Database Users

Simple Programming Question embedded VC++

I'm currently doing some programs myself with the free MS embedded VC++.. and I'm finding it comfortable to do a simple dialog-based programs for PPC. I think I can have most of the background code going, and I've just got the GUI .. alright.
Now the question, how do I do a copy/paste to/from clipboard? I had most of the stuff done using the included MFC Wizard. I can get and send data to/from an EditBox (TextBox, whatever you call it). However, the click-hold thing on PPC doesn't seems to work on my EditBox, and hence I'm thinking what's needed to enable a simple Copy/Paste on an EditBox.
Currently, I'm using the simple
Code:
m_editBox = _T("the message I want to show");
UpdateData(FALSE); //send it to the EditBox
Any guide from here would be appreciated. However, I'm thinking there may not be an easy way to do that, hence I've also tried adding a 'Copy' and 'Paste' button to do the job, but I've tried things like
Code:
SetClipboardData(x, x)
GetClipboardData(x)
None works.
I have also tried
Code:
COleDataObject DataObject;
and with the handle etc etc .. but I can't seems to find this COleDataObject , is that in some other environment (e.g. not PPC env)?
Help

Fast solution:
http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/sip.html
(this shows/hides sip on get/lost focus in edit controls and add the context menu too)
and this is a simple example how to copy datas into clipboard
if(OpenClipboard(NULL))
{
EmptyClipboard();
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, 100);
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*) (vtNumber.bstrVal));
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
free(szMsg);
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I hope this help u
bye

Thanks for your respond.. things work.. a bit
Code:
//put a test char
char *test;
test = (char*) malloc(100);
strcpy(test, "blah blah blah");
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, 100);
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*) test);
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//free(szMsg); //not sure what 'szMsg' is
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
Things somewhat works. I'm not really sure which part I've got wrong. I'm suspecting some memory allocation is giving me problems. The thing is, if I were to use 'CF_UNICODETEXT' on the 'SetClipboardData(x,x)' line, I get something to paste on other programs (PPC Notes). BUT, the thing pasted is some funny stuff (e.g. letters that cannot be rendered, hence I get the little squares). If I were to use 'CF_TEXT', I don't seems to able to send my stuff to the clipboard or it made it invalid for (PPC Notes) pasting (e.g. I'm not able to paste it in PPC Notes).
Thanks.
BTW, if you are in the mood, can you give me a Paste function as well. Thanks a bunch.

Hi hanmin.
Odd I didn't notice this thread sooner.
Any way if you still having problems with this code here is the solution:
You are working with char and strcpy so your text is in ASCII (each letter one byte).
But you are calling SetClipboardData with CF_UNICODETEXT so it expects WCHAR (UNICODE) where each letter is two bytes.
The strange letters are the result of two consecutive bytes being interpreted as a single letter (probably lends you in Chinese or Japanese region of the Unicode table)
Windows mobile doesn't usually work with ASCII so the text you get from the edit box will already be in Unicode and won't give you any trouble.
The code should look like this:
Code:
//put a test char
CString test; //since you are working with MFC save your self the trouble of memory allocation
test = L"The text I want on clipboard"; //The L makes the string Unicode
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
//not sure why you need to copy it again, but here goes:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*)(LPCTSTR)test); //LPCTSTR is an overloaded operator for CString
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//szMsg probably belongs to some larger application and is irrelevant
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I never used the clipboard APIs my self so I can't guide you farther but this code should work.
Hope this helps.

Wooo hooo.. Thanks levenum. I'm back on business!
You code works wonderfully.. just the final code "LocalFree(clipbuffer);" seems to cause problems. Without that, it works. I'm not sure if it will cause a memory leak.. but that's not much of my concern now
Now my Paste also works, and it seems that the magic code is the "LPCTSTR", which I have NO idea what it is (I'm more of a pure C person and.. a Java person ) Thanks again.

Glad I could help.
I am working from Ubuntu right know (Linux distro in case you didn't know) so I do not have access to my off-line MSDN files, but I recommend you check out the documentation for SetClipboardData.
It is possible it releases the memory it self so when you call LocalFree the handle is no longer valid.
That could also be the reason why you need to allocate memory instead of passing it the string directly.
As for LPCTSTR it is simple and not C++ related:
#define const* WCHAR LPCTSTR
Its M$ way of saying Long Pointer to Constant STRing
T changes meaning based on what you are working with:
If you work with ASCII TCHAR is char
If you work with Unicode TCHAR is WCHAR
Basically these are just all redefinitions of variable types so you can distinguish what they are used for.
In C++ you can overload operators. For example you can have a function which changes the way ++ works with certain types of variables.
In our case CString class has a function which determines what happens when you try to cast (convert) it to a pointer to string.
Thats all the "magi" code.
Good luck with your app.

