[XAP + Source] Advanced Explorer [Version 1.4]

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reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
Hello XDA Community,

@DEVELOPERS: I need some developers with other devices to make things (at least parts of advanced explorer) work on other devices (i have a htd hd7). !Programming & Testing!
Please PM me


To bring all together what xda achieved for WP7, i wrote a helper app for the following tasks,
- File management
- Registry management
- Copy files from desktop to phone
- Copy files from phone to desktop
- Set max unsigned apps
- Provision any given XML

If you post in this thread how any of those features could be implemented on other devices, i will maybe implement them. You can always send me a modified version and i will maybe update this post with the new version!

Usage/(Release-)Notes on the website!

If you encounter any errors, or wanna give some feedback => just leave a post here or use the idea page or write me an email (go to contact on the homepage)!

I included the source code, so that anybody can modify it at will but do not use anything here for commercial purposes (contact me first).

Homepage for this project:
http://sites.google.com/site/yaafdevelopers/projects/advanced-explorer-for-wp7

You can give feedback / bugreports:
http://advancedexplorerwp7.codeplex.com/
(Go to Discussion or Issue Tracker)

You will find the latest version and the Release-Notes there. I will continue to watch this thread!

Because some people asked how to support/donate me:

I appreciate every donation! Thank you!

reddragon
 
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whetstone

Member
Jun 9, 2009
15
4
He that is great stff... i am glad you added the source i was thinking about how this could work having had a little peek at the code in the samples that Ms provided.

wings over a thanks too
 

eternalemb

Senior Member
May 3, 2010
273
40
Pasadena, CA
Question...If you send a file, where does the device dump it into the computer? I was getting an error sending the file to my computer at first, but then I configured correctly and it sends fine, but I don't know where it is...

Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Upload/Download Root folders. Good work on this app man. Pretty nifty. Uploaded a .doc from my laptop to the phone, copy/pasted it into My Docs and it appeared and opened on MS Office Word perfectly.
 
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reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
Re: can't send from \windows

Hey,

like i said in my first post i brought together what was achieved...
Im using the HTC app COM dll files for file system access. Actually you can send files from \windows but not all. (in usage or no access)...

If somebody knows a better way, or something for other devices => just implement and send it, or post here!

The problem: Now it works on my device, so I can do what i wanted to do (coping .pdf and other stuff on the wp7) I have not the time to search & wait for other devices.
I tried to code it very generic and emulated the System.IO namespace, so everybody can add his results or replace it with better results.
Just contact me and I will check the code and update the first post.

reddragon93
 
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reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
Question...If you send a file, where does the device dump it into the computer? I was getting an error sending the file to my computer at first, but then I configured correctly and it sends fine, but I don't know where it is...

Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Upload/Download Root folders. Good work on this app man. Pretty nifty. Uploaded a .doc from my laptop to the phone, copy/pasted it into My Docs and it appeared and opened on MS Office Word perfectly.

actually you can double tab any file and it should open from any folder.
To get PDF working I copy the file to the PDF reader (most likely the app will crash if Adobe reader is not installed), but you will not see anything as PDF reader just pops up with the file
Just like always contact me if there are file types missing!
 

gianlucarugby

Member
Dec 6, 2010
37
0
Rome
hi reddragon93, thank you for your work, i've an lg optimus 7, is there an eta for explorer for other device?
i need it!!!
thank you so much!
 

reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
hi reddragon93, thank you for your work, i've an lg optimus 7, is there an eta for explorer for other device?
i need it!!!
thank you so much!

I really can understand you because I needed this for myself (that's why I coded it in the first place)

But the answer is NO, because we have to wait until somebody finds a way to get access on other devices and shares the info (i will observe this thread for new infos).

And by the way you should not ask for ETA in developer forum (forum rules), but it's OK for me. Hope you will be the only one after my answer ;)
I answered this question in my first post:
"If you post in this thread how any of those features could be implemented on other devices, i will maybe implement them"

Hope I answered your question.

reddragon
 
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GoodDayToDie

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 20, 2011
6,066
2,933
Seattle
EDIT: I can't figure out how to mark a post as useful yet, so let me just say THANK YOU!!!

Awesome app. However, there are a few things that would be nice in terms of file types:

Any chance of getting support for loading .mobi files (Kindle ebooks)? I'd love to be able to sideload books that aren't in the Amazon store.

Currently, .log files won't open. Copy/renaming them to .txt should work, or a simple text reader/editor could be built-in.

Possible bug: the "Max unsigned apps" field in Settings is showing "Not set - (can't read from registry)" Setting it from within the app seems to work, though (and be remembered).
Feature request: ability to search the registry
Small change request: pressing Back on an Exception could do the same as OK (rather than exiting).

