Lo and behold, today Sony silently launched PRSLabs.com (http://www.prslabs.com/), a site providing official tools and documents for you to create unencrypted BBeB files for the Sony Reader. Registration is free (http://www.prslabs.com/auth_developer/index.php) and doesn't seem to require any prerequisites. Among the things you can find once you're registered:

BBeB XML Format Specification
Xylog Parser API Specification
BBeB Metadata Guide
BBeB Character Set
BBeB ID Specification
Xylog Parser (Windows DLL)
Xylog Parser API Specification
Sample Projects

Heh, you beat me to it, Alex! :beam:

I score first post on the site though. :D

I don't want to spoil the fun here, but where are my tools to put custom stuff on the Reader?

I score first post on the site though. :D
Scotty, you are a machine. I just checked and already three posts! ;)

3 posts and 25 members.

The only "tool" is the XYLog parser DLL.

So far in the tool department it's "We help those whom help themselves." :-)

I've got an official parser API spec to aim for in Java, I'm a happy coder.

This officially derails all other efforts. :D

What a piece of junk this new site is. :angry:

for a few seconds I was so naiv that I thought maybe SONY did something cool...

Sic.

I saved the DTD from the doc into a file. Here you go

I'd attach it but I think I'm not allowed, the file says " do not copy"

idiots! :angry:

@Sic

Compared to what they did for the Librie, this is cool.

Of course it could have gotten a bit cooler but then there would be less for us to write. :D

@Sic

Compared to what they did for the Librie, this is cool.

Of course it could have gotten a bit cooler but then there would be less for us to write. :D
Hey, it's Sony for God's sake!!!!! I consider this a HUGE step forward - to slowly open up and discuss the development of one of their products with us mere mortals, that is groundbreaking (for Sony).

On the other hand, to what I said earlier, the biggest problem is that there is still no official support to develop and load apps onto the Reader.

@TadW

It's all about content with the PRS-500. So far it appears you can't execute native executables from the memory card slot and there is very little file space left in the executable internal filesystems. Which means that even Sony can't go crazy adding apps either, of course they do have tools that could be removed and free up room...

The lack of application development support doesn't surprise me but I wouldn't have minded a bit more effort on their part to help people generate content. But who knows, the source code to that DLL could be too embarrassing to released.

But good things will come of this!

Mark my words: in a year there will be 15 different HTML to LRS convertors, DJVU to LRS convertors, Open Office will do LRS etc ... content will flow like milk and honey into SD cards to be viewed on the Readers. Paris Hilton will pose with her dog and the new Swarovski Crystal cover Sony Reader and we'll all laugh and continue to lament the lack of bluetooth/wifi/ethernet/keyboard/touchscreen/edgelight (take your pick.)

But it will all have started on this day: April 5, 2007.

Haha, Paris Hilton read a book.

Haha, Paris Hilton read a book.Nah, just pose with it (she'll pose with anything!)-- you didn't think she really drives herself around, did you? Let alone washes the limo (or eats at Carl's Junior for that matter)? :mad:

What a piece of junk this new site is. :angry:

for a few seconds I was so naiv that I thought maybe SONY did something cool...

Sic.Weren't you just recently asking (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10206) for this sort of info? I take it this isn't what you wanted then? http://www.mobileread.com/forums/images/smiliesadd1/huh.gif

Remember it is still a beta site (less than 24 hours after going live), it's reasonable to expect that more will be added. :beam:

I thought they (SONY) would build a content creation site with at least a single tool that lets you create content for the reader.
There's nothing like that.
How the hell did this site so long to create?
... to put some of their existing docs online and install a phpBB forum...
It's about 2 hours worth of work - testing included.
They didn't even give an LRS to LRF compiler!

NatCh you are right, I hope to find answers to my questions

what bothers me though is that they don't allow you to sell content created with the tools on the site. for any commercial use you need to contact them.
"standard"... my @ss

(Sorry folks, I'm really angry at them)

Ah, I can see where you'd be torqued from that perspective. I guess I was expecting it to be more of a developer resource, so it's more what I was expecting in the first place. :shrug:

Expect the worst & you won't be disappointed. :angry:

They didn't even give an LRS to LRF compiler!

Not to interrupt your rant or anything but they did provide a LRS to LRF compiler. They also provided example LRS and LRF projects to use as references. Not very complete examples mind you but they did provide two examples.

And who knows what license terms they will offer when asked. Perhaps, for the right tool, they might even be royalty free.

