Laurens informed us (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2004/12/caching_policy.html) that the new Sunrise 0.40 pre2 allows you to modify the way how downloaded documents are cached:

# Default: Use the cached page/image if the Cache-Control or Expires header indicates that it hasn't expired yet. Otherwise, check with the web server if the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request (see below).
# Revalidate: Always check with the web server is the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request. This is akin to Reloading/Refreshing in the web browser.
# Disable: Do not use the cache at all.

Sunrise 0.40 pre2 also contains some important bug fixes allowing you to run it on Windows 9x machines again.

You can download the latest Sunrise by clicking here (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/sunrise_040-pre2_setup.exe), or visit here (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2004/12/sunrise_040_pre_1.html) first to see a list of all changes for 0.40 pre2.

Sunrise is the only desktop component I know that respects Conditional GET requests, which can not only free up server resources but also reduces overall bandwidth consumption for the user. So what is a Considitional GET? The people who invented HTTP (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html) decided that a web client such as Internet Explorer or Sunrise should be able to ask a web server via a conditional GET if a web document has changed since the last time it looked at it. If nothing has changed, the server returns a simple 304 respond code which means as much as "Not Modified" and tells the client that it doesn't have to redownload the document.

Let's hope that other downloaders like iSiloX will support this feature as well in future!

Wow, Alexander, that was fast! :wink: The actual 0.40 pre2 release is now available (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2004/12/sunrise_040_pre_1.html).

Oups, I'll make sure to give you some more time for your blog postings next time ;)

Cheers!

Looks like the BBC SDL is broken. Yesterday it was fine, I installed 4.0b2 today and the BBC is the only one not working besides NYT Tech and Circuits Text SDL. Most likely something changed in the BBC xml.

Hi Laurens,

I was having problems with Sunrise crashing both at work and at home. I tried .40pre2 and am still having the same problem. I can open Sunrise but the minute I load a list of sites or try and add a new one it crashes. I did the regedit you suggested and even uninstalled and reinstalled Java but am getting the same result.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to get things going again. I really miss using Sunrise but I can still use JPluck for now.

Dave

Looks like the BBC SDL is broken. Yesterday it was fine, I installed 4.0b2 today and the BBC is the only one not working besides NYT Tech and Circuits Text SDL. Most likely something changed in the BBC xml.

The regular BBC PDA site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/pda/default.htm) works fine for me. The printable versions of their articles are unavailable at the moment, the server doesn't respond.

I haven't looked at the NYT Text editions in a long while.

I was having problems with Sunrise crashing both at work and at home. I tried .40pre2 and am still having the same problem. I can open Sunrise but the minute I load a list of sites or try and add a new one it crashes. I did the regedit you suggested and even uninstalled and reinstalled Java but am getting the same result.

Thanks for trying it out, Dave. Sorry it's still not working for you.

You could try running Sunrise through this executable JAR: desktop.jar (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/desktop.jar) (1kb). This way you can watch the output on the console for any clues as to what might be going wrong. Simply copy the JAR to the Sunrise installation directory.

Open a command prompt, change to the Sunrise directory and type

java -jar desktop.jar

Now try to crash Sunrise and watch the console output. Let me know what it says.

Downloaded 0.40 pre2 and installed it as usually...
After clicking on the icon the sunrise logo appears for a second, but the program doesn't start. If I click on the icon again, the sunrise logo appears and freezes.
I just can't get it to start up..
0.40 pre1 worked fine - running on windows xp sp2.
Any ideas?

tckober73, try to run the desktop.jar as I explained in my previous posting. Let me know what it says.

If I download the file and extract it, it creates a folder called Meta-Inf, with a file named Manifest.MF.
Can you give some easy instructions for not-that-computer-geeks-have-no-idea-whats-going-on-guys like me?
Thanks

Don't extract the JAR. Just put it (unextracted) in the Sunrise installation directory.

"Open a command prompt, change to the Sunrise directory and type.."
What program do I use to open a command prompt?

Sorry to be pain in the #$&&*%

Think of it as helping Laurens to write his user manual! :)
Maybe I can help with this one...
From the main start menu, try Start/Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt.
(Or Start/Run and enter "cmd", without the quotes of course.)

Then you can get to the right directory by using "dir /w" to see the contents of the directory, and "cd whateverTheDirNameIs" to get to the directory, either all at once or one level at a time.

