Pocket SharpMT and Phone SharpMT: FAQ

Welcome to Pocket SharpMT

This is an application that was created out of user requests over anything else. I write a Blog of my own (RandyRants.com) and I try to get two or three new entries posted to it a week. I use MovableType (MT) - http://www.movabletype.org/ - to host my Blog, which provides a number of tools for posting new and editing exiting Blog entries. However, to use these tools, your PC needs to be online - because I find that I write the majority of my new Blog entries offline, I needed something new so I created SharpMT.

SharpMT is an offline Blog writer that was designed for use on a PC and has grown up a great deal over the course of 2003. From growing userbase of SharpMT, I had gotten a couple of requests for a Pocket PC version of SharpMT. I originally dismissed these out of turn because of a few reasons. One was that it would require a bit of porting from the original SharpMT to make a Pocket PC version - I never believed in just copy and pasting the code because what might work well on a PC might not work well on a smaller screened device. I also thought that it would be insane to try to type up a Blog entry on a Pocket PC, so I didn't give it much thought until recently. Give the recent rise of mobile devices with built-in cameras, wireless Internet access, and the interest in Mobile Blogging, this project suddenly made a lot more sense. I thought it would be cool to travel with a Pocket PC, snap some random pictures, jot down a note, and then send the post up to a MT server - it could be useful for the growing number of MoBlogging authors, as well as people that have fold-out keyboards for their Pocket PC's.

In the summer of 2006 Smartphone started to appear with thumbpads: phones that look like a Pocket PC but are running with the Smartphone software. To support these devices, it required a full blown port and redesign. Originally there were no plans to do this... after all, who would want to tap out a blog entry using a standard 12 button keypad?! But as hardware evolves, so much we all. That lead to this latest incarnation of SharpMT: Phone SharpMT. It was created for the Smartphone platform; Pocket SharpMT is still for the Pocket PC.

Now we've got a Pocket SharpMT and a Phone SharpMT: both will co-exist as they grow!

Product Features

Save drafts locally - save entries that you're working on to your local device
Easy posting - send any of your drafts to the server with one button click
Multiple categories per post - select more than one category for each draft published to the server
Standard tag support - add bold, italics, underline, and URL tags via menu (Pocket PC only)
Customizable tag support - change the tags generated for bold, underline, italics and two custom tags (Pocket PC only)
Integration with Contacts - insert Contact information into drafts
Sync-able categories list - pull an updated category list from your server at anytime
Sync-able text filters list - apply existing server based text filters for drafts
MT specific creation - use MT's extended fields, such as publishing status, categories, and excerpts
Upload Images - upload any of your local images to anywhere within your blog
Common Drafts format - share local drafts with the PC version of SharpMT
Platform specific design - interface design has been tweaked and taylored to target specific devices

Getting Started

Launch Pocket/Phone SharpMT, by selecting it's icon from the Programs menu. If there are any errors reported, please check the Troubleshooting section below
Set up your Blog's server settings by opening the Options dialog by tapping the "Options..." menu item
On the Options dialog, enter your web server's host name, CGI-BIN path, user name and password. This information can be gotten from your MT's administration pages
To refresh the list of available blogs, tap the Refresh button. Blogs that are available will appear in the blog list box; after you've selected a blog, tap OK to continue
From the main SharpMT window, click you can now download your categories (recommended for draft writing) and text filters
You can now create a new draft, save it locally and post it to your blog server

Troubleshooting

Q: I have a Treo 700w, T-Mobile MDA, HTC Wizard, or a smartphone with a touch screen. Which version do I use?

A: Safe bet is that it's a Pocket PC based phone. The keyword is touch screen: no Smartphone offers a touch screen at this time. If you try to install Pocket SharpMT and it fails, give Phone SharpMT a try.

Q: I have a Motorola Q, T-Mobile SDA, HTC Star Trek, or a smartphone without a touch screen. Which version do I use?

A: Safe bet is that it's a Smartphone device. The keyword is touch screen: all Smartphone don't have a touch screen right now. The Q is the most confusing in this area: it has a thumb keyboard like a Pocket PC would but it doesn't have a touch screen... it's a Smartphone. If you try to install Phone SharpMT and it fails, give Pocket SharpMT a try.
Q: I have a Nokia or LG phone! Which version do I use?

A: You have J2ME or BREW. I will not be bring SharpMT to these devices. Sorry!
Q: I clicked on the Pocket SharpMT icon and I'm told that I need a newer version of the .NET Compact Framework, but I have 1.0 installed. What newer version?
Q: I tried to run your application, but I'm getting a huge message box, with an error that tells me it can't find some DLL files. What's wrong?
Q: I installed SharpMT on my computer and when I start the program up it says it can't find MSCOREE.DLL.

A: Your Pocket PC has to have the 2.0 version of the .NET Compact Framework installed on it! You can get this from the Windows Mobile website. Windows Mobile 5.0 devices sometimes come with the Framework pre-installed, but not always.
Q: I'm trying to use Pocket SharpMT, but it keeps failing while trying to access my blog server. I'm certain that my host name, CGI-BIN path, user name and password are all correct - what's wrong?