My major complaint is the time I'm having to spend reporting defects in the BBeBXMLXylogFormat document. They could have had someone spend some of the months past going over that document fixing the obvious errors. :(

Would it be faster/easier/simpler to correct the whole doc and then hand it back to them? :grin:

my understanding was that they provided the dll for compilation but not an entire solution such as a command line compiler

Would it be faster/easier/simpler to correct the whole doc and then hand it back to them? :grin:

Sure but they have posting with attachments disabled and no email address listed to which one could send the document.

my understanding was that they provided the dll for compilation but not an entire solution such as a command line compiler

Everything you need to build a Windows tool is provided. A copy of Visual Studio C++ Express (a free download) and 10 lines of C code (provided by Sony), and you've got your very own LRS to LRF tool you can customize to your heart's content.

Sure but they have posting with attachments disabled and no email address listed to which one could send the document.Post it here and post a link to it in the PRSLabs forum? :grin2:

Everything you need to build a Windows tool is provided. A copy of Visual Studio C++ Express (a free download) and 10 lines of C code (provided by Sony), and you've got your very own LRS to LRF tool you can customize to your heart's content.


But how can you make a LRS in an easy way?


EDIT: Found it out already, Bookdesigner "temp" folder. :D

Post it here and post a link to it in the PRSLabs forum? :grin2:

Nice try NatCH but if you want a copy you have to go sign up on their board. :)

I have signed up on the board, scotty1024, I'm trying to figure out a way to get a corrected copy back to them since they don't allow you to post attachments on their board. :wink:

I mean...
- they don't give any content creation tools such as an editor
- they don't give any developer tools such as a LRS to LRF compiler
- they do give a closed source DLL but with their licensing they do not encourage any kind of development
- they don't give full documentation
(no documentation of the binary file format) and even the one they give is misleading because -- in my opinion/experience -- it is not fully implemented in the Reader

they published some docs with some info already known and a DLL most interested people already had
just to improve on their crappy company image...

I've regesterd, but I think I'm waiting for a confirmation email. How long did this take to go through for you guys?

It should be about instant. Check your spam filter or try another address.

It should be about instant. Check your spam filter or try another address.Ah, the 'ol SPAM filter. Why didn't I think of that. Thanks.

Everything you need to build a Windows tool is provided. A copy of Visual Studio C++ Express (a free download) and 10 lines of C code (provided by Sony), and you've got your very own LRS to LRF tool you can customize to your heart's content.

Has anyone tried to do this? I have tried it in python using the following code (which didn´t work):

from ctypes import *
xylog = windll.LoadLibrary("XylogParser.dll")

check = xylog.MSXML_InitInstance()

if check:
success = xylog.XYP_Create()
print "create=",success
xylog.XYP_SetTextCompressionFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetPCMCompressionFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetFontEncFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetProducerName(u"test")
#XYP_SetMsgWnd(wnd);
#XYP_SetMsgID(WM_USER + 100)
parse = xylog.XYP_ParseDocument(u"test.lrs")
print "parse=",parse
xylog.XYP_Release()

Incidentally, the output is

create= 1
parse= 0

I have signed up on the board, scotty1024, I'm trying to figure out a way to get a corrected copy back to them since they don't allow you to post attachments on their board. :wink:
Well then you know they don't encourage posting the downloads from that site all over the place. :)

I really think they're all dead. You all keep claiming they read MR, never heard from them here (PM, Posting, nor Email). Someone puts up prslabs.com to communicate with content developers, but we never hear from them on that BBS.

Dead, they're all dead I tell ya. Maybe Stringer cashiered them all and their jobs are all being off shored? :)

Has anyone tried to do this? I have tried it in python using the following code (which didn´t work):

parse = xylog.XYP_ParseDocument(u"test.lrs")


I'm not a snake charmer but I can hum a few bars. :)

My guess would be that the current working directory for the DLL isn't what you expect it to be. I would suggest you replace "test.lrs" with "C:\My\Exact\Path\test.lrs".

Hope that helps.

scotty1024
I think you're right :)
seriously though I don't get what they want.
Their licenses are very restrictive.
In my understanding it only allows "lone wolf" development for personal use... it doesn't encourage or permit any kind of community effort.
e.g. see my previous note about posting the DTD here on MR... wouldn't that violate their terms?

I'm not a snake charmer but I can hum a few bars. :)

My guess would be that the current working directory for the DLL isn't what you expect it to be. I would suggest you replace "test.lrs" with "C:\My\Exact\Path\test.lrs".

Hope that helps.