Small update:
Since I had to go in to XP anyway (to change PDAMobiz ROM which kept hanging at random and didn't let me use BT to latest PDAViet which for now seem very good) I took a quick peek at the help files.
Here is why you should not release the memory:
After SetClipboardData is called, the system owns the object identified by the hMem parameter. The application can read the data, but must not free the handle or leave it locked. If the hMem parameter identifies a memory object, the object must have been allocated using the LocalAlloc function
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

levenum, thanks. You've got me almost there. There are several stuff I need to polish up though. Attach is a pre-mature version of what I wanted to do. There are several issues (including the fact that, only the 4 characters of the password are effectively used, which can be easily fix, I think. Just need to find the bug and squash it) that I like to polish up. They are sorted in order of importance (to me):
[1] Keyboard (SIP) pop up.
For this, I digged around and got to know that the function
"SHSipPreference( HWND, SIP_UP)" is the one to used. However, it never did what it suppose to do. I have had it put inside the "OnSetfocusConfirmPasswordEdit()" of the edit box, which should be called when it is set focus. I suspect that is I haven't set the HWND correctly. I have tried "NULL" and also tried using the "CWnd* pParent" from my dialog constructor (generated code my MFC Wizard). None of them worked.
[2] Editbox focusing.
For some reason, the focus on my main-dialog is correct on the editbox of the 'message'. However, on the dialog which is to confirm the password (which I called using
Code:
CConfirmPasswordDlg confirmPasswordDlg;
int nResponse = confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal();
is focusing on the 'Ok' button. What I like it to do is to focus on the 'confirmPasswordEdit' box, and it ought to automatically pop up the keyboard (SIP).
[3]Reduced size pop up dialog
I was trying to make the 2nd confirm password dialog smaller, something like a pop up in the PPC rather than something that take up the whole screen without much contents in it. How would you go about doing that? Is it not possible in PPC? E.g, if you were to use Total Commander, and start copying files around, they do have a pop up that does take up the entire screen. I'm suspecting I shouldn't do a "confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal()", and should some what do something myself. I have tried, SetVisible(1) thing, but that doesn't work. Or it shouldn't meant to work because my 1st screen is a dialog screen?
[4]Timer?
I would like to have a function of which after a certain period of idle time, it will clear off the clipboard and close itself. How would I go about doing this? Some sort of background thread thing?
Anyone can shine a light on my issues above? On MS-embedded Visual C++ (free), with Pocket PC 2003 SDK (free)
Attached the Blender-XXTea edition
Works on PPC2005 and WM5 (should work on WM6)
Does not require .NET framework
VERY small (54K)

hanmin said:
[2] Editbox focusing.
For some reason, the focus on my main-dialog is correct on the editbox of the 'message'. However, on the dialog which is to confirm the password (which I called using
Code:
CConfirmPasswordDlg confirmPasswordDlg;
int nResponse = confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal();
is focusing on the 'Ok' button. What I like it to do is to focus on the 'confirmPasswordEdit' box, and it ought to automatically pop up the keyboard (SIP).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnInitDialog handler, call GetDlgItem(confirmPasswordEdit).SetFocus() and return FALSE. That should handle the focus and possibly the SIP popup.

3waygeek said:
In your CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnInitDialog handler, call GetDlgItem(confirmPasswordEdit).SetFocus() and return FALSE. That should handle the focus and possibly the SIP popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HEY! The focus works! The working code is
Code:
((CWnd*) CConfirmPasswordDlg::GetDlgItem(IDC_CONFIRM_PASSWORD_EDIT))->SetFocus();
BTW, I'm wondering, whats the effect of a return TRUE/FALSE on a 'OnInitDialog()'?
Anyway, the keyboard pop up is still not working. I'm using the command
Code:
void CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnSetfocusConfirmPasswordEdit() {
SHSipPreference( (HWND)g_pParent, SIP_UP);//
}
which I suspect the 'g_pParent' is NULL. If it is NULL, would it work?

