Open sourcing Clipbook and Shareboard for Meego

This is a continuation of my previous post which falls under my pledge to open source all my apps that I no longer develop.

"ClipBook" , The award winning clipbook app for Legendary Nokia N9 running Meego - Harmattan. One of the first few apps that popularised the concept of clipbook history, even before famous implementations of LG and UC Browser grabbed everyone's attention. This app was among the top 8 apps qualified for LinuxTag 2012 App Contest's prize of a brand new shiny Nokia N9 developer device, which was my dream device at that time. 

This was one of the more advanced and sophisticated apps I coded at that time. With background daemon, event feed publishing, event based action to minimise battery consumption, auto start and modular directory based project

Shareboard for MeeGo A small app to fast-share a status update or post to both social networks, FB and Twitter, from a single page. Problem is FB posting is no longer working as Facebook API key is obsolete. Fb has made it hard to pass verification of apps for posting permission because they only validate Android, Windows, IOS apps now. Twitter key works, but not verified recently.

I was not an expert in using Git at that time, so the commits are squashed. If any problems, please reach me via email ananda.bibek at gmail, I'll get back to you.

I do hope this code can be ported to Jolla Sailfish devices to some extent. But I have not worked on it, so I have no idea.

In case you carry over my project, or implement it somewhere else, please drop me a mail, or a comment anywhere just that I know. That'd give me immense pleasure knowing my code still lives on..

Github repo

Clipbook
https://github.com/anandbibek/clipbook-meego

Shareboard-meego
https://github.com/anandbibek/shareboard-meego

The apps are available for download at, (though not maintained anymore)

https://openrepos.net/content/bibek/clipbook-pro

https://openrepos.net/content/bibek/shareboard

Privacy Policy for Shareboard app

• No personally identifiable information is collected.
• Password and login details are not stored. Facebook provided authentication is used.
• Nothing is posted on behalf of users. Only users can post from the app.

Mirror Android screen to PC

Big things come in small packages. This is the exact case with VNC Server. After searching a lot of ways to show my Android screen on PC, I found this to be the only app that worked.

Additionally you will need a VNC viewer app on PC or do it via a browser. Real VNC is a good option.

You can connect via wifi (hotspot from own mobile works) or USB (slow)

The UI is horrible but you can ignore it. One problem is that it might disable your phone keyboard. If so, ho to keyboard selection setting, you'll find a hardware keyboard switch. Turn that off.

Download VNC Server

Waking up device and turning screen on : Android code

For waking a device and turning screen on, you've the following options:

Use PowerManager Wakelock technique.
Or
Use WindowManager LayoutParams Flags.

For going with first option,

problem is the wakelock constructor takes two flags with a OR operator. One level, another Flag.

PowerManager pm = (PowerManager)
getSystemService
(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
wl = pm.newWakeLock
(PowerManager.SCREEN_BRIGHT_
WAKE_LOCK|
PowerManager.ACQUIRE_CAUSES_
WAKEUP, "bbbb");
wl.acquire();

Here, nothing's wrong but , SCREEN_BRIGHT_
WAKE_LOCK and other flags have been deprecated and there's no Level flag that could work with ACQUIRE_CAUSES_
WAKEUP.

It's a good thing since wakelock usage is discouraged.

Second option

FLAG_TURN_SCREEN_ON

LayoutParams Flags are the recommended way, but there's a catch that those flags, once set, work only during a window is created.

That means, you've to set them in your onCreate method before anything else., otherwise they won't work reliably.

So, that invalidates the scope of any condition checking before setting the flags, which could be handled by an extra Activity in control flow. ;) I'll leave it up to here.

Open Sourcing my Symbian and Harmattan apps : Shareboard S3 version

Since I'm not able to actively maintain and update my apps for Symbian and Harmattan, I've decided I'd be making them open source one by one.

To begin with, today I give you full source code of Shareboard Symbian 3 version.

https://github.com/anandbibek/shareboard_symbian

Let me know if you face any problems in building it, if you do. I hope I haven't missed any files while committing.
And in case you carry over my project, or implement it somewhere else, please drop me a mail, or a comment anywhere just that I know. That'd give me immense pleasure knowing my code still lives on.

It's quite an emotional moment to bid final goodbyes to Symbian this way.. This codes contain hours of my effort of my initial coding days... those humid evenings of summer after college and chilling mornings, when learning Qt and trying out the apps on my C7 ran a chill down the spine.