Overally, much thanks for an awesome tool!
 
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reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
Thanks for feedback

EDIT: I can't figure out how to mark a post as useful yet, so let me just say THANK YOU!!!

Awesome app. However, there are a few things that would be nice in terms of file types:

Any chance of getting support for loading .mobi files (Kindle ebooks)? I'd love to be able to sideload books that aren't in the Amazon store.

Currently, .log files won't open. Copy/renaming them to .txt should work, or a simple text reader/editor could be built-in.

Possible bug: the "Max unsigned apps" field in Settings is showing "Not set - (can't read from registry)" Setting it from within the app seems to work, though (and be remembered).
Feature request: ability to search the registry
Small change request: pressing Back on an Exception could do the same as OK (rather than exiting).

Overally, much thanks for an awesome tool!

Thanks for your feedback!

(1) I really needed the app for myself (real pdf support) so... The Thanks Button is only visible with 5+ Posts

(2) i will pm you maybe if i find some spare time. This is most likely pretty simple to implement. Can you edit your (or create a new) post and describe what happens if you double tab a kindle book with the current version?

(3) yeah i saw this before but didn't thought it is important enough to implement. I don't have the time for the own Editor (you have to handle really big files for example) but i can do the renaming thing behind the scenes (remember renaming = copy+delete until a better solution is found).

(4) on first app start i have really no solution in determining how the value is set (no access on this key). So my solution was to set this text ("Not set - (can't read from registry)" until you set a value => then i save this value local to the app, and set it every time the app starts (It gets reset every time i connect the device to the PC anyway)

(5) "search the registry": I thought on this one... But this will not be of much use as we have not really much read access

NOTE: The Problem with the registry is that we have FULL WRITE access trough the provxml method but not very much READ access (HTC COM .dll)

(6) really? I'm satisfied with the current behavior. Without searching I don't know if this is a small change maybe it is, maybe not. At least it looks like one but that doesn't mean anything ;)

reddragon
 

GoodDayToDie

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 20, 2011
6,066
2,933
Seattle
Thanks for the response, reddragon. I'm at work right now, so the .mobi thing will have to wait. It's a very common request among WP7 users around here, though.

I've found that selecting the Edit context item will open any file in Word, which is typically sufficient for viewing and even editing purposes! True plain text files open fine regardless of extension, and even binary files will usually have enough ASCII in them to determine useful info. You can also send any file (via email) from Word, if you want to email an attachment rather than just transfer to a PC.

Unfortunately, I've found that XML files just... don't work. Double-clicking them opens IE, which complains that it can't handle that file type. Selecting Edit on them looks like it's opening some Office app, but the app then closes and drops back into Advanced Explorer (no error). This is the currently problematic filetype, as a *lot* of data is stored in XML.

The "Registry Editor" app already provides registry search (and despite the security restrictions on read it *mostly* works) but without system copy-paste it's tricky moving data between apps. I enjoy being able to pan between the FS and registry... hell, I want a Windows (desktop) app that does this, now.

It looks like there's FS search (an option on the command bar, and a text box that appears) but I can't get it to do anything. Pressing Enter has no effect, tapping either Refresh or Search again just reloads the page. Am I using this right? It would be great to be able to either scroll long folders (\Windows) or find a filename behind a bunch of GUIDs.

Some files show as "0 b" size, even though they almost certainly aren't. Is that just because some program has an exclusive lock on them and their size can't be read in that state?

Any chance of the ability to create folders in the GUI (I think I see how to do it with provxml files, but that's not exactly convenient)?

Thanks for the explanations on the registry. I was wondering how you could write to locations that you can't read from... Also, I didn't know the sideload limit resets itself. That's something I'll have to watch out for, as I'm near the nominal sideload limit already. Hmm... maybe I should look into writing an app that lets the phone install a .XAP directly, to minimize the amount of PC connecting that's needed.

Sorry, I know that's a lot of comments and questions. If it helps, I showed this to a couple of other HD7 owners today, and the immediate response of both of them was "I've got to get that!" This is a great app, super-convenient and good for making the occasional Samsung Focus owner jealous ;-D

Actually, I'm a developer myself (mostly C/C++, but I know C#). I'll crack a look at the source when I get a chance (probably this weekend) but would you be interested in a patch if there's something I can improve? One thing I might add is an optional "Did you mean that?" prompt on the Back button, as it's a little too easy to hit and knock you clear out of the app (optional of course, as I understand some people don't have such problems).

Thanks again!
 

reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
Some Answers

Thanks for the response, reddragon. I'm at work right now, so the .mobi thing will have to wait. It's a very common request among WP7 users around here, though.

Like I said: I will pm you most likely, today or this weekend.