Ok, I haven't used MFC for a while and almost not at all on PPC but I will give this a shot:
1) MFC forces dialogs to be full-screen. Here is a detailed explanation on how to change that. Note that for some reason this will work only once if you use the same variable (object) to create the dialog several times.
If you use a local variable in say a button handler thats not a problem because the object is destroyed when you exit the function.
2) There is a simple SetTimer API. You can give it a window handle and then add an OnTimer message handler to that window. Or you could give it a separate function which will be called (say TimerProc). In that case you can give it NULL as window handle.
Note that CWnd objects have a member function with the same name (SetTimer) which sets the timer with that window handle (so that window will receive WM_TIMER message). If you want the raw API call ::SetTimer.
Also note that the timer will continue to send messages / call your special function every x milliseconds until you call KillTimer.
3) I am not sure what the problem with the SIP is. CWnd and derived classes like CDialog have a function called GetSafeHwnd (or GetSafeHandle, I don't remember exact name). Try passing that to SHSipPreference.
If that does not work here is an article with an alternate solution.

WOHO!! Everything works NOW!!.. MUAHAHHAHA.. wait til you see my release version
Non maximized windows works using the code suggested at the page. Although I still do not understand where the heck this '.m_bFullScreen' property came from. It is not anywhere obvious to be seen.
Code:
CNfsDlg dlg;
dlg.m_bFullScreen = FALSE;
dlg.DoModal();
Timer works using the
Code:
xx{
//your code...
CBlenderDlg::SetTimer(1, 5000, 0); //event 1, 5 seconds, something
//your code...
}
void CBlenderDlg::OnTimer(UINT nIDEvent){
//do something here for the timer
}
although somehow, the OnTimer() only works if I went to the MFC class wizard to add the WM_TIMER function. Doesn't work when I add in the OnTimer() myself. Must be something else that I've missed. Anyway.
Keyboard issue solved using
Code:
SHSipPreference( CBlenderDlg::GetSafeHwnd(), SIP_UP);

Glad its working out for you.
Couple of comments:
1) Somewhere at the top of the cpp file, if I am not mistaking there is something called a message map. It's a bunch of macros that lets MFC know what window messages it handles. An entry there is what was missing when you added the function manually.
2) m_bFullScreen is just another among many undocumented features. M$ likes to keep developers in the dark. For instance WM 2003 and up have an API called SHLoadImage which can load bmp, gif, jpg and some other formats and return HBITMAP which all the usual GDI functions use.
This API was undocumented until WM 5 came out and even then they said it only works for gif...

hanmin said:
BTW, I'm wondering, whats the effect of a return TRUE/FALSE on a 'OnInitDialog()'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The return value indicates whether or not the standard dialog handler (which calls your OnInitDialog) should handle setting the focus. As a rule, OnInitDialog should return TRUE, unless you change the focus within the handler (or you're doing an OCX property page on big Windows).
I haven't done much WinMob/CE development -- I've been doing big Windows for 15+ years, so window message handling is pretty much second nature. I started doing Windows development back in the days when you didn't have C++ or MFC boilerplate; you had to implement your own DialogProc, crack the messages yourself, etc. It's a lot easier now.

CommandBar / MenuBar
I'm back.. with more questions
Not much of a major issue, but rather an annoying thing I've found. Probably that's what evc/mfc/m$ intended to do that.
Anyway, I'm starting my way of getting around CommandBar. I created a MFC skeleton, studied the code, and that's what I've found, after I've created a CommandBar/MenuBar on evc and putting it in
Code:
if(!m_mainMenuBar.Create(this) ||
!m_mainMenuBar.InsertMenuBar(IDR_MAINMENUBAR) ||
!m_mainMenuBar.AddAdornments() ||
!m_mainMenuBar.LoadToolBar(IDR_MAINMENUBAR))
{
TRACE0("Failed to create IDR_MAINMENUBAR\n");
return -1; // fail to create
}
where I have the variable 'CCeCommandBar m_mainMenuBar' and I have created a MenuBar on evc with the Id 'IDR_MAINMENUBAR'. The menu bar works flawlessly on my dialog based application, when I have the 1st level as a pop up. Example
MenuBar --> 'File' --> 'New', 'Save'
Where 'File' is a folder-like thing that pop-ups and show the contents (i.e. in this example, 'New', and 'Save'). However, given the SAME code to load the CommandBar/MenuBar, it will not work, if I were to put the actual command at 1st level. Example, this will not work
MenuBar -> 'New', 'Save'
where there isn't any folder-like pop-up to store the commands 'New', and 'Save'.
I know that I can have buttons for these commands, and probably works. But, what I'm trying to do is to utilize the bottom-left-right softkey in WM5/6. If I were to have the 'File'->'New','Save' structure, it works fine with WM5, showing it as a softkey. But, if I were to do just 'New','Save' it will not show up in both WM2003 emulator and WM5.
As a matter of fact, even if I have (say) File->New,Load, and I added a new command (i.e. not folder-like-pop-up), example 'Help' on the CommandBar/MenuBar, the File->New,Load will not show up too. It seems like the 1st level command (ie. without a folder-pop-up), causes some problems and stop it from loading further.
Guys, ring any bell?