Thank you Symbian for making me what I'm known as today. For showing me where I had to go in life and for being there when I needed the inspiration after a depressing phase in life.


Here I end the most emotional 'open-sourcing' blog post of history, with a assurance that I'd try to keep this app working and push fixes in case serious bugs pop up. Just let me know.

Thank you symbian fans.

Update for Blob Symbian and Meego Harmattan version

Blogger API has recently been moved to https and that was causing an error "302 Moved Temporarily" in Blob app for all platforms.

So here's the quick fixes and updated installation files.

Harmmatan
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lcqxz9uz99h2rn/blogger_2.6.0_armel.deb

Symbian (self signed)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vkb9ca44vh5lzu/Blogger_2_6_0_selfSigned.sis

Enjoy and report bugs via mails or comments or via Twitter @Anand_Bibek

Shareboard Symbian/Harmattan Update

Been a long time since I last posted here. So, hello everyone.
As you know Nokia Store no longer accepts updates to apps since January 1st 2014.

And coincidently, Shareboard, both Symbian and Harmattan version stopped working soon after due to Twitter SSL enforcing restriction.

The updated bug fixed Harmattan version has been uploaded to openrepos.net , a community maintained repository.

The Symbian version, is available as a standalone sis file from my dropbox. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xu7mquduf21atv/shareboardsymbian.sis

I will try to keep the app updated and working as long as possible, but no promises since Nokia is dropping support so fast.

Cheers to Nokia's false promises and incompetence

Fixing MIME type bug in Nokia Publish

Nokia Publish developers, who had published MeeGo/Maemo debian file under Qt content item would know that a recent bug has caused the website to reject upload of new updated deb files.

Here's how you can fix it
Use any utility like FireBug to edit the web page. Inside the 'submit changes' button, delete the class 'disabled'
And you can happily push the button to submit.
I just submitted my updates. Have you?

Source :: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=1329747andpostcount=694

Clipbook Reloaded

  

Clipbook , one of my most interesting and useful apps, available for Symbian, s60 and MeeGo devices, the one which was awarded LinuxTag App Contest award has been hugely improved to v2.3 and released as a paid version (update only for Harmattan devices) .

The new version improvements are as follows, including most requested autostart and daemon features :-

• Redesigned UI 
• Background processing ability to keep saving entries even if app is turned off 
• Swipe to delete 
• Write to text file 
• User selectable auto start option 
• Optimized for minimum power usage (approx only 0.01% extra load)
• Minimum memory usage (few KBs)

It's been an pleasure to uphold the honor of that award and work on perfecting the app that gave me my first recognition in the developer world. Thanks go again to maemo.org community for their support and feedback.

The app will be soon available from Nokia store, as soon as it passes QA.
Download Link


The earlier free version, which doesn't have autostart or daemon and runs on an old algorithm is still available over at Nokia Store link . Due to some bugs at Nokia Store, I can't update that item to incorporate the new algorithm. If the store bug is not fixed soon, I will publish it as a new free app, (without autostart and daemon)

More updates are planned in recent times and works for Symbian and S60 version will be carried out if possible.

      

Maemo Talk Forum App

We had a very good app for our Maemo Talk Forum, created by ph5, who had done an amazing job in carrying out such a huge task, that too, for free. Unfortunately, some minor bugs and usability issues hampered daily use of this app, and the app deserved some maintenance.

Carrying over from Philipp Zabel's earlier works ,
I have taken up the development of this app, and regularly updating and improving it. 

The repository is on github https://github.com/anandbibek/forum-qml-new

The main thread is on maemo talk forum at http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=88475

I have been working on this since December 2012. And the app is currently in a stable and much improved state.

   

Changelogs :

forum-qml (0.1.8) stable; urgency=low

  * Random crash decreased

  * Image loader progress status

  * Code segments in post text-wrapped properly

  * Long press menu added/removed in appropiate places

 -- unknown <>  Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:48:46 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.7) stable; urgency=low

  * Bugfix on handling ANNOUNCEMENTS threads

  * Added fastScroll in postView

  * Banner on link press, font size settings

  * Improved editing from toolbar

  * Minor bugfixes

 -- unknown <>  Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:36:27 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.6) stable; urgency=low

  * Copy text option, edit posts without losing previous quotes or images

  * Loseless editing

  * Better multi-window usage in editor

  * Post date display fix

 -- unknown <>  Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:10:42 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.5) stable; urgency=low

  * Post editing ability

  * Text editor toolbar

  * Fixed link color

  * Fixed post link opening in browser

  * Dragging of Editor window (highly experimental)