Humm... I tried that, but unfortunately it didn´t work either. But you might have gotten near the answer. I tried to set the name of the lrs file first using

xylog.XYP_SetXmlFileName(ur"C:\test.lrs")

This returns an error code 11 (the number of chars in the string?). The file is there all right so the thing should not complain...

This returns an error code 11 (the number of chars in the string?).
xylog.XYP_SetXmlFileName(ur"C:\test.lrs")


Things I'd check:

1. Does that ur mean "16 bit character string with a 0 character at the end of the string?
2. Where did test.lrs come from? Are you using one of the sample projects provided by Sony? Is the path for the required CThumbnail correct? I'm also pretty sure the LRS file has to be in UTF-16LE with the 16 bit marker character 0xfffe as the first character. I don't think it will eat UTF-8 even if that encoding is set in the XML marker e.g. 'encoding="UTF-8"?>' isn't respected.
3. If you can setup the MsgID and MsgWnd you might get better error messages.

What Sony did is just gave us the stuff we already know (thanks to igorsk).

1. XYLogparser.dll. The same XYLogParser (from BookCreator) we are using for more than a year with the lrs2lrf wrapper by igorsk. Moreover new XYLogparser.dll is fully compatible with the lrs2lrf and produces the same result.
2. Wrapper interface. Almost no difference compared to lrs2lrf (except probably some more functions like TOC, author etc). But the same result could be achived with the lrs content and lrs2lrf.
3. LRS specification. The same to published previously and found by igorsk 3 month ago.

May be they fixed known bug from previous parser, I did not check.

The same l-o-o-o-ng conversion. Just checked: both XYLogParsers.dll (the old one and new one) do conversion of some book for 5 minutes, while homemade MSH_LRSparser do the same for 2 seconds! With absolutely the same result.

I don't think we can expect from Sony something really useful.

The useful thing we got from prslabs.com is permission to use the dll, which was something we didn't have before.

scotty, I don't think so:


2. Do we need license for our business?
If you want to use the tool provided here for commercial purposes, please contact Sony to get a license for it.

Things I'd check:

1. Does that ur mean "16 bit character string with a 0 character at the end of the string?
2. Where did test.lrs come from? Are you using one of the sample projects provided by Sony? Is the path for the required CThumbnail correct? I'm also pretty sure the LRS file has to be in UTF-16LE with the 16 bit marker character 0xfffe as the first character. I don't think it will eat UTF-8 even if that encoding is set in the XML marker e.g. 'encoding="UTF-8"?>' isn't respected.
3. If you can setup the MsgID and MsgWnd you might get better error messages.

1. Yes.
2. The file is the OZ example downloaded from prslabs, so it should work...
3. You are right about that, but given the post above by obelix I think it is just too much work for too little gain. I was hoping that the .dll would support some things that MSH_parser does not support yet, namely plot commands for images...

Thanks for the help!

2. The file is the OZ example downloaded from prslabs, so it should work...

Should is one of my most favorite English words. I agree with you, it should work. Sony should be interested in publishing a sample project that worked with their parser.

Alas, it doesn't and thus apparently they aren't. :(

After publishing a document on the topic of picking the proper values to put in the <BookID> they of course chose to use a value that is improper and the parser refuses to accept. You need to alter "CBUS00100000200C" to be "FBUS00100000200C".

You then of course need to make sure the "data\t_book19.gif" is supplied properly.

Even after all of that? The resulting LRF is 5K different in size from the published reference LRF file that the LRS is supposed to produce. But the Sony does view it properly whatever the difference in size.

And for those following along using Vista, yes, the parser rolls over dead if it generates any error during parsing and Vista offers to search Microsoft for a fix for it. :)

So long as the parser runs with no errors, it runs on Vista.

scotty, I don't think so:

Evidently you missed the part where for non-commercial uses you do have permission to use it. And for commercial uses there is a mechanism to request permission to use it.

Neither of which existed before, and while the parser is of dubious quality, its release by Sony is a step forward on Sony's part.

Haha, Paris Hilton read a book.


paris hilton can read?

paris hilton can read?
It's called a comic.

Everything you need to build a Windows tool is provided. A copy of Visual Studio C++ Express (a free download) and 10 lines of C code (provided by Sony), and you've got your very own LRS to LRF tool you can customize to your heart's content.
Hi guys !!!
I scoured the prslabs site. I could not find that 10 line source code that you mentioned anywhere. Can you please provide the url?

thanks
zechs

I scoured the prslabs site. I could not find that 10 line source code that you mentioned anywhere. Can you please provide the url?