two bytes more
levenum said:
Hi hanmin.
Odd I didn't notice this thread sooner.
Any way if you still having problems with this code here is the solution:
You are working with char and strcpy so your text is in ASCII (each letter one byte).
But you are calling SetClipboardData with CF_UNICODETEXT so it expects WCHAR (UNICODE) where each letter is two bytes.
The strange letters are the result of two consecutive bytes being interpreted as a single letter (probably lends you in Chinese or Japanese region of the Unicode table)
Windows mobile doesn't usually work with ASCII so the text you get from the edit box will already be in Unicode and won't give you any trouble.
The code should look like this:
Code:
//put a test char
CString test; //since you are working with MFC save your self the trouble of memory allocation
test = L"The text I want on clipboard"; //The L makes the string Unicode
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
//not sure why you need to copy it again, but here goes:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*)(LPCTSTR)test); //LPCTSTR is an overloaded operator for CString
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//szMsg probably belongs to some larger application and is irrelevant
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I never used the clipboard APIs my self so I can't guide you farther but this code should work.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it is a bit late! But there is a mistake the code snippet:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
needs to be
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2+2);
the terminating 0 is als 2 bytes long!
Those errors are sometimes fatal, with very less chance to find them!
ms64o

VB.net help needed for an app Im halfway through writing.

Ive got to a point where Ive got to the limit of my knowledge.
(admitedly, I no pro, I just dont know how to do this)
Ive got a loop which finds out how many images are in a folder
and it makes a new picturebox for each image, sets the image
property to show that image and gives it a name, height, width,
location and parent.
My problem is I want to add a mouseclick event for each of these
items as I create them. I just dont have a clue how to do this.
Anyone got any ideas?
Ive tried this kinda thing, but it didnt work (stupid compact framework):
Code:
picturebox.MouseClicked += new MouseEventHandler(function_name);

Good Help Forum
http://www.vbforums.com/

It must work... Not sure how it is in VB.NET, but in C# it is this:
... in some method ...
PictureBox pb = new PictureBox();
.. setting properties
pb.Click += new EventHandler(PictureBox_Click);
... end of the method
private void PictureBox_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
... here goes your code, the picturebox clicked is in (sender as PictureBox), event args are in e
}

Thanks for you help
Ive not managed to get anything working properly so far
but I have within the past 10 mins figured out how to get around having to do this ^_^

See, this is a autoload image:
Me.PictureBox1.Image = New System.Drawing.Bitmap("figure2.bmp")
And Example:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/thread/2896d5cd-06d1-4a70-a561-a2c3497e325c

I think this wouldn't have been a problem with older VB technology if it had supported WM development. By that I mean it supported object arrays and provided a method with an 'Index'. From what I can see .NET doesn't offer such a luxury.
Your code looks right (syntax); but would I be right in thinking that your loop recreates 'picturebox' each time it loops and you are trying to associate an array of 'picturebox' to a single 'MouseEventHandler' function?
Code:
picturebox.MouseClicked += new MouseEventHandler(function_name);
My method of programming .NET is pretty much trial and error so I can't say for sure, just waffling

This is an example on how i did this with c# and the paint event. You dont want the paint event but it should be easy enough to change.
private void GenerateDynamicControls(string extt)
{
PicBox = new PictureBox();
PicBox.Image = Properties.Resources.phone;
PicBox.Name = "picturebox" + extt.ToString();
PicBox.Width = 75;
PicBox.Height = 75;
PicBox.BackgroundImageLayout = ImageLayout.Center;
flowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(PicBox);
PicBox.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(picpaint);
}
private void picpaint(object Sender,System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs e)
{
//Do whatever you need done here
}
//To Create the control do this.
GenerateDynamicControls(namethecontrolsomething);
Hope this helps.