I've found that selecting the Edit context item will open any file in Word, which is typically sufficient for viewing and even editing purposes! True plain text files open fine regardless of extension, and even binary files will usually have enough ASCII in them to determine useful info. You can also send any file (via email) from Word, if you want to email an attachment rather than just transfer to a PC.

Unfortunately, I've found that XML files just... don't work. Double-clicking them opens IE, which complains that it can't handle that file type. Selecting Edit on them looks like it's opening some Office app, but the app then closes and drops back into Advanced Explorer (no error). This is the currently problematic filetype, as a *lot* of data is stored in XML.

Yeah the best way to handle the edit mode would be an editor inside the app, but that's quite some work i guess... So if somebody is willing to write such a control just contact me!
But the current workaround is quite simple: Upload your file, edit it with the powerful editors you know and send it back to the phone...
In fact what i did was send the complete windows/applications folder and all files that where successfully send can be edited (on the others you have no access anyway).

The "Registry Editor" app already provides registry search (and despite the security restrictions on read it *mostly* works) but without system copy-paste it's tricky moving data between apps. I enjoy being able to pan between the FS and registry... hell, I want a Windows (desktop) app that does this, now.

Well I think it's not that difficult to implement a search for registry. It's funny to say that all the time but I thought on this one too and if you look on the source code you will see that i positioned the search/filter text box out of the explorer pivot to use it for registry search or other purposes. If you find it really that useful with the current read restrictions... yeah I should just implement it...

It looks like there's FS search (an option on the command bar, and a text box that appears) but I can't get it to do anything. Pressing Enter has no effect, tapping either Refresh or Search again just reloads the page. Am I using this right? It would be great to be able to either scroll long folders (\Windows) or find a filename behind a bunch of GUIDs.

In fact this is a filter function so that large folders can be loaded much faster. Just enter "a*" and make the keyboard disappear (tab anywhere else) and you see only the files/folders starting with "a". I don't know why "enter" on keyboard doesn't do anything, I will look into this. I should update the usage in my first post, thanks.

Some files show as "0 b" size, even though they almost certainly aren't. Is that just because some program has an exclusive lock on them and their size can't be read in that state?

yep.
From the htc COM call i get 0 bytes....

Any chance of the ability to create folders in the GUI (I think I see how to do it with provxml files, but that's not exactly convenient)?

Hehe, i thought on this one too as it is already implemented (just create a folder in UploadRoot drop a file and start downloading it to the phone => the folder gets created). I will look into this.

Can you (or anybody) provide me with an example on how to rename a folder via provxml. And in Yaaf.WP7.NativeAccess.IO.File i have in the "Move" method some code commentated. Can somebody please un-comment, debug and tell me why the hell this provision-xml is invalid / not working, thanks.
(ProvisionXml is completely new to me as this is my first smartphone)

Thanks for the explanations on the registry. I was wondering how you could write to locations that you can't read from... Also, I didn't know the sideload limit resets itself. That's something I'll have to watch out for, as I'm near the nominal sideload limit already. Hmm... maybe I should look into writing an app that lets the phone install a .XAP directly, to minimize the amount of PC connecting that's needed.

I didn't look into that but i think it is not enough to simply create the guid folder and drop content there... Anyway you can use the "NativeAccess" Projekt to get all the access i used in the Explorer. But you have to create links from your main projekt to the COM-dlls so they get included into the xap file.

Sorry, I know that's a lot of comments and questions. If it helps, I showed this to a couple of other HD7 owners today, and the immediate response of both of them was "I've got to get that!" This is a great app, super-convenient and good for making the occasional Samsung Focus owner jealous ;-D

That's what keeping me up i guess ;)

Actually, I'm a developer myself (mostly C/C++, but I know C#). I'll crack a look at the source when I get a chance (probably this weekend) but would you be interested in a patch if there's something I can improve? One thing I might add is an optional "Did you mean that?" prompt on the Back button, as it's a little too easy to hit and knock you clear out of the app (optional of course, as I understand some people don't have such problems).

I'm always interested in any patch especially support for other devices (I have a htc so I can't debug stuff for other devices :/ )
Yeah there could be an option for that. It's pretty easy to implement so... But i don't have this problem so i didn't realised that one.


Thank you for your feedback ;)

does anyone know the latest ETA on compatibility for samsung devices?

Well I answered this on the first page of the thread already, thanks.

EDIT: I updated the program and my first post and implemented some of your feature requests

reddragon
 
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Elerador

Member
Jan 13, 2011
43
5
Have you used the forum-search? You'll find a post which describes you how to get these books to your phone (it's by me). I can't give you the link because I send this from my HD7.
 