Check the XylogParser API manual.

Check the XylogParser API manual.

Oh, that one.

just out of curiosity,

Have you guys had any luck with xylogparser.dll. I could not get it to work. Keep getting error in XYP_SetXmlFileName(unsigned short *fname). The error I got ranges from 8, 11 and 12. The test file (lrs file) I used was the one that came from sony (OZ.zop).

Has anyone tried to do this? I have tried it in python using the following code (which didn´t work):

from ctypes import *
xylog = windll.LoadLibrary("XylogParser.dll")

check = xylog.MSXML_InitInstance()

if check:
success = xylog.XYP_Create()
print "create=",success
xylog.XYP_SetTextCompressionFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetPCMCompressionFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetFontEncFlag(0)
xylog.XYP_SetProducerName(u"test")
#XYP_SetMsgWnd(wnd);
#XYP_SetMsgID(WM_USER + 100)
parse = xylog.XYP_ParseDocument(u"test.lrs")
print "parse=",parse
xylog.XYP_Release()

Incidentally, the output is

create= 1
parse= 0

The way I got XYP_ParseDocument to work was:

1) make sure the filename supplied is in unicode format. i.e. if your Filename is "Test.lrs", the contents of filename should be:

(c notation - sorry I am not familiar with Python)
ushort *Filename = {0x0054, 0x0065, 0x0073, 0x0074, 0x002e, 0x006c, 0x0072, 0x0073, 0x000}

2) Change the BookID (especially if you are using the sony supplied LRS files). The first 2 characters has to be: "FB"

Good luck !!!!

zechs

Has anyone registered or downloaded from the Sony site since April? I tried registering yesterday using a couple different email addresses and haven't received activation information (not in the junk mail folder, either). The site seems to have done some basic work:

a) It won't let me register again with the same email address or email address
b) It recognizes the email address if I ask them to send me my password (but here also I never receive anything)

I cannot login to the site with either account name and password.

If they've shut down the site, does anyone have a pointer to the BBeB character set specification?

Thanks!

Hi,
I just registered at the site a few minutes ago after reading this post. I got the activation information in less than a minute and am logged into the site right now.

Has anyone registered or downloaded from the Sony site since April? I tried registering yesterday using a couple different email addresses and haven't received activation information (not in the junk mail folder, either). The site seems to have done some basic work:

a) It won't let me register again with the same email address or email address
b) It recognizes the email address if I ask them to send me my password (but here also I never receive anything)

I cannot login to the site with either account name and password.

If they've shut down the site, does anyone have a pointer to the BBeB character set specification?

Thanks!

Has anyone registered or downloaded from the Sony site since April? I tried registering yesterday using a couple different email addresses and haven't received activation information (not in the junk mail folder, either). The site seems to have done some basic work:

a) It won't let me register again with the same email address or email address
b) It recognizes the email address if I ask them to send me my password (but here also I never receive anything)

I cannot login to the site with either account name and password.

If they've shut down the site, does anyone have a pointer to the BBeB character set specification?

Thanks!

Not sure if this helps, but check your spam filter settings. I remember when I registered @ their site, the time stamp of the welcome e-mail was incorrect. Some spam filters may be allergic to this.

Not sure if this helps, but check your spam filter settings. I remember when I registered @ their site, the time stamp of the welcome e-mail was incorrect. Some spam filters may be allergic to this.
Their mail agent is really badly configured. A lot of MTAs are likely to drop the e-mail before it even gets to a spam checker. It's not just the time stamp. They're also sending it through a machine with no reverse DNS, virtually guaranteeing it's going to get dropped.

Add to that, it's sending HTML e-mail with a mangled MIME type header and no multi-part plain-text component, and you've got a recipe for getting dropped in the bit bucket unknown.

If you don't get the e-mail immediately, and it's not in your junk filters, you'll have to use another address. A lot of commercial services are going to reject it out of hand.

Well not sure if this will help or not but yahoo mail seem to have no problem getting the email.

Well not sure if this will help or not but yahoo mail seem to have no problem getting the email.
Somehow, that seems appropriate. Yahoo! was never too big on details like RFCs anyway.

Thanks, guys, that (Yahoo hotmail account) did the trick! Steve

The only "tool" is the XYLog parser DLL.

So far in the tool department it's "We help those whom help themselves." :-)

I've got an official parser API spec to aim for in Java, I'm a happy coder.

This officially derails all other efforts. :D

If you need another java hand, let me know. It's what I do for a living and I'd be interested in helping out.