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mmoroz
14th December 2007, 11:12 AM
Does the following look feasible, if I can write decent C++/Perl code, but have no experience with Windows Mobile? Any suggestions/comments?

I am thinking of writing a today screen plugin that would connect to one of the established RSS readers (Newsbreak or Egress, most likely). More precisely, it would just poll the folder where the reader stores the feeds, so there won't be any direct communication between the plugin and the RSS reader.

The plugin would be used on HTC Kaiser (= HTC TyTN II = AT&T Tilt), but would presumably work on any Windows Mobile 5/6 device.

The plugin would show a desired number of unread items, starting with the most recent, and would allow scrolling directly on the today screen to see all unread items.

Each item would take 1 line, and would display just the title (the characters that don't fit in the single line would be simply cut).

If any item is clicked, it would open the RSS reader (and hopefully show that item in the expanded view right away, assuming the reader can be launched with a parameter indicating the specific item). If the reader is already open, I'll try to detect that and switch focus to it (and again try to show the clicked item, although in this case I'm less likely to succeed).

By the way, this is precisely what the plugin from Spb Insight does; unfortunately it only works with Spb Insight reader (of course), and that reader for some ungodly reason cannot auto-refresh the feeds (and also the last update's a year old).

It goes without saying that if I succeed in writing something that works, I'll share it for free.

eddythepeddy
14th December 2007, 11:40 AM
Good idea! I have been using Spb Insight for a while, but I agree with your comment so I removed it again. For me the most important requirements would be:

- 1 item per line (just title of item as you already said)
- Option to define how many lines are showed on today screen
- Show last update time in title row
- (little) button to start manual update on today screen
- Option to schedule updates (duh...)
- Import of OPML-files
- Option to only show items that arrived in last x hours


The last one is important for me; as far as I know no rss today plugin does this. I just want to see recent items (last hour) on my todayscreen; items that are more than ~2 hours old are irrelevant since I most likely already read/heard about them on a different platform (TV/radio/internet).

Hope you'll succeed in making something like this! Of course I would be more than happy to assist in alpha/beta testing...

E

mmoroz
15th December 2007, 02:02 AM
Well, since I suppose a direct API to any commercial reader doesn't exist, I'm somewhat limited as to what I can do.

The thing I'm trying to write is just the today screen plugin, and the RSS reader will be just the unmodified commercial reader that I choose.

see comments in bold below


- 1 item per line (just title of item as you already said)
of course
- Option to define how many lines are showed on today screen
of course
- Show last update time in title row
only if this info can be grabbed from one of the files created by the reader
- (little) button to start manual update on today screen
frankly i doubt if this is something I can force the reader to do
- Option to schedule updates (duh...)
I think this can be done from inside the reader software
- Import of OPML-files
can certainly be done from inside the reader
- Option to only show items that arrived in last x hours
should be doable, since i assume the reader stores the arrival time information in some format i can read (indeed, my whole plugin idea depends on that)

levenum
26th December 2007, 09:52 PM
If you need a starting point for writing a today plugin you should read this article (http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/5461a.aspx#100).

Also the Reg display (link in my signature) is basically a skeleton plugin that does nothing other than display a line from registry.

You can use it to see how a plugin is structured and even save your self rewriting some standard lines of code. (There is no license to hamper what you can do with the final result).