DR1000 Patch for DR1000 firmware

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

-The 'Black Screen of Death'. The 'Details' view is not allowed for the Home screen (and rightfully so, it doesn't make sense), so the toolbar button is disabled. But if you navigate to a folder, set the view to 'details' and then turn off the device, the next time it starts, you get a mostly black screen and you can't do anything, except manually modifying the corresponding entry in dr.ini.

I tried to reproduce this, but I seem to be missing the details. I set/have the Home-screen as Startup-View, go to a folder in SD-Card select details-view and shutdown the DR and then restart. Does this occure every time? Am I missing some steps?

[MrWarper]

It occurs here every time.

I've followed this sequence and included two copies of dr.ini just to make sure.
Boot -> Home screen displays fine in icon mode. -> Shutdown. Copy dr.ini to before.ini.
Boot -> Home Screen -> SD Card -> Set view to details. Shutdown.
Boot -> Black screen. Shutdown. Copy dr.ini to after.ini; copy before.ini to dr.ini
Boot -> Home Scree in icons mode, just as normal.

before.ini and after.ini differ only in /apps/er/sys/ctb/viewtype being "iconview" or "listcontent", see attachment.

Try to manually modify your dr.ini and boot to Home screen with it set to listcontent and see what happens.

[Mackx]

After trying several times I could reproduce it on my DR. Modifying dr.ini as described above (and doing a reset after inserting the SDcard) seems to be the only way to solve it.
It seems to be related/caused by the 'StartPage'-feature that I added. Unfortunately I could only reproduce it on the DR and not in the emulator, so it will be a little bit harder to fix. I remember some problems when introducing the feature, I thought that I solved it.
Does this only occure when the Home-screen is set as StartPage or also when any other view is used as StartPage?

[MrWarper]

I would guess it must happen when the DR view at the time of shutdown is set to a value that's not legal for whatever your start page is.

[MrWarper]

For those that, like me, went crazy creating all sorts of new (and unnecessary) tags, I have found that editing them out of dr.ini lets you get rid of them. However, it would be nice if the improved UI had the functionality to do so...

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

For those that, like me, went crazy creating all sorts of new (and unnecessary) tags, I have found that editing them out of dr.ini lets you get rid of them. However, it would be nice if the improved UI had the functionality to do so...

You are absolutely right, it is on my todo list, but my priorities are at this moment not with the dr1000hackx. Hearing that the feature is used (and appreciated?) gives it some extra priority.

[MrWarper]

Originally Posted by Mackx

... that the feature is used (and appreciated?)...

Actually it depends -- I would need around 25-30 tags for this to be effective for my library, or to be able to search with negative criteria. F.ex. looking for 'books', results would be around 95% of my library which wouldn't narrow any search in a meaningful way, while 'non-books' would be a more useful criteria for me.

I don't know where I heard that there's a current limit of around 15 tags, which would render the feature almost useless for me. Is this true?

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

Actually it depends -- I would need around 25-30 tags for this to be effective for my library, or to be able to search with negative criteria. F.ex. looking for 'books', results would be around 95% of my library which wouldn't narrow any search in a meaningful way, while 'non-books' would be a more useful criteria for me.

Currently the selection criteria for the 'Tag-filter' does not allow to negate a tag, I will put this on my todo list, see if it is easy to create. Note that a document can have multiple tags, separated by spaces.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

I don't know where I heard that there's a current limit of around 15 tags, which would render the feature almost useless for me. Is this true?

There is a limit to the number of tags that can be shown in the Properties-dialog (4 x 10=40). But you can always add new/other tags by typing them, but then only the first 40 tags will be shown as checkboxes in the Properties-dialog. I am creating a Settings-dialog for tags so they can be sorted and deleted. That should give some more control over the tags.
The tags are stored in dr.ini (as you already have discovered), I do not know if that adds some extra limitations to the number of tags. (I am using 24 tags in my experiments.)
The Properties-dialog first shows the tags that are applied to the document and then all others in the order as they appear in the dr.ini file.

[MrWarper]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Currently the selection criteria for the 'Tag-filter' does not allow to negate a tag, I will put this on my todo list, see if it is easy to create. Note that a document can have multiple tags, separated by spaces.

Yes, I know. AFAICT this feature-to-be would only imply to modify slightly queries to SQLite, so we can search things like "Physics + not English" or the like if you know you have few of those. The purpose of the "anti-tags" is to narrow searches when a normal tag isn't really specific within a first subsetting of your library.