I don't exactly understand all this myself, but maybe that still helps you out...

That's OK. :) Hopefully, these instructions will help you out:


Click on the Start button
Select "Run..."
Type "cmd", this opens the prompt.
On the prompt type the following two lines:
cd \Program Files\Sunrise
java -jar desktop.jar


You should now see log messages in the console, which might give me some hints as to what is going wrong.

Thanks again for the great work on this, Laurens. However, it looks like I am still getting the occasional hang on refreshes with the Pre2, where the scheduled updates don't "kick off" because something is sitting in the process window at 100%. Once I manually remove it and then kick off an update manually, all the missed scheduled updates kick off themselves. Very similar to what we were seeing with the Pre1.

Let me know if there is any logging or tracing that would be helpful. Otherwise I'm just going to bounce back to 3.6d.

Thanks again for the great work on this, Laurens. However, it looks like I am still getting the occasional hang on refreshes with the Pre2, where the scheduled updates don't "kick off" because something is sitting in the process window at 100%. Once I manually remove it and then kick off an update manually, all the missed scheduled updates kick off themselves. Very similar to what we were seeing with the Pre1.

Let me know if there is any logging or tracing that would be helpful. Otherwise I'm just going to bounce back to 3.6d.

Please send me the SDL you're using. This might be something that happens specifically with your combination of schedule and/or site settings.

Thanks everybody for their help.
I followed the instructions and here is what I get:

Dec 28, 2004 09:07:29 AM hl a
INFO: Starting web service on/127.0.0.1:2575

I assume that the desktop file is a .zip file? I followed the link, which opened the file in a new window (using firefox). I used save as and selected WinRAR file.
If I right click on the file it shows it as a zip file.
What do I do now?

Laurens, when I followed your instructions, I got the following message: "the system cannot find the file specified" Note that, like others, I am unable to open the Sunrise desktop at all. Philippe Radley

FYI, I found prerelease 1 in my recycler bin, restored it, and it works. Philippe Radley

Hi Laurens,

I sent you a copy of what was logged on my home computer when I ran desktop.jar. Let me know if you didn't get it. I've now installed pre2 on my work computer that is using Win98SE. Well pre2 works fabulously and I have to say nice job. Hopefully we can figure out why I can't get it going on my XP machine.

Thanks,
Dave

I sent you a copy of what was logged on my home computer when I ran desktop.jar. Let me know if you didn't get it. I've now installed pre2 on my work computer that is using Win98SE. Well pre2 works fabulously and I have to say nice job. Hopefully we can figure out why I can't get it going on my XP machine.

I sent a reply (to your e-mail address), with an updated HotSync DLL attached. Let me know if you didn't get it.

Laurens, can you sent that updated dll to others, me for example? I also use XP. Philippe Radley

jni-hotsync.zip (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/jni-hotsync.zip)

Unpack and place the DLL in the Sunrise install directory.

This updated DLL is intended to fix a different set of bugs, though, so it probably won't improve things, but you can always try.

Same here...Wouldn't mind the update - (using xp)
How about posting a link to the update?
Thanks

Never mind, was too slow:-)

Hi Laurens!
Downloaded the updated dll file and extracted it into the program folder.
Still doesn't start up.

Hi Laurens,

I got the email thanks. I'll be trying tonight and let you know. I haven't changed much in the HotSync config that I can remember other than I think I set Sunrise to do nothing as the default because I wanted to control when Plucker docs were sent to my Palm. I also use GoSync as well but I doubt that would interfere with things.

Dave

To tckober73 and radleyp, as a workaround you might want to try deleting the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\sunrise\ desktop\opentabs

There may be a problem restoring the previously opened SDLs, causing Sunrise to hang.

That worked!
Thanks

Laurens, how do I remove the registry key (i.e. where is it located)? Philippe Radley

Laurens, how do I remove the registry key (i.e. where is it located)?

You can download this .reg file if you don't know how to edit the Registry manually.

sunrise-remove-opentabs.reg (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/sunrise-remove-opentabs.reg)

Download and save locally, make sure the extension remains ".reg". Then double-click the file to merge the changes into the Registry. This only removes the "opentabs" key.