 -- unknown <>  Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:34:57 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.4) stable; urgency=low

  * Fixed a bug that logged out user on (un)subscribing to threads

  * Email notification style select while subscribing to thread

  * Jump to page index option

  * Profile avatar display (toggle in settings)

  * Online/Offline status indicators

  * Changed few important theme images to be system independent

  * Forum Meego support partially deprecated

 -- unknown <>  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:43:52 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.3) stable; urgency=low

  * Previous quotes scrapped while "Quote and Reply"

  * User stats included

  * UI refinements

 -- unknown <>  Sat, 05 Jan 2013 21:10:44 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.2) stable; urgency=low

  * Fixed https image handling

  * Attachments are now handled much better while "Quote and Reply"

 -- unknown <>  Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:17:53 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.1) stable; urgency=low

  * New settings page

  * Full UI touch ups

  * Dark theme

 -- unknown <>  Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:29:26 +0530

forum-qml (0.1.0) stable; urgency=high

  * New Release

  * fixed abrupt termination of list display

  * blank date display fix

  * image scaling and some eye candy (long press to open in browser)

  * smoother scrolling everywhere (cacheBuffer ftw)

  * Attachments enabled

  * any other Minor changes you may find

 -- unknown <>  Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:12:42 +0530

forum-qml (0.0.1) unstable; urgency=low

  * previous build

 -- unknown <>  Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:05:14 +0530

ShareBoard for N9 (Meego-Harmattan) ....and Symbian

Just a small functionality I missed in N9 was that I had no option to fast-share a status update or post to both social networks from a single page.

ShareBoard has been made to fill in that gap.
The app loads up quite fast, so that you can start sharing whenever you wish.
You can post one photo along with a status update.
Toggle switches below set which networks update will be shared to.
Have a nice time trying out the app, and give feedbacks and suggestions. Also, you can notice that I'm not a good icon artist :p Any help in that field would be appreciated.

Content is currently available from Nokia Store.
And symbian version is under review and will be available soon.

Now available from nokia store : http://store.ovi.com/content/342672





This app uses the socialConnect QML library from http://projects.developer.nokia.com/socialconnect

Photo upload coming to Blob

Blogger and WordPress client for Symbian and Meego, Blob will be finally getting the much requested "Photo upload" feature. Thanks to ShwStppr (Abhishek Kumar) for helping me out with the C++ stuff of file handling. Update is possible only because of him :)

The upload mechanism isn't 100% polished and might have small bugs here and there. (Mostly because my 1 year old C7 has been acting weird recently and giving a different result than my beta testers). Anyway, I've submitted the update for Blob paid version in Symbian. Hopefully, which might go live by next weekend. I'm looking forward to feedback and fix bugs (if any) and then update it for MeeGo also.
The update for Symbian free version will also be pushed soon.

Download links :
Blob Paid : http://store.ovi.com/content/266320
Blob Free (MeeGo and Symbian) : http://store.ovi.com/content/266343

Custom keyboard for N9 with Swype style long-press chars.

Here's something interesting for those N9ers who, like me are used to the long press functionality of Swype keyboard. But unfortunately the long press choices in stock keyboard aren't much useful.
For that, I present you English (XT) keyboard that has long press chars as in Swype. Actually I made it for my personal use, but decided to share it.



The installation instructions are a little unorthodox since I haven't made any installer. But this techniques are familiar to most N9ers ;)

(Also an easy way : use the MesInput app from Nokia store, and download this keyboard with id : 1064020 . And you are done!! )


Download the xml file from here.
http://db.tt/a3SGeiY1

Put it directly in MyDocs

Enable developer mode in your N9,
Go to terminal and type

$ devel-su (password is rootme)
# cp /home/user/MyDocs/en_ext.xml /usr/share/meegotouch/virtual-keyboard/layouts/


Go to text inputs setting and activate the English(XT) keyboard

Swipe KB to access XT variant.

Enjoy long-pressing :)

MeeGo on Symbian? Almost ;) Meet MeeCal

Meet MeeCal, a simple calculator that is a clone of the default calculator in N9. Only difference is that it runs on symbian :D

The UI and UX has been optimised and designed for maximum match with the MeeGo app. Along with the inherited awesome graphics style.

The most awesome feature being swipe down to close the app. And swipe sideways to minimize. You've to start the swipe from the extreme edge of the screen.