In VB.Net, you need to use AddHandler. Quick search on the tutorial and I found, http://www.thescarms.com/dotnet/EventHandler.aspx
Hope this help.

smart device applcation
Sorry guys but I will use this thread to ask for your help regarding VB.Net.
Does anyone know how to browse the device and select a picture into a picture box?
Example:
I have a form with a picturebox and a button and what I want is by pressing the button to explore my device, choose a picture and update my picturebox with the picture selected.
There are loads of youtube videos with Windows Forms Applications tutorial but I just can not find one for a smart device applcation.
Any help?
Thanks

help with my time organizer app

I'm developing an organizer app as my bc. thesis and I don't have any real Android developer to consult, so I made this thread and hope somebody will help me and point me in the right direction.
I just started to work on it and I have roughly 1 month to make something useable out of it.
So... the first thing that comes to my mind right now is synchronization.
1. I don't know if I should implement it or not.
I have a hosting with 1.5 GB space, a relatively fast connection. Would syncing data (text (probably xml) only) with this server slow it down significantly ? How many users could an average server take ?
And another one regarding sync:
2. I'd like my application to exchange data with my server under the google account on which the device is logged in, so no registration will be neccessary (I suppose the majority of devices are loggen in with google). I'll probably need to get the user's google account name on every sync session. Is that possible ?
The app will already have a server-side app to edit your events and stuff, so I'll need the user's login information again to retrieve his data from my database, but I won't have his password, so I can't make a usual login form. I guess Google has some API to figure out if a user is logged in, doesn't it ?
Any advice will be appreciated.

Can I open a menu with a simple button click ? Like a context menu but for short clicks.
// I solved the **** outta this one.
Still waiting for answers on the first post.

"Organizer App" really doesn't tell us what you're trying to do. It's hard to answer questions if one doesn't know that basic plan of the project you're trying to create.

Check this -> Basic info about my bc thesis

Nice web page...ambitious project for a 4 week time frame.
As a programmer, you know to start small and add functionality as your program grows.
I would start by making a simple"To Do" list: Add item, Delete item, Edit item, Mark item done, Save this list, Recall a list, Delete a list.
Post back when that's done

Rootstonian said:
Nice web page...ambitious project for a 4 week time frame.
As a programmer, you know to start small and add functionality as your program grows.
I would start by making a simple"To Do" list: Add item, Delete item, Edit item, Mark item done, Save this list, Recall a list, Delete a list.
Post back when that's done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed 100%.
@ OP:
I don't know much about syncing, but it won't have a large cost of the server's resources - syncing an CSV or XML file is pretty trivial. Even if you have a low bandwidth cap, text files are quite small. So you should be fine in terms of that.
Nobody can give you a "set number" - ie. the server can take "X people." It greatly depends on the server type, how much bandwidth is allocated to you, your traffic priority, etc. I mean if it's one server with like a xeon processor then it can probably handled a pretty heavy load (say 50 probably? (and yes, I'm kind of pulling that number out of my ass)). Though most web hosts don't just dedicate one server to each customer. Typically, now-a-days, everything is virtualized. Everything is unified using server farms (ie. multiple servers or computers) virtually, then virtual chunks of resources are distributed to clients. So even if somebody could give you exact numbers (which is impossible), they'd most likely be wrong. That is unless you paid extra to have a particular server or particular number of servers dedicated to you...but even then, there's a high chance that it's just a chunk of a virtual server farm.
He's right, this is pretty ambitious in a 4 week period, especially if you have other activities going on as well. It's even more ambitious if this is your first app. You may want to reconsider your objectives given your time frame.
As for the google login, you'd need to look at the google API, and see if there's a way to verify peoples' usernames and passwords. If you can, then it's just a matter of encrypting them and storing them in a properties file or something.
Hope that helps ya out some.

Rootstonian said:
Nice web page
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
I know, I know. I could have started 4 months ago. But I didn't, the lazy bastard I am.
This is the practical part of my bc thesis. The ultimate deadline is 3rd of june, but I have to have my theoretical part (30-50 pages of text, if IIRC) done by then, all printed out and ****. So I plan to work as hard as I can on this till the end of this month and then start to work on both at the same time. I really don't have any other duties in school, since I have a nice reserve of credits so this is my priority #1.
The main objective is geo-tasks, since that's what the name of my thesis says. Everything else is just an addition (i.e. the widget, that was just an idea, I doubt I will have time for that). So I'd rather start with that (I know, It's the hardest part). Or do you still think I should start with the to-do's ?
You can check out my last night's post to see what I've been up to the last 2 days and what I'll be up to next.