Select start - Run - type regedit - press ok
This opens the Registry Editor.
locate the folder as Laurens mentioned and delete it :-)
I uninstalled Sunrise first, deleted as stated above and installed pre2.
Works so far.

Thanks to you both. That appears to have worked.
Laurens, are you French? If so, BONNE ANNEE. Philippe Radley

Hi Laurens,

For the most part I'm getting pretty good conversions on my work computer, but I seem to have a few items that are failing and it seeme to be repeated all the time. For example I have the feed from your Sunrise news and it has failed every time even though it used to work fine. The error message that comes up is: "Error: java.io.IOException: The parameter is incorrect" . This message comes up on 12-15 sites each time. Usually the same sites and all sites that I've converted with no problems in the past.

Any ideas?

Dave

For the most part I'm getting pretty good conversions on my work computer, but I seem to have a few items that are failing and it seeme to be repeated all the time. For example I have the feed from your Sunrise news and it has failed every time even though it used to work fine. The error message that comes up is: "Error: java.io.IOException: The parameter is incorrect" . This message comes up on 12-15 sites each time. Usually the same sites and all sites that I've converted with no problems in the past.

Is this on the Windows 98 machine? If so, try to disable caching (see the Advanced tab) for the sites that fail and try again.

Hi Laurens,

Yep, it's the Win98 machine. I guess I better let you know which one I'm talking about, I'm even confusing myslef now. lol

I'll give the above a try tomorrow, thanks!

Dave

I dont know why I got so many "?" when I converting the chinese web page using the sunrise v4.0 pre2. Could you please fix this bug? Thanks a lot!!!

I dont know why I got so many "?" when I converting the chinese web page using the sunrise v4.0 pre2. Could you please fix this bug? Thanks a lot!!!

Make sure you set the output encoding to one appropriate for Chinese. (I.e. GB or Big5.)

radleyp and tckober73, the freeze at startup should be fixed in 0.40-pre3 (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2004/12/sunrise_040_pre_2.html), which I just released.

Hi Laurens,

Disabling the cahing worked for 90% of the sites I was having problems with. The other ones are likely a problem because of changes the sites made. Thanks for you quick and accurate reply on this issue, Sunrise is now working great on my Win98 machine.

Dave

Hi Laurens!
Installed the update and autoupdate as I am typing...
No problems so far.
Thanks - Happy New Year

Make sure you set the output encoding to one appropriate for Chinese. (I.e. GB or Big5.)

But I cant find any GB or Big5 options in the property output window. Could you please add the GB and Big5 text encoding in the next sunrise release? Thanks a lot and wish you a happy new year!

But I cant find any GB or Big5 options in the property output window. Could you please add the GB and Big5 text encoding in the next sunrise release? Thanks a lot and wish you a happy new year!

This is fixed for the next prerelease. Currently, Sunrise only lists 8-bit character sets. I don't know how Plucker handles Chinese-language encodings, though, so I can't guarantee that it will work. I can't read Chinese (I wish I could), so I can't verify.

ENIX, I just released Sunrise 0.40-pre4 (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2005/01/sunrise_040_pre.html). You can now select Chinese-language output encodings such as "Big5". Let me know if it works.

ENIX, I just released Sunrise 0.40-pre4 (http://laurens.typepad.com/sunrise/2005/01/sunrise_040_pre.html). You can now select Chinese-language output encodings such as "Big5". Let me know if it works.

I really appreciate your hard work!!! But I got the following message when I try to run the new version. What's wrong?

Application error:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no sunrise-conduit in java.library.path
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
at com.distantchord.sunrise.apps.Conduit.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
at aq.A(Unknown Source)
at aq.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.distantchord.sunrise.apps.Desktop.e(Unknown Source)
at com.distantchord.sunrise.apps.Desktop.main(Unknown Source)

For the most part I'm getting pretty good conversions on my work computer, but I seem to have a few items that are failing and it seeme to be repeated all the time. For example I have the feed from your Sunrise news and it has failed every time even though it used to work fine. The error message that comes up is: "Error: java.io.IOException: The parameter is incorrect" . This message comes up on 12-15 sites each time. Usually the same sites and all sites that I've converted with no problems in the past.

This is an issue that occurs on Windows 98. I'll fix this in time for the final v0.40 release. It's a file-locking issue, the cache should work fine on Win98.