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diboze

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2009
316
14
really great app. Also like the pc<->phone feature :D
I use it now very often, so I think it needs:
-2 Filebrowser Tabs
-or an option to "bookmark" certain folders
 

reddragon93

Member
Jan 14, 2011
42
41
really great app. Also like the pc<->phone feature :D
I use it now very often, so I think it needs:
-2 Filebrowser Tabs
-or an option to "bookmark" certain folders

I talked to other people, at first this feature looks awesome, but after some time you would see that you don't use 2 tabs!
The bookmarking thing is a good idea...

Have you used the forum-search? You'll find a post which describes you how to get these books to your phone (it's by me). I can't give you the link because I send this from my HD7.

I'm looking into amazon kindle... what i can do for sure is copy the file into the kindle folder and start amazon kindle...
But i forgot how to start a program via app-guid. I remember that i saw an COM.dll which can do that.


i know that link but i don't see how you can move folders (if it is possible)

reddragon
 
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GoodDayToDie

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 20, 2011
6,066
2,933
Seattle
Love the update! Thanks for cluing me in on the workings of the filter; I wasn't trying wildcards and it therefore looked like it was always empty.

That said, a bug report (reproed on the older version too):
Registry manual mode can crash with a System.ArgumentException "Invalid fullpath".

Start Advanced Explorer
Pan to Registry
Tap "edit manual"
Observe exception
App crashes on hitting OK
 

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  • 26
    Hello XDA Community,

    @DEVELOPERS: I need some developers with other devices to make things (at least parts of advanced explorer) work on other devices (i have a htd hd7). !Programming & Testing!
    Please PM me


    To bring all together what xda achieved for WP7, i wrote a helper app for the following tasks,
    - File management
    - Registry management
    - Copy files from desktop to phone
    - Copy files from phone to desktop
    - Set max unsigned apps
    - Provision any given XML

    If you post in this thread how any of those features could be implemented on other devices, i will maybe implement them. You can always send me a modified version and i will maybe update this post with the new version!

    Usage/(Release-)Notes on the website!

    If you encounter any errors, or wanna give some feedback => just leave a post here or use the idea page or write me an email (go to contact on the homepage)!

    I included the source code, so that anybody can modify it at will but do not use anything here for commercial purposes (contact me first).

    Homepage for this project:
    http://sites.google.com/site/yaafdevelopers/projects/advanced-explorer-for-wp7

    You can give feedback / bugreports:
    http://advancedexplorerwp7.codeplex.com/
    (Go to Discussion or Issue Tracker)

    You will find the latest version and the Release-Notes there. I will continue to watch this thread!

    Because some people asked how to support/donate me:

    I appreciate every donation! Thank you!

    reddragon
    2
    Version 1.3 Incomming

    hey,

    just want to announce that the next version of advanced explorer (1.3) will have the following changes/featues:

    - no more grafical bugs in dark theme (done)
    - now localised for german and france users, if you want your language added as well just contact and help translating! (all done, waiting for france translation)
    - more info in the info section (done)
    - made port/scheme/path/address - setting instead of Remote-Uri, you should only edit address (done)

    @Vintage144: I did send you a pm

    reddragon
    1
    Question...If you send a file, where does the device dump it into the computer? I was getting an error sending the file to my computer at first, but then I configured correctly and it sends fine, but I don't know where it is...

    Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Upload/Download Root folders. Good work on this app man. Pretty nifty. Uploaded a .doc from my laptop to the phone, copy/pasted it into My Docs and it appeared and opened on MS Office Word perfectly.
    1
    Re: can't send from \windows

    Hey,

    like i said in my first post i brought together what was achieved...
    Im using the HTC app COM dll files for file system access. Actually you can send files from \windows but not all. (in usage or no access)...

    If somebody knows a better way, or something for other devices => just implement and send it, or post here!

    The problem: Now it works on my device, so I can do what i wanted to do (coping .pdf and other stuff on the wp7) I have not the time to search & wait for other devices.
    I tried to code it very generic and emulated the System.IO namespace, so everybody can add his results or replace it with better results.
    Just contact me and I will check the code and update the first post.

    reddragon93
    1
    Feedback Test8 :

    Hi Reddragon93,

    Explorer :

    ---> I can see the "Windows" folder without to check "LimitedAccesfile"... Very good !!
    But if i want to create a dir (for example : \Windows\Application Data\Nouveau Dossier), i have an error (Erreur : This path is not accessible) !

    ---> I can't also download files in Windows folder... i have an error (Ignore Excpetion? ... Erreur : This path is not accessible) !

    ---> All of the files have "0b" size in Windows folder.

    Registrer :

    ---> Nothing new :D ... I can't change value key in registre !

    Take my logfile : ICI