What is your level of Android programming experience (None, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)?
And I'm a little fuzzy on the whole "Geo" thing. Is it like I have a list "Get milk, bread eggs", "Pick-up dry cleaning", "Get oil change" and then your app is going to "sense" when I'm by the grocery, dry cleaner's and oil change place? Which grocery? I use 4 different stores. Same dry cleaner and oil change though usually.
If so, you are going to need to code in lat/long coordinates for these places and then compute your location vs one of the merchants, compare that merchant to an "active" TO DO list item and pop-up an alert of some sort if you're within a mile. Wow
Your project, you know your skill level. Start where you want I guess LOL.

I think it's more of an agenda type thing - that syncs.

@Rootstonian
I'd say basic, but quickly crawling up to intermediate.
It's almost like you said, but there's only one location for every task. Maybe in a later version...

Well, good luck. Keep us posted

Will do. Hope you guys will keep on helping me

I need to use my database object in more than one activity. How do I pass it from one activity to another ?
Should I create a new instance in each activity ? Or should I create a content provider ? (I'd rather not - they're quite complicated for me and I only need to access the DB in this app).

I'm going to assume you are using a database helper type class.
No need to pass data from Activity to Activity; just open, use and close the database in each Activity as required.

I have a problem.
I created a LinearLayout for all the tasks in the database. Now I want to register all of them for a context menu. I can do that, but I can't figure out which one's menu was triggered.
LinearLayout has a setId method, but it only takes integer values, which is no good for me, because I have 3 types of tasks and if I assign them their id from the database, then the same ID will probably be assigned to 3 different views.
I could use some sort of multiplication, like for timed tasks I would multiply the ID by 10 000, but that's not elegant at all, and it would crash after a few months of using the app.
So what do I do now ?

I'll paste some code.
Code:
public void drawTasks() {
TextView emptyText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.empty_todo);
if (tasks.isEmpty()) {
emptyText.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
} else {
emptyText.setVisibility(View.GONE);
Iterator<Task> it = tasks.iterator();
//create views
while (it.hasNext()) {
//create a temporary object
Task tmpTask = it.next();
//get it's properties
long id = tmpTask.getId();
String title = tmpTask.getTitle();
String description = tmpTask.getDescription();
int important = tmpTask.getImportant();
int finished = tmpTask.getFinished();
//create new LinearLayout for this task
LinearLayout newTaskLayout = new LinearLayout(this);
newTaskLayout.setId((int)id);
newTaskLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
newTaskLayout.setPadding(5, 0, 0, 10);
taskLayouts.add(newTaskLayout);
//create new views for these properties :
//title
TextView newTaskTitle = new TextView(this);
newTaskTitle.setText(title);
newTaskTitle.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
//important tasks are highlighted
if (important == 1)
newTaskTitle.setTextColor(Color.RED);
//finished tasks are italic
if (finished == 1)
newTaskTitle.setTypeface(null, Typeface.ITALIC);
//description
TextView newTaskDescription = new TextView(this);
newTaskDescription.setText(description);
if (finished == 1)
newTaskDescription.setTypeface(null, Typeface.ITALIC);
//add views to this tasks' LinearLayout
newTaskLayout.addView(newTaskTitle);
newTaskLayout.addView(newTaskDescription);
//add new linearLayout to tasksRootLayout
tasksRootLayout.addView(newTaskLayout);
}
}
}
This is self-explanatory. taskLayouts is an ArrayList of LinearLayouts where I keep the pointers to all layouts that need to have a context menu.
There are 2 other similar methods: drawTimedTasks() and drawGeoTasks() which do basically the same (I couldn't figure out a way to do it with one universal function).
Here's how I register them for context menu:
Code:
private void registerViewsForContextMenu() {
//register control bar buttons
registerForContextMenu(newGeoTaskButton);
registerForContextMenu(newTaskButton);
Iterator<LinearLayout> it = taskLayouts.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
registerForContextMenu(it.next());
}
}
And here's how I'm checking for context menu trigger:
Code:
public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case ...
return true;
}
...
}
return false;
}
What am I doing wrong ?

Anyone ?
----

I haven't really been following this thread so I don't know all the details of your app, but I'll try to help.
So each task has 3 views for it? Each task is in the db once? I'm a little foggy on how you're storing them and what the correlations are between views, events, and types of event, more specifically the latter.
If you explain that a little more clear, I can try to help a little better.