A: If your blog server is hosted by an IIS (version 5.x) Server that's running MobileType 2.x, there is a know problem with one of the MT modules, but it is easily resolved. In the MT\ExtLib\XMLRPC\Transport directory, open the HTTP.pm file. Add the following line:
```
undef $ENV{SERVER_SOFTWARE};
```
before this line:
```
@XMLRPC::Transport::HTTP::CGI::ISA = qw(SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI);
```
and SharpMT should start be able to access the server. Windows Server 2003 does not exhibit this behavior.
Q: I keep setting the publishing status of my drafts to "Draft" yet when I upload them to my MT server, they show up as Publish - why is this happening?

A: This is by design, accoring to the 2.1 (and later) release of MT: In 2.1 we changed the behavior of the $publish flag. Previously, it was used to determine the post status. That was a bad idea. So now entries added through XML-RPC are always set to publish, *unless* the user has set "NoPublishMeansDraft 1" in mt.cfg, which enables the old behavior.
Q: I love using the Tracing Window, Preview mode, and Blog Links features in SharpMT - why don't I see them in Pocket SharpMT?

A: Long answer short: real estate, memory, speed, and functionality. Pocket SharpMT has been designed mostly with mobile blogging in mind. SharpMT was designed to be an offline authoring tool, taking advantage of a PC type device. Not all of the SharpMT features would fit nor did they make sense on the Pocket PC. If there's something from SharpMT that you'd like to see in Pocket SharpMT, drop me a line and I'll consider adding it - if I can!
Q: I heard that the Drafts from SharpMT can be brought to Pocket SharpMT and vice versa. How do I do this?

A: As of version 2 of SharpMT and Pocket SharpMT each draft is stored in its file; SharpMT drafts end in a SMT extension. Simply moving these files back and forth between your POcket PC and Desktop PC will move your drafts from device to desktop; it is as simple as that!
Q: I was a Pocket SharpMT 1.x user and I've since upgraded to 2.x - where are my drafts and do I need the old Pocket SharpMT directory?

A: All of your old drafts are actually still stored on the device in the blogDrafts.xml file that is located in \My Documents\Pocket SharpMT. If you need to convert older drafts to the new SharpMT format, bring the blogDrafts.xml file to a PC, run the converter utility that comes with SharpMT 2.x for the desktop, and copy the resulting SMT files back to the device. Otherwise, SharpMT 2 does not need this old directory.
Q: I have a [Windows Mobile 2003 device, Pocket PC Phone Edition device, Pocket PC 2002 device] - can I use Pocket SharpMT?

A: Any device that can run the 2.0 release of the .NET Compact Framework should be able to run Pocket SharpMT.
Q: Why is every image upload based off the Blog URL and why can I only upload images?

A: These two items are related. The upload of the images is part of the MT functionality exposed via the XML-RPC - it is not an FTP upload! Since MT expects the uploaded file to be an image, it treats it like an image. Can other types of files be uploaded? I'm sure it could, but I don't know what it would look like when it got to the server. As to what the directory location is, that is also part of the specification. If you select a local image called image1.jpg and upload it to the server with the "remote name" of _images/screenshot1.jpg it will be found at [blogURL]/_images/screenshot1.jpg - that root location is set by MT; the file name is whatever you tell SharpMT you want it to be.
Q: I'd rather use strong and em for bold and italics; can I change the default tags?

A: Yes. To customize the tags that Pocket SharpMT generates for bold, italics and underline formatting commands, go to Customize Tags under the Format menu. You only need to change the letters for each tag; the rest of the formatting is still managed by Pocket SharpMT.
Q: I'm getting a stange error message and am then told to re-install when I try to use "Insert Contact". What's wrong?

A: Pocket SharpMT is looking for a file named pocketoutlook.dll which should have been installed with the rest of the application. Re-installing will put another copy of this file in the \Program Files\Pocket SharpMT directory. The application will run without this file but you will not be able to use the Insert Contact option without this file.
Q; Do I need a WiFi card to use Pocket SharpMT?

A: No. You can also post to your blog via the "pass through" network connection that ActiveSync offers or via Bluetooth. Pocket SharpMT will use whatever Internet it can find when posting online.
Q: What's the deal with the Insert Image link checkbox on the upload image dialog?

A: This was added in SharpMT 2.1 - basically, if you had your cursor in an edit box and clicked Upload Image, you now have to option of injecting a link, with a couple of image properties, set to point to the image you just uploaded. The tag format that is used is set on the Tag's tab on the Options dialog. There are two values that can be filled in by SharpMT: [IMAGELINK], which is the image's blog based link, and [ALTTAG], which will be filled in with the ALT field on the Upload dialog. For example, if your Image tag was set to <img src="[IMAGELINK]" alt="[ALTTAG]" border="0"> and you uploaded an image (with the "insert tag" check box selected) then that tag would be inserted into your draft with the [] values filled in. If you open the Upload Image dialog and the check box is disabled, you didn't have focus on a control that could accept the created link - put focus on an edit box and re-open the dialog.

