Hey guys, Just going from the mobile links page etc. People enjoy having things automated for them.

 If anyone has any need for cab files or apps, let me know, if its a resonable request i could knock something up for you. Within reason of course, but if you want a cab to say, add your favorites and configure all the activesync options you use (except for password) and your favorite color scheme, start menu links etc. 

Let me know,  what I'll do is, make the cab and in the post with the cab include a quick tutorial on the creation and what had done, and the source.

To people that know how to do this stuff, i know you know its pretty basic, but i think its important, particularly since we have our sales guys on here to realise the full potential of even the simplest of apps.

So anything you guys want automated, let me know and i can do a quick creation and write up for you! 

David - this is great - thank you so much - I would love to see the tutorial and know how to do this. Maybe you could post a tutorial of a fairly simple one.

It's so great to have you as part of this forum.

 No worries Laura.

Writing up a simple now.  stay tuned.  10 mins. 

I'll be here - thanks.

 So, we start with what we want to accomplish,  deploy a favorite to the device so we don't need to add it every time,
I'm using news.com.au in this example as its easy to type!

First of all, windows mobile can utilise CPF or cab provisioning format,  this is an xml based file that uses "CSP" - or, configuration service providers.
The most commonly used one of these is the "Registry" CSP.  we will be using the "browserfavorite" CSP in this example,
We start with the source: this text in bold is what will be inside our text file. Just make a new notepad doco and enter this in it:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<wap-provisioningdoc>
<characteristic type="BrowserFavorite">
   <characteristic type="News AUS">
         <parm name="URL" value="http://www.news.com.au"/>
   </characteristic>
</characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

We open the section by saying that its a provisioning doc. with the wap-provisioningdoc tag.
Then the sub entry, we specify the CSP we are using, "Browserfavorite"
This tells the device we are about to access the browser favorite section.
The next type is the title, which ...  gives it a title, and then we specify the parameter, which is the "URL" parameter, whos value is "http://www.news.com.au"

We put this into a file called "_setup.xml"  The naming is key here, make sure it is exactly that. _ and all

Then we run makecab. makecab should be available on base installs of 2000 and XP, but have a look around if its not available to you.

From a command window we enter-

MakeCAB.exe /D COMPRESS=OFF _setup.xml news.cab

This outputs "news.cab" which, as you guessed, we copy to the device and then run.

This provisions our favorite for news.com.au and is now accessible from the favorites menu.

 and... now the embarrasing bit. Anyone know where i can host this cab, or does anyone know how i attach it to the post. 

I'm remote at the moment and don't have upload access to my ftp.  

Thanks David - Bill or Andrea should be able to tell us the best way of uploading this - I shall ask them.

I shall try this out and let you know how I go.

 for now, i found a quick upload site you can grab the cab here - http://www.mediafire.com/?kemcd3oxium

I've never used this place before, so i'm not sure on how it works, but i uploaded it and it gave me a link which i verified works. Not sure how long it will be available.  but surely long enough for you to grab it Laura.  

No - I don't think that works - it just hung when I went to web site.

Why not just keep it posted here for now as you have it?

So I am running Vista and the makecab command returns : Invalid boolean value : OFF_SETUP.xml

Laura, you're prolly missing a space between OFF and _setup.xml.

Kinda tough to see in the original command, so easy to miss it.

Okay, .cab team, we've evolved our site permissions strategy slightly to give more people permission to upload files to the site. If you have the MVP or "Mobile Industry Pro" icon by your name, you should now have the ability to post files directly within your posts.

Oh, and thanks to the superstars in this thread for being brilliant and going the extra mile for us!

B 

Chris Rue:

Laura, you're prolly missing a space between OFF and _setup.xml.

Thanks Chris - good catch.

Now it cannot find that file - where should it be saved to?

For stuff like this, my preference is to explicitly define the path of the files I'm using. I also tend to use filepaths that don't exceed 8.3 naming anywhere in the path.

For example, you could make a folder called "cabs" at the root of your C: drive and place the _setup.xml file in there.

Then you would change the original command from davidc as follows:

MakeCAB.exe /D COMPRESS=OFF c:\cabs\_setup.xml c:\cabs\news.cab

FYI: Just tested, and it works a treat.

Thanks Chris - tried this - still doesn't find the file - maybe it's different on Vista?