... you can always add new/other tags by typing them, but then only the first 40 tags will be shown...

That should be perfectly OK with me.

BTW I'm not using some of the 'standard' tags, like news or personal. Any advice on keeping/doffing them?

A few more questions about tags: I understand recently added files get automatically tagged. Is this done according to filename extension only, or depends on location as well?
How is a file tagged as 'favourite' other than manually? What are 'fav1' and 'fav2'?

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

BTW I'm not using some of the 'standard' tags, like news or personal. Any advice on keeping/doffing them?

The list in the dr.ini file is only used to show the checkboxes with tags in the dialog. So if they are currently in the list, you can remove them, note that this will not remove the tag on any document. When a tag shows up in the Property-dialog it is automatically added to list in the dr.ini file.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

A few more questions about tags: I understand recently added files get automatically tagged. Is this done according to filename extension only, or depends on location as well?

All new files are automatically tagged when they are detected during 'indexing'. There is a mechanism that adds a tag depending on the location and extension. See the ctb/src/tags.c file.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

How is a file tagged as 'favourite' other than manually? What are 'fav1' and 'fav2'?

The fav1 and fav2 are some leftovers from some experiments of me. The 'Favourites' in the Home-screen is 'linked' to fav1, so any document tagged with 'fav1' will show up there.

[Mackx]

NOTE: THE BINARIES ARE ONLY FOR DR1000 with the latest R2.0beta firmware!!!

This version adds/changes (see also \Programs\_mackxpatch\readme.txt):
- Annotated documents automatically get a 'anno_new'-tag, so they can be selected using a tag-filter.
- Menu structure changed to allow quicker access to Tools.
- Allow alternative (i.e. Open With...) items to be added with alt.ini
- Added 'Filename' button to properties dialog, to set the title of a document to the filename.
- Added 'Tags' settings dialog to manage (sorting, deleting) the list of tags.

OPEN ISSUES:
- I did not yet update the documentation ...

So, my standard disclaimer: This is also a big hack, only very limited tested by me and less mature then 'normal', so my advise is to use it on the QEMU first. (Only the dare-devils should install it on their DR1000. :-)
I advise new DR users to first play a few month with the original firmware before switching to this patched version.

The new features are getting more complicated and my explanation skills are not that good, so feel free to ask questions here (after reading the UserManual ).

In the Bitbucket-repository: https://bitbucket.org/mackx/dr1000-hackx/overview the source code can be found.

Any comments or improvements appreciated.

Marcel.


(The patch also includes the changes from all previous patches. See _mackxpatch/Help/MackxPatch User Manual.pdf for installation instructions)

[fekhner]

Thanks Marcel, will try as soon as possible !

[MrWarper]

Installed on my personal DR. No new problems so far. My findings...

Originally Posted by Mackx

This version adds/changes:
- Annotated documents automatically get a 'anno_new'-tag, so they can be selected using a tag-filter.

Do you mean annotated with Xournal? I have a PDF with normal scribbles on it (not part of the PDF), and it doesn't show when I look up 'all annotations'.

- Menu structure changed to allow quicker access to Tools.

Perfect, I wanted to suggest this. Much better in accessibility terms.
Now it would be extra nice if the menu could be sorted a bit further (basically, group single-file / multiple file / folder actions).

- Allow alternative (i.e. Open With...) items to be added with alt.ini

I have to test this yet, but sounds like a good idea.

- Added 'Filename' button to properties dialog...

Cool. A problem I detected in v13: even for carefully crafted PDFs ('title' and 'author' shown correctly in 'info') or files with metadata manually set in the DR, 'properties' shows the same value (=title) for both instead of the proper values.

- Added 'Tags' settings dialog to manage ... tags.

Very good, but the tag targeted by the buttons isn't highlighted (not a big problem unless you look away and back). It would make a better replacement for your dialog to sort the home page items if you could only add a checkbox in front of each (for visibility)...

...which reminds me there are two items that never become visible on the 'start page': they are labelled 'store' and 'lastread' in that dialog. What are those?

I can lend a hand with documentation and localization. I have attached updated schemas with Spanish. Everything with <long> and <short> elements still appears in English, though, so I guess I can use a hand with the XML format.

