I don’t know if this is a C# thing or a Compact .NET Framework thing or a Mobile Forms thing, but it happened on the 2002 simulator and an HP 2215 (2003) so it’s a real thing. I fixed it by not using a thread for these two refreshes; Post and Upload are still threaded because the overall UI looks better with the threads.
Also changed the Options dialog a little for a cleaner UI and I’ve stopped including that ARMV4 ZIP file… there’s no PPC that uses it right now, so there’s not much point in it.
Updated screenshots (again):
Download Pocket SharpMT 1.2 Beta 3 now!
Thanks for the hard work! You making my Moblogging life so much easier, and thats a lot when I have the T-Mobile Unlimited Internet Plan!
:)
Still getting the “Could Not Find resource Assembly” error followed by could not conect to blog server following an suto-category refresh after refreshing the blogs. I know I am connecting to the server because the blogs update just fine.
Thanks for the SIP avoidance By the way…
HP 2215 WM2003
Ya, that Plan is killer – I’ve got it on my Samsung S105 still! And glad that things continue to work for ya… lemme know how this one goes.
@Doc – really? Not sure what’s up with that. It used to hang on the simulator and I had it working this morning. I’ll put it on the 1910 and see what happens there.
@Doc again – just ran it OK on the 1910, 2002 Emulator and 2003 Emulator… while I don’t place too much faith in the emulators, that’s all the devices I have to test with. I know you’re working with two blogs – is this something that happens when switching between them or just one or both? If it’s either case, is there a way that I can get a temp account on them to give it a look under the debugger? I had similar (and specific) issues with Apache based servers with the original SharpMT and that was the only way to track them down!
I like the new Options layout! And the editbox resizing with SIP status is awesome! I tried a couple different SIPs just to test it out: Keyboard, Fitaly, and Transcriber, and it worked great with all of them.
Tried a test post and it got stuck with the ‘busy’ icon when I clicked Post to Server. Soft reset and tried again. Same thing. I checked MT and the post did make it through (probably twice now) but no category was assigned in MT when I did select one in Pocket #MT. I let it go the second time for over 5 minutes and it never came out of ‘busy’ state, nor was a second log posted. I rebooted the pc and another soft reset to the Axim and tried posting a third time – it’s still doing the ‘busy’ thing…
Dell Axim X5 Advanced PPC2002
@Scott – I’ve seen this happen with everything but MT itself from time to time and I blame the XML-RPC implimentation. First it makes the post, then the sets the category(-ies) and then has to rebuild the pages. That’s why the title changes on Pocket #MT (and the status bar for #MT) so that you can watch the changes. Only thing I can offer is to try later… I posted with a 1910 last night and via emulators, so I know it’s working in Beta 3 – I also assume that it was working for you in the prior beta? Also, FYI – when I’ve watched this happen in #MT (and with the tracing window is open) it never comes back from the post, even though it was obviously successful – the post command goes out but a “return” XML value never comes back…
Yes, I could post fine with beta 2.
I’m trying again, and same thing – locked up the device. I checked MT and the post is physically there, but it isn’t rebuilding or communicating back to Pocket #MT somehow, which explains why Pocket #MT is stuck and why the post is not showing up in the blog.
I just tried a post with #MT and it worked fine though…
@Scott – not too sure what could be going on with this… the only thing in post that has changed has been a fix for the comments themselves – do you have a comment selected? 0, 1, or more than 1 are the basic difference… might be something there…
Comment selected? Where would I do that? The only diff I set when I switched to beta 3 was Publish: Draft instead of Post.
I just switched it back to Post and tried again. The device is *still* locked up right now (it’s been 5 mins or so) but when I went to the blog site (not the MT menu) the post is showing up now.
Is beta 2 still available somewhere just so I can see if it does it too?
Ok I *FOUND* the issue, though I don’t quite understand it.
Bottom line is that beta 3 does not like ICBar.
I have ICBar in my startup, so it runs automatically as the device boots up.
If I try to Post to Server, it locks. Best case scenario, it locks but the post gets sent but never tells MT to do the rebuild, etc.
If I exit ICBar, then Pocket #MT will post to server no problem whatsoever.
However, here’s the bizarre thing: I can run ICBar again, and Pocket #MT will continue to post just fine, as if ICBar was not running. I thought maybe it was a fluke, so I soft reset, booted with ICBar still in the startup and tried again, and it locked up like it always does.
@Scott – oops, I meant categories, sorry. And Beta 2 got over-written with Beta 3… when I’m running betas I don’t keep older versions around usually… I can see if I can find one, but I’m sure it used to work. Only other thing that I can suggest – as I am doing with Doc – is that if you can, create a temp account for me on your web site and I can attempt to debug it here.
@Scott – ICBar, eh? Now THAT is truely bizarre behavior… I wonder if there’s something going on with what ICBar is doing behind the scenes… especially since that code didn’t change (but for one line and that was for category handling)… I run with Pelmar’s WISBar and that’s shown no issues.
@Doc – are you running with ICBar too, maybe?