There are 3 types of tasks : simple, timed, and geo tasks. Each type has its own table in the db, hence it's own IDs. That means, the first geo task, first simple task, and the first timed task ever added have all the same ID = 1. That means if I want to give their views unique IDs, I can't use their IDs from the database.
So I'm trying to figure out a way how to give the view ID's so I can find out which database record they represent.
In an ideal world, I would be able to define a string ID (i.e. geo_1, simple_1, timed_1), but this is not the case. I dunno why... in XML you give your views string IDs, but programatically you can't.

grandioso said:
There are 3 types of tasks : simple, timed, and geo tasks. Each type has its own table in the db, hence it's own IDs. That means, the first geo task, first simple task, and the first timed task ever added have all the same ID = 1. That means if I want to give their views unique IDs, I can't use their IDs from the database.
So I'm trying to figure out a way how to give the view ID's so I can find out which database record they represent.
In an ideal world, I would be able to define a string ID (i.e. geo_1, simple_1, timed_1), but this is not the case. I dunno why... in XML you give your views string IDs, but programatically you can't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If all of the tasks have common elements (even if they don't really), you can merge them into one table. Then define an enum or something for the task type, as a simple field in the table. This removes the issue with duplicate ID's, while still being able to differentiate what type they are. You can typically leave fields blank in a database, so you wouldn't have to worry about what's filled in for tasks that don't have particular fields associated with them, just verify all fields prior to mutating the database.
If you're hellbent on keeping three separate tables you can hold a global ID, which can be an intersection between all three tables. So this wouldn't be the primary key, just a global ID, and you can key them up by that. Not entirely sure where you'd keep it to persist over power cycles unless you just make a 4th table with one row and store it in there. Or just throw it in the program's data somewhere.
The reason you can define things in the XML is he XML is compiled into the R class at compile time...though everything in there *should* have a corresponding methodology to get it done programatically. Though if you're talking about the primary key, as far as I know that is always numerical. So the ideal world may not apply - BUT, that doesn't mean you can't create a field that stores a string id (which I wouldn't, because string comparisons take a lot of time, but whatevs).
Hope that helps you out some, I don't really touch databases and am very new to Android programming, just know what I know from absorbing info from others - but I know a pretty decent amount about programming in general and know Java pretty well so I can probably help you out the best I can in some respects.

Calculations At Lower Level?

Is there any way to force certain calculations to be done out of the VM? Basically I have algorithms (math) in a program that are slow as balls in Java and would really like if it went faster. I optimized it the best that's really possible, plus Java does some optimizations, but it's still way too slow.
Any way I can kick these calculations off to C land and get things done quicker? I mean my phone's not the fastest (1Ghz Hummingbird), but it should be pretty quick. The JVM is slowing it down by leaps and bounds.
Anybody know anything?
TIA

You can use the NDK to write C code.
Can you provide an example of your problems, though?

hrk said:
You can use the NDK to write C code.
Can you provide an example of your problems, though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, NDK looks like it is exactly what I'm looking for. Looks like the C aspect has to be kind of jammed in there, but I kind of need the performance, so I don't really mind.
As for an example, the program is an image manipulator, so there's many loops. While not a direct pull from my code, an example could be something like this:
Code:
int i, j;
int height = bmp.getHeight();
int width = bmp.getWidth();
int color = 0xFFFF0000;
int count = 0;
for (i = 0 ; i < width ; ++i) {
for (j = 0 ; j < height ; ++j) {
bmp.setPixel(i, j, color);
switch(count % 3) {
case 0:
color = 0xFF00FF00; break;
case 1:
color = 0xFF0000FF; break;
case 2:
color = 0xFFFF0000; break;
}
count++;
}
}
So I do still need access to things (the bitmap) up in Java land.
I see that NDK passes some environment stuff (a pointer to a JNIEnv struct/class, and a copy of a jobject come with each function call, aside from any additional parameters somebody wishes to use). Do you know what those are? I mean I get that one's a pointer to the Java native interface environment, and I'm assuming the object copy is a copy of the object called on it? And types in C land are prefixed with a 'j'?
Thanks for your time and help!

