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Developer Challenge: S60 Menu Restore

By The Guru on August 25, 2008

One of my favorite things about S60 is the community that’s grown up around this platform. While there are a number of great commercial developers such as SbSh with Papyrus (renamed to just Calendar?), Paragon, SymbianGuru (no relation), and others, there is also a thriving bunch of independent developers. These guys normally offer their applications as either freeware or donationware, and include the likes of Sittiphol, Samir, and TongRen.

I recently hard-reset my N95-3, and received my E90 back from a friend who was borrowing it for a play. I used TongRen’s *excellent* AutoSisInstaller to get my applications back without hassle, but I’m still left with the annoyance of having to move things around and reorganize my menu and folders how I like them (which I showed you earlier here). I’m convinced there’s a better way to do this.

Presenting, the Symbian-Guru Developer Challenge. I want an S60 Menu Restore application.  Here’s what the application needs to do: I want to be able to set a single S60 handset up as *I* wish. Folders renamed, moved around, etc. Once that’s done, I should be able to run this application, and save this menu layout somehow. I can then export this file to store on my memory card or wherever else I wish. When I get a new phone, I could install all of my applications, and then run S60 Menu Restore, and have all of my folders and applications restored to the organization I had on my previous phone.

Obviously, specifically when moving between Eseries and Nseries, there will be apps that exist on one, and not the other. These unmatched applications should be dropped into a specified folder (in my case, I would prefer the ‘Applications’) so that I can put them where I want. That’s really it.

Obviously the developer is free to name the application whatever he/she wants, and can offer it to the public as freeware, donationware, or commercially, as he/she sees fit. The application will be featured prominently on Symbian-Guru, however, and I can promise I’ll make heavy use of it. The first developer to successfully deliver such an application wins. To be considered ‘successful’, it will need to perform the functions described above, and I will test between 2 S60 3rd Edition handsets (likely my N95-3 as the starting one, but clearly this should be able to use any S60 3rd Edition handset as the ‘original’).

So, what say you? Who’s up to the challenge?

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The Guru

The Guru, aka Ricky Cadden, started Symbian-Guru.com in November 2006, out of his excitement for the S60 3rd Edition version of Symella. The Guru has used Symbian devices since the Nokia 6620, and is known for his perspective as a power user. You can follow The Guru on Twitter at @Rcadden

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  • http://tumblolly.tumblr.com/ Olly

    holy crap how long have we been bitching about this? This should be a function of of suite itself, but brilliant move calling for some good third party dev work!

  • http://tumblolly.tumblr.com Olly

    holy crap how long have we been bitching about this? This should be a function of of suite itself, but brilliant move calling for some good third party dev work!

  • unrealsym

    A simple application could be made for that but it would require the AllFiles capability. Anyway if you have a filemanager with that capability (hacked phone seems the best solution) just copy C:Private101F4CD2Applications.dat to your new phone and restart.

  • unrealsym

    A simple application could be made for that but it would require the AllFiles capability. Anyway if you have a filemanager with that capability (hacked phone seems the best solution) just copy C:\Private\101F4CD2\Applications.dat to your new phone and restart.

  • http://www.worldofphones.net adityasinghvi

    Quite an interesting wish. I never thought of this kind of application that would allow one to do such a thing.
    The S60 is a good operating system, so good that you think why do you even need a laptop! Its things like these that remind me how important and useful a laptop is.

    Its time S60 moved up, from being just a phone OS to a proper OS on a phone!

  • http://www.adityasphones.wordpress.com Aditya Singhvi

    Quite an interesting wish. I never thought of this kind of application that would allow one to do such a thing.
    The S60 is a good operating system, so good that you think why do you even need a laptop! Its things like these that remind me how important and useful a laptop is.

    Its time S60 moved up, from being just a phone OS to a proper OS on a phone!

  • Cheung Yuen Wong

    There is already an application that does this.
    In fact christexaport posted it one of your previous posts “which I showed you earlier here”

    I’ve tested it a bit more and can confirm that it works.
    The application name is MenuEditor and is based on Python.
    However it requires that your phone is hacked besides there is one slight problem.

    The directory that unrealsym mentioned is also true for this application as it contains the appshelldata.xml file that christexaport talked about in your previous post.

    (Woohoo, another trick / hack I’ve learned today. Finally finding that little file)

  • Cheung Yuen Wong

    There is already an application that does this.
    In fact christexaport posted it one of your previous posts “which I showed you earlier here”

    I’ve tested it a bit more and can confirm that it works.
    The application name is MenuEditor and is based on Python.
    However it requires that your phone is hacked besides there is one slight problem.

    The directory that unrealsym mentioned is also true for this application as it contains the appshelldata.xml file that christexaport talked about in your previous post.

    (Woohoo, another trick / hack I’ve learned today. Finally finding that little file)

  • http://my.opera.com/Furie Furie

    That’s one of my wishes for the operating system on s60.com, and something that would make things a lot easier for me. I regularly reset my handset to preserve device speed, and also change between two every week. Something like this would aid me immensely, and I’d recommend it to anyone I could.