Also the superfast startup time is something to look forward to :)

A paid and free version is submitted to QA and will be available by next weekend.

Hope you enjoy the swiping on your symbian

Welcome Blob v2 !

A little late on the announcement, I was busy perfecting v2 for MeeGo.

The new version for Symbian has already arrived in store few days back. Current version being 2.0.1 along with a bug fix from v2.0.0.

Changelog goes as follows:

• Added support for WordPress (Now its a dual client ).
• Add, edit, delete, read WordPress blogs, and everything you did with Blogger earlier.
• Read "freshly pressed" WordPress blogs
• Read blogs by entering url also in guest mode (apart from wordpress.com sites, some websites like techcrunch.com , gigaom.com seem to work )
• Threaded comments in WordPress (nested)
• Long press to show Link sharing options, including Pocket integration (did I announce it before? :p )

Nothing more I could remember atm, except few UI changes..
Thanks to everyone for their support and interest. It's been a nice experience :)

MeeGo version is on its way too.

Regards,
Anand

Blob version 2, literally ;)

When I say version 2, I mean it.
Blob will just get twice of everything it had.

A WordPress module will be added with basic posting, editing + reader by Url, "Freshly pressed" reader, etc..

Most interesting feature is gonna be threaded comments, which Blogger APi hasn't let me implement.
But I've done that with wordPress, in style ;)

You might say that we already have cutepress for that, but FYI, Blob is using a diff API, which has a few extra abilities, and few missing functions. I don't want any competition with CutePress, so kindly, don't compare.. It's different things from different aspects

A let down is that self hosted sites aren't supported yet, but WP support tells me that I could soon support them with JetPack.. Hope "soon" means soon..

The update is under development and private beta, drop me a comment if interested in Beta testing.

Stay tuned :)

Regards
AB

Bug Explanation : Connection Error 400 in Blob

Some people has been complaining that Blob is giving a error in connection problem on trying to publish posts.
The error code 400 is returned when the server doesn't recognize the sent data.
It is a limitation of blogger server that it accepts data in only xml format which is quite strict in rules.
If you miss one slash, or forget to close one html tag, the whole request becomes invalid.
Whereas all other major APIs use json data, blogger keeps using this tedious and tricky method (one of the reason why there aren't many blogger clients)

Due to this problem, if you create a new post with simple html tags, blob will handle it fine, but there might be occasional problems while editing an existing post with complex tags..(more if you mess up the html tags)

I'll be looking into a way to validate the post before requesting, but that'd be complex..
In the meantime, if you get those errors, offline save the thing, then try removing some part of the post and online draft it, to check which part/html code is causing the error.

Sorry for the trouble and inconvenience, but this is Blogger's fault as much as mine.

Regards,
Anand

Qcal joins the Meego party

After a huge response to Qcal in symbian platform, the calculator app now has set sails for the famous Meego.
Due to lack of a device there might be some glitches in font sizes, as the simulator went nuts in that department.
Users are requested to report back if there's any issue. I'd fix 'em as soon as possible.

The only feature missing from symbian version is the ability to copy result to clipboard, which will be added in next update.

Qcal Pro Meego version is currently in QA, which is a paid (currently free) item. A free version just like symbian is also coming soon.

Thanks to @knobtviker , and @logonAniket and @moritzJT for testing and feedback





Screenshots :

Blob updated to version 1.0.1

A few weeks since first release, and Blob has got a big update, crossing the 1.0 mark in version number.
The app is much more stable now, and better optimized for user ease.

Some of the main changes include

1. Offline working ability with local drafts.
2. There's a new feature of clipboard manager, which stores your clipboard data for later access
3. Text editing is more optimized (select text and apply formatting)
4. An extended help section
5. Optimized settings page
6. Preview option in post editor
7. UI optimization
8. And a few dead bugs :D

A few issues, like photo upload and optimization of comment section are looked in to

Please note that the free version won't get this update, but the next ver 1.1 update will come to both the free and paid version together.

You can get the app from Nokia store from the following links

Full version

Free version

ClipBook : Clipboard manager for Symbian

ClipBook

A clipboard history manager app.

By phone, you can only access the last item you copied, but ClipBook lets you access all the text items you cut, copied and pasted by your phone's default clipboard since starting this app.

NOTE: App needs to be running in background to access and manage clipboard.


Currently the app supports only copying items from its history list. More features could be added easily if suggested by users. Next update will bring ability to access previous history even after restarting app.
This feature is already available.


ClipBook is available at Nokia store for free from here