I haven't used JNI in the last... ten?... years, so my memory is a bit dusty there.
In JNI you don't use C-types, but those "J prefixed types" which internally handle all the compiler-platform-java specific differences (simple example: how big is a "long" on an ARM, ia32 and ia64 computer? A jlong has the same size on all of them).
I recommend you these two links: Java programming with JNI (IBM developer network) and Wikipedia: Java Native Interface. I'm not joking, Wikipedia has some basic examples and links to useful informations!
Having said that... can't you go for a different approach, like...
Code:
int[][] rawData = new int[bmp.getWidth(), bmp.getHeight()];
...
for (int i ...) {
for (int j ...) {
// color from switch
// ...
rawData[i][j] = color;
}
}
bmp.somehowSetRawDataInOneCall(rawData);
I don't know which image manipulating class you're using (and I don't know how specific your code was!), but I clearly remember using "mass"-setting methods in one of my projects to speed things up after trying myself your setColor(i, j, color) approach.

hrk said:
I haven't used JNI in the last... ten?... years, so my memory is a bit dusty there.
In JNI you don't use C-types, but those "J prefixed types" which internally handle all the compiler-platform-java specific differences (simple example: how big is a "long" on an ARM, ia32 and ia64 computer? A jlong has the same size on all of them).
I recommend you these two links: Java programming with JNI (IBM developer network) and Wikipedia: Java Native Interface. I'm not joking, Wikipedia has some basic examples and links to useful informations!
Having said that... can't you go for a different approach, like...
Code:
int[][] rawData = new int[bmp.getWidth(), bmp.getHeight()];
...
for (int i ...) {
for (int j ...) {
// color from switch
// ...
rawData[i][j] = color;
}
}
bmp.somehowSetRawDataInOneCall(rawData);
I don't know which image manipulating class you're using (and I don't know how specific your code was!), but I clearly remember using "mass"-setting methods in one of my projects to speed things up after trying myself your setColor(i, j, color) approach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, using a raw buffer will definitely alleviate some of the overhead simply by removing function calls from the task loop. I'm using the Bitmap class, it has a setPixel method. I'm sure there's a way to dump a new buffer in there. That would definitely speed things up.
Good to know the types are standard sizes, unlike C/C++.
I'll look into the links above, and yes, I trust Wikipedia for all things factual. Not like I'm looking up political stuff there, math and CS is pretty set in stone.
That being said, while it will definitely remove some of the overhead to modify a primitive data structure, that was a fairly simplistic example. The problem is that some of the filters do multiple passes, multiple filter applications, and are in general more complex. I don't believe Java will prove quick enough.
I'll give it a whirl, though, I'll see what happens, maybe I can get some times. I'll post back at some point (few days) when I get time to test it (too busy atm).
Thanks for your time, I'll get back to ya.

[Q] Measure time to access hardware

Hello!
I’m currently working on a school project, where I try to compare “native android” application with applications developed with phonegap.
Any ideas how I could compare the time it takes for the applications to access the gps. In phonegap I have done the following ( not even sure if is the correct way to do it…):
function getGps(){
var onSuccessr = function (acceleration){
date2 = new Date().getTime();
alert(“time:” (date2 – date1));
}
function onErrorr() {
alert('onError!');
}
date1= new Date().getTime();
navigator.accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration(onSuccessr, onErrorr);
}
How to do something similar in “native android?

vaern said:
Hello!
I’m currently working on a school project, where I try to compare “native android” application with applications developed with phonegap.
Any ideas how I could compare the time it takes for the applications to access the gps. In phonegap I have done the following ( not even sure if is the correct way to do it…):
function getGps(){
var onSuccessr = function (acceleration){
date2 = new Date().getTime();
alert(“time:” (date2 – date1));
}
function onErrorr() {
alert('onError!');
}
date1= new Date().getTime();
navigator.accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration(onSuccessr, onErrorr);
}
How to do something similar in “native android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what language phonegap is using, but from what I see you access the accelerometer and not the gps...
To measure the time between two events, just save the System.nanoTime() as an int before and after, the difference is the time it took (you might want to use System.currentTimeMillis() instead.
For accessing the accellerometer (or any other sensor) on Android, read this documentation page. Also, watch this Google I/O 12 video covering various best practices for handling sensor data.

Thanks for the reply!
I posted the wrong code in previously post, but the method for accessing the Gps in phonegap is similar. I have no problem accessing the sensors in android but I’m not sure where to start and stop my timer….
Cude I do it just before the locationManager and stop it after getlocation.latitude ? or is it some strange asynchrony method?
public void gps(){
LocationManager lm = (LocationManager)getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
Location location = lm.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);
double longitude = location.getLongitude();
double latitude = location.getLatitude();
out.setText("lat" + latitude);
//
}