@Doc – your iPaq works along with your phone? How does that work, BlueTooth? I’d love to get mine working together but haven’t really researched that aspect of things yet.
@Randy: No ICBar. I quit using that type of software because I like having the Notification Icons in the Titlebar, besides I don’t need it. I do use SPB Pocket Plus and I will check that out later. Its a “hackmaster” type program that adds a close button, And some stuff to PIE
@Scott: Yes, I use my pocket PC with my Phone. I have a Sony T-610 which has bluetooth and the HP 2215 which has BT as well. I have T-Mobile’s Unlimited Internet Plan. I paired the two devices together and created a Dial-up on the PocketPC. It wasn’t hard at all. I just called T-Mobile Customer Care to get the settings and number. They use the Phones APN to authorize access, so I didn’t even need a username or pass. Now when I have the devices Paired and I tap on the Connection Manager Icon in the Title bar or WM2003, It connects for me. Its a little slower than my DSL, but worlds better than Analog Cellular. The phone battery seems pretty unaffected by BT being on so I just leave it on all the time. I turn it on on the PPC when I need it (The Blue Flashing light gets annoying). I wrote a small review up at my site. Just search for Sony T-610 and you should find the articles. I wish Someone offered a Smartphone though.
Ok I uninstalled ICBar then installed Wisbar – beta 3 will complete the posting process (post/set cats/rebuild) just fine with Wisbar running.
Weird…
Very. Might be something to note in the readme – I’m pretty much at a loss with that… of course THAT data call is still threaded, but it shouldn’t matter, I don’t think. Can you do me a favor? Put ICBar back on and try to refresh the categories and then upload an image (off the main menu)? If categories work and upload doesn’t it MIGHT be the thread in the post category.
Done – I reinstalled ICBar and put it in my Startup folder.
#MT was able to refresh the categories. I also told it to upload an image – it appears to have completed that task, though I’ve never used that function before so I have no clue where the image actually went to.
I then tried to post an entry – locked up again. Same thing – the post *is* technically there but it isn’t doing the refresh & rebuild cycle.
I’ll be working for the next 3 days, home on Sunday.
No worries – it blasted my theory to hell. I’ll keep thinking :)
Ok, I have been playing with the app the last few days trying to figure out what exactly caused the errors. I did a soft reset and the problem seems to have myteriously disappeared. I have a theory:
I upgraded SPB Pocket Plus to 1.3 during the testing. Maybe SPB was causing some error similar to ICBar was. There were some bugs in the Program in version 1.2 that may have caused the problem. It does add core level functionality to the Pocket PC by adding repeating alarms and some PIE enhancements like Launching new windows.
OK, well that’s for the assembly problem – cool. I DID notice that it did hang one the emulator with the threads, so those stay out. (When ya do the refresh from the blog change, it didn’t use a thread which is why it worked there.) Still pissy about the ICBar though. I’m going to continue to see what I can do with that, though, otherwise, I think everything has gone well.
Gotta get some new features in for Beta 4. :)
Back home – I didn’t get to play with Pocket #MT at all on this trip, too busy working and playing :)
Not sure what ICBar changed – it’s based on the WISBar code, and uses it’s registry settings too, so ya can’t run both. For now though, I’ll just use WISBar so I can still have that functionality that I like, and #MT will work too.
Idea: I’d mentioned before that a feature to post everything to the server at once instead of entry by entry. What about another form that displays a checkbox for each saved entry, so the user can select which entries to post in one stream?
I admit that this will make more sense once the “Authored On” date makes it to Pocket #MT, but I’m still concerned about multiple posts at the same time… given the trouble we’ve had with ONE post, I don’t like to think about what the PPC will do if multiple attempts are tried, but I’ll definately keep it in mind as something to attempt…
I still say a Feature I’d like to see in both versions is user customizable location for the drafts file. That way I can move them both into the Pocket PC Synchonization Folder and keep current versions of drafts on both devices without a lot of copying over.
I received the “Could Not Find resource assembly” error again. This time I was making a post to my blog and during the “Set Categories” part of the post I received the error.
The post went through, but the categories weren’t set and I guess everything after that point wasn’t completed (pings, rebuilds, etc).
Oh, pinging was another thing I wanted to ask about. If I have blo.gs and weblogs.com checked in my MT config, does it still ping those sites when the post comes from #MT (either version) ???
@Doc – I’m still thinking about the changing location – for #MT it’s more of a problem as I’ve already investigated moving the files to a more friendly “XP” location… besides, my PPC is very sluggish with my PC version of the XML file… and that’s only 50 drafts. I can also confirm that the three steps of a successful posting is 1) the post, 2) the setting of categories, and 3) the rebuild of the pages. As to the assembly, that’s what I don’t know about… I still haven’t seen that here. I’ve had occasional hiccups on connections but even those I can’t reproduce… I’ll keep playing with it.
@Scott – Yep. I don’t remember if it’s done on the post or the rebuild but either way it’s server-side. MT handles it as part of the remote call to the posting function.
I think it has to be in the category code because both issues with that error occurred in relation to categories. Either fetching them from the server or while posting them to the server.