  • http://my.opera.com/Furie Furie

    That’s one of my wishes for the operating system on s60.com, and something that would make things a lot easier for me. I regularly reset my handset to preserve device speed, and also change between two every week. Something like this would aid me immensely, and I’d recommend it to anyone I could.

  • http://symbian-freak.com/ wook

    Iv done that app long ago, it is somewhere in symbian-freak.com/forum in moding section threat about moding icons…

    only it needs capsoff to be runed, but i can passby that and make it standard devcert or maybe selfsigned caps

  • http://symbian-freak.com wook

    Iv done that app long ago, it is somewhere in symbian-freak.com/forum in moding section threat about moding icons…

    only it needs capsoff to be runed, but i can passby that and make it standard devcert or maybe selfsigned caps

  • http://www.symbian-freak.com/ christexaport

    ADITYA! I can’t believe you remember that! Yes, the menu’s layout is based on the appshelldata.xml file. If you save this, and reinstall your apps, and restore the appshelldata.xml file, your layout is restored. I’ve been busy lately, but if you contact fellow Symbian-Freak member wook, an excellent young Python developer from the Bosnia/Serbia/Croatia region, I’m sure he could whip up a menu restore solution, especially for such a well known member of the community. Someone request wook get on it at my request if he’s not busy. He loves to create solutions, and is excellent.

  • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

    ADITYA! I can’t believe you remember that! Yes, the menu’s layout is based on the appshelldata.xml file. If you save this, and reinstall your apps, and restore the appshelldata.xml file, your layout is restored. I’ve been busy lately, but if you contact fellow Symbian-Freak member wook, an excellent young Python developer from the Bosnia/Serbia/Croatia region, I’m sure he could whip up a menu restore solution, especially for such a well known member of the community. Someone request wook get on it at my request if he’s not busy. He loves to create solutions, and is excellent.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com/ The Guru

    Thanks for chiming in, guys. My concern, though, is how well this works between different handsets. I.e. I would like to use my N95-3 as the ‘control’, and be able to restore on any of my other handsets, such as the N82, E71, or E90.

    I’ll try to give it a run over the next few days, though also the need to have the other hacking completed is a bit of a barrier. I’m thinking this would be a great solution for consumers who might not be too into the hacking business (regardless of the ease/safety involved).

    For instance, over the weekend, I attempted to move my wife from her N81 8GB to the N82, so she could use Sportstracker on it. She was frustrated cause it wasn’t setup how she wanted, and I didn’t really feel like spending the time to match it to her old phone at the time.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com The Guru

    Thanks for chiming in, guys. My concern, though, is how well this works between different handsets. I.e. I would like to use my N95-3 as the ‘control’, and be able to restore on any of my other handsets, such as the N82, E71, or E90.

    I’ll try to give it a run over the next few days, though also the need to have the other hacking completed is a bit of a barrier. I’m thinking this would be a great solution for consumers who might not be too into the hacking business (regardless of the ease/safety involved).

    For instance, over the weekend, I attempted to move my wife from her N81 8GB to the N82, so she could use Sportstracker on it. She was frustrated cause it wasn’t setup how she wanted, and I didn’t really feel like spending the time to match it to her old phone at the time.

  • http://symbian-freak.com/ wook

    Guru, i first need to do stg abt maping drives, but theoretical:
    if i manage to find installation uid of menu2.exe i will be able to pack my app wht normal caps and tht would be gr8. so my app would have same uid and pack will be as pu, so it will be installable. Bt i have no skills with 9.1 so it is all for 9.2 apps:D bt ill refunc this ;)

  • http://symbian-freak.com wook

    Guru, i first need to do stg abt maping drives, but theoretical:
    if i manage to find installation uid of menu2.exe i will be able to pack my app wht normal caps and tht would be gr8. so my app would have same uid and pack will be as pu, so it will be installable. Bt i have no skills with 9.1 so it is all for 9.2 apps:D bt ill refunc this ;)

  • Mark Laris

    I’ll add my two cents and say I’d love to have such an application. I understand that there are applications that will perform this function on hacked phones but that’s a hassel, especially if you’re only trailing a phone for a couple of weeks. I’d actually pay for such an application!

  • Mark Laris

    I’ll add my two cents and say I’d love to have such an application. I understand that there are applications that will perform this function on hacked phones but that’s a hassel, especially if you’re only trailing a phone for a couple of weeks. I’d actually pay for such an application!

  • http://symbian-freak.com/ wook

    my apps is freeware, and i belive that they will stay that way,
    worce case donationware:D
    dam iv packed file wht normal caps and menu uid as sa and pu, bt seems like i cant install it…wierd, have to investigate this

  • http://symbian-freak.com wook

    my apps is freeware, and i belive that they will stay that way,
    worce case donationware:D
    dam iv packed file wht normal caps and menu uid as sa and pu, bt seems like i cant install it…wierd, have to investigate this

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