Now, more about the new release:
-Languages:
Start page icon title respect locale settings now; descriptions (listcontent mode) are still in English. Locale is fully respected for the shortcuts under 'settings', though. Nice HX icon, BTW.
Breadcrumbs right below the top led show internal tag names instead of the start page icon titles.
-BSOD: this is less deadly now. If you switch to listview mode, shut down and turn the reader on, you get the BSOD regardless of your 'start page' being the main menu or the SD card folder. Resetting does not fix it but the setting is not saved on the card, so if you shut down and turn the reader back on it boots OK then.

I think I had a few more, but I can't recall them right now. On another note, I don't know if these suggestions belong here:
-Store annotations (and maybe other stuff) in parallel SQLite files (just like Xournal does) instead of a centralized one. They are not relevant for folder display anyway, and this way they can be sent over, moved around with the file they belong to, etc.
-If/when the above is solved, a tool to move files and folders around so we don't depend on computers to do basic stuff.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

Do you mean annotated with Xournal? I have a PDF with normal scribbles on it (not part of the PDF), and it doesn't show when I look up 'all annotations'.

This only count for documents that have been annotated after the new version of the patch is installed. I should have created a tool/script to add the anno_new-tag to all documents that are annotated, but did not find enough time to do that...

Originally Posted by MrWarper

I have to test this yet, but sounds like a good idea.

See the readme.txt for more info on how to do this.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

A problem I detected in v13: even for carefully crafted PDFs ('title' and 'author' shown correctly in 'info') or files with metadata manually set in the DR, 'properties' shows the same value (=title) for both instead of the proper values.

I will take a look at this to see if I did something wrong...

Originally Posted by MrWarper

Very good, but the tag targeted by the buttons isn't highlighted (not a big problem unless you look away and back). It would make a better replacement for your dialog to sort the home page items if you could only add a checkbox in front of each (for visibility)...

Both issues are on the todo-list, I am still deciding on the way to make the selected tag/item visible. (and find some time)

Originally Posted by MrWarper

...which reminds me there are two items that never become visible on the 'start page': they are labelled 'store' and 'lastread' in that dialog. What are those?

They are DR800 specific and will never be shown on the DR1000, I should make them disappear from the dialog.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

I can lend a hand with documentation and localization.

I can check-in the orginal help-document (open-office format) and the .po-files (for internationalisation) in the BitBucket archive so you (and others :-) have access to them.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

I have attached updated schemas with Spanish. Everything with <long> and <short> elements still appears in English, though, so I guess I can use a hand with the XML format.

I will look at this, could be a problem in the code.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

Now, more about the new release:
-Languages:
Start page icon title respect locale settings now; descriptions (listcontent mode) are still in English. Locale is fully respected for the shortcuts under 'settings', though. Nice HX icon, BTW.

I put the language issues on my todo list.
If anyone can create better icons, please post them here and I will add them in a future release.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

Breadcrumbs right below the top led show internal tag names instead of the start page icon titles.

Yes, I know. I have created a mechanism for anno_new --> 'All Annotation', I can probably also easily use it for the others now.

Originally Posted by MrWarper

-BSOD: this is less deadly now. If you switch to listview mode, shut down and turn the reader on, you get the BSOD regardless of your 'start page' being the main menu or the SD card folder. Resetting does not fix it but the setting is not saved on the card, so if you shut down and turn the reader back on it boots OK then.

I told that I could reproduce it, but when I tried again to see if I can find the problem I could not... so I have not really worked on this issue ...

Originally Posted by MrWarper

I think I had a few more, but I can't recall them right now. On another note, I don't know if these suggestions belong here:
-Store annotations (and maybe other stuff) in parallel SQLite files (just like Xournal does) instead of a centralized one. They are not relevant for folder display anyway, and this way they can be sent over, moved around with the file they belong to, etc.
-If/when the above is solved, a tool to move files and folders around so we don't depend on computers to do basic stuff.

Good idea, maybe the extraction of annotations and adding them to the proper metadata.db file can be combined with a Move tool. I can put it on my todo list, but it will take a lot of time ...

[MrWarper]

Annotations and rotating don't go along well. If you rotate the device and open any annotated file, your annotations will appear displaced. This fails both ways, so annotations are shown OK in the same rotation state they were made in (either portrait or landscape), and displaced in the other.
I have no way of telling if this is a bug in Mackx's patch or the original firmware (well, other than de-installing which I won't do right now) but I thought I'd let you know here anyway.

If necessary, I can attach pictures or do whatever testing.