Donation Information

Rather than offering this application as shareware, I've decided to make it available as Donation-ware. Use it for as long and as often as you'd like to. However, for there to be future releases, new features and bug fixes, the project will need some form of support, to keep it going. So if you find that you like using Pocket SharpMT and would like to see it get better as it evolves over time, please visit our donation page at http://www.randyrants.com/pocketsharpmt.

Support Information

Should you encounter any problems that are not addressed by this FAQ, please contact us at randyrants@hotmail.com. As this is Donation-ware, support requests will be answered as quickly as our resources allow it. Users that have donated funds to this project can expect a faster than average response to their support issues in most cases. Pocket SharpMT is known to run with MovableType 2.63; it's compatibility with older MT versions is unknown.

Version History - Phone SharpMT

Most recent:

4.0 - 17-Nov-2007/4.0.0.0

Released to CodePlex

FIX: Turned on the Exit menu by default
UPDATE: Hid the "Show Exit" option on the Options dialog - the registry key is still there and respect, though
Cleaned up some code and fixed some bugs

Beta release

Version History - Pocket SharpMT

Most recent:

3.3 - 9-Aug-2006/3.3.0.0

FIX: Turned on the Exit menu by default
UPDATE: Hid the "Show Exit" option on the Options dialog - the registry key is still there and respect, though
Cleaned up some code and fixed some bugs

Ported the application to use the 2.0 release of the .NET Compact Framework
Updated the posting routines to be mimic SharpMT's handling of extended Unicode characters
Reworked the entire set of Windows Forms to be friendlier to square and QVGA screens
Reviewed - and removed when possible - calls via P/Invoke throughout the application
Updated the proxy support to take advantage of some 2.0 Framework releated features

2.6.2 - 23-Jan-2005/2.6.2.0

Removed the toolbar for better support on newer devices (replaced them with text buttons)
Added support for Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete/Select All via the View menu
Added a context menu on TextBoxes for Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete - tap and hold on a TextBox to see it
Added short cuts for Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste via the keyboard (Ctrl+Z/X/C/V respectively)
Extended the support of the context menu to all of the TextBoxes, product wide

2.6 - 21-Nov-2004/2.6.0.0

Better support for TypePad based blogs

2.4 - 8-Apr-2004/2.4.0.0

A couple of new tweaks for better UI support for Landscape mode (and Windows Mobile 2003SE)

Drafts are now saved and opened as UTF-8
When submitting to a server, ASCII characts between from 160 to 255 are encoded to HTML's   to ÿ

2.3 - 20-Mar-2004/2.3.0.0

Added better UI support for Landscape mode

Couple of bug fixes to UI stuff
Changes for certification: the File menu is now View and the Title no longer changes for file status (sorry: it's not allowed).

Added proxy support (first pass)

2.1 - 18-Jan-2004/2.1.0.0

Update version number

Added "draft" default for the Target field in "Add Link"

Version number changed to pace desktop version

Version number changed to pace desktop version

Added support for two custom tags
Added support for Alt in the Image Upload dialog

Image Tag for uploaded images
Moved the "Customize Tags" dialog into the Options dialog, as it's own tab
Added new draft level default for using server time or a custom Date/Time stamp

2.02 - 28-Oct-2003/2.0.2

Cleaned up the Upload Media dialog to help save distination confusion
Version number changed

Bug fixes to the MT/RPC communication layer (hopefully extends support to dasBlog)
Version number changed

Version number changed

[version number skipped]

Draft now resaves itself after a successful post
Categories are now sorted alphabetically

[version number skipped]

Drafts are now stored one to a file
Saving Drafts attempt to use the Draft title as a filename - reserved characters are converted to _'s
Drafts are stored to \My Documents\My Drafts
Save Draft will prompt for a file name (defaults to the Draft Title)
Drafts are stored with a .SMT extension (and in XML)
"Sent to Server" is now on the Advanced tab
New default path option for uploading images
New option to show/hide the Exit dialog (requires the application to be restarted)

1.3 - 23-Aug-2003/1.3.0

Version number changed

Added support for "title" in Add URL dialog

Added integration with on-device Contacts
Loss of control focus after closing Add Link dialog (Bug fix)

Updated Post/Upload sockets to be non-threaded (Bug fix)

Added "Published" flag for Drafts List
Added Authored On tab

Resizes Entry and Extended when SIP is showing
Changed the order of the fields on the Advanced tab so no TextBox is covered with SIP open
Fixed bug with refreshes Categories/Text Filters from menu
Bug fix for duplicate/extra categories when opening posts
New look for Options dialog

Added Auto-Show SIP option
Fixed the size of the categories
Fixed Font sizes
Added toolbar for Save and Options

Initial release

Thanks for the interest in Pocket SharpMT and happy blogging!