Edit: With WinterBoard’s enhancements, I feel that a tool like iPhoneShop is no longer necessary so I have not taken the time to update it. If somebody really wants me to update it, post here or drop me an email at admin@sideapps.com
The original iPhoneShop I made a while back to provide a GUI for extracting and repacking .artwork files. It utilized a .jar file (not made by myself) and simply generated .bat files to execute the .jar from command line with minimal user interaction. With the release of the iPhone firmware 2.0, the .artwork files have changed drastically and the old .jar file will no longer work with them.
Dave Peck has written a Python script to extract the new .artwork files on firmware 2.0. He’s given me his permission to create a GUI for the script (which at this time can only extract the files) and I went ahead and made one. If you’re lucky enough to have the 2.0 filesystem and you want to take a peek inside the new .artwork files, I present you with iPhoneShop 2.0!
As usual, the graphics used in this application were created by Allen of planet-iphones.com.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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This simple application takes the XML code for a single package in an Installer Repository and converts it a control file made for Debian APT repositories (IE repositories for Cydia). I have just integrated this application into my newer app RepoParser, but this is for people who want just the Debian Control part of RepoParser and not the whole thing (if any such people exist).
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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RepoParser is a utility to view (or parse) Installer.app Repositories. I started this as a sort of test to get the code down so that I could go about improving (and most likely rewriting) my currently crappy app RepoMaker. I have been extremely pleased with my progress on this application. As of right now, it can parse both XML and Plist repositories with incredible speed. I have not yet started to use VB.NET’s built in tools for managing XML documents so it is required that the repository is well-formed and well-formatted. Becuase of this, I included a Troubleshooting section explaining this and providing a download for the free program XMLSpear which provides a one-click option to format an XML document. The most amazing part, however, is that (after hours of coding and recoding) I have managed to optimize the parsing script to a point where it takes less than half a second to parse an entire 12,000 line repository. Pretty impressive. Features currently include the following:
- When a repository is chosen, a ComboBox is populated with all of the packages found in said repository. Any package can be selected from that drop down list and information about it is displayed.
- For each package you can view the BundleID, Name, Sponsor, Location, etc. in simple text boxes (currently uneditable) without any of the confusion of XML around them.
- Another tab includes a built-in webbrowser that navigates to the “More Info” page of the current package.
- Another tab provides an easy to use interface to create a Debian APT control file for the current package (very useful if you are porting over 12,000 lines of Installer code to Cydia). Once created you have the option to save to desktop in one click or to browse to save.
- Yet another tab allows you to create a More Info PHP page for the current package. This part of RepoParser isn’t really useful to the mainstream because the PHP created is generated specifically for Planet-iPhones.com. Once made, you have the options to save to desktop, browse to save, or upload directly to Planet-iPhones via FTP! Of course, I’ve required a login and password for that section so that everyone can’t go hogwild and start uploading things to P-i with this :).
All in all, I’ve learned TONS with this application. I’ve learned how to create a Class that allows me to download any file from online with the click of a button (with live updates as it is downloading). I’ve learned how to parse huge repository files with speeds I thought to be impossible. I’ve honed my skills with reading and writing files and creating files and much much more. The next step for me is to start learning how to use VB.NET’s built in XML utilities to improve these applications even more.
As I said before, the XML files currently CANNOT be edited by RepoParser… I think that instead of teaching myself to do that the wrong way (IE not using the built-in XML utilities), I’m going to go ahead and learn them and start a new project that will be a full fledged RepoEditor/RepoMaker.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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If this interests you, check out my newer app, RepoParser!
RepoMaker is the biggest app I have made to date. It was also one of the first I started and I learned the most from it. At first it was designed to basically get you on your feet concerning making Installer.app Repositories for the iPhone but it then started to grow into a fully featured repository editor. Currently it has some documentation for starting a repository and a GUI for adding packages and starting the mainframe. The only downside to this is that you need to paste the code into your XML file manually. I am in the middle of a IO Filestream project that would allow it to parse and modify a repository.XML file through a GUI but I ran into some minor problems and lost interest.
As of now it can read a repository.XML file and gather a drop-down list of the packages. When a package is selected the properties of that package are displayed in modifiable text boxes. However, the actual installation script has TONS of problems when it is modified and even the simple properties have some problems when they are modified. If people were interested in me finishing this application I would certainly pursue it but otherwise what you see is what you get.
Also, the MD5 Checksum script in RepoMaker has a little problem… It doesn’t work. I used X1 to encode instead of X2 and it ends up missing some numbers (0s and 1s). If you are using it you will have to generate your own MD5 Checksums as this does not generate them properly. Or you could ask me to fix it as it would not take long at all (I have working MD5 Checksum code in my other apps).
As usual, the graphics used in this application were created by Allen of planet-iphones.com.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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iPhoneShop provides a GUI for extracting and building .artwork files for use on the iPhone. Previously on Windows this was only possible through command prompt execution of .jar files. iPhoneShop also marks the first time I had to use an installer for any of my applications. I needed an installer because iPhoneShop still uses the popular .jar file and simply provides a GUI. I tried embedding the .jar file into the .exe and writing it to a temporary location on the HD during program execution but the .jar wouldn’t write properly because it was compressed. The easiest solution was to create an installer that installed both the executable file and the .jar to a set location.
Credit to the .jar file goes to the creators though I don’t believe the project is still being pursued.
As usual, the graphics used in this application were created by Allen of planet-iphones.com.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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Creating Service Controller was the first time I ever needed something more than VB Express and it marks my upgrade to VB Professional. Thankfully, managing Windows Services isn’t too much trouble in Visual Basic (though I did hit some walls trying to read the current status of a service).
Service Controller manages the Apple Mobile Device service and provides an easy-to-use GUI for stopping, starting, and restarting the service. It also has buttons for killing and starting the iTunes.exe process. I needed this application because, for whatever reason, every time a program put my iPhone into restore mode (iTunes during restores, WinPwn during Pwnage, iLiberty during jailbreaks) my computer would stop recognizing my iPhone until all programs using the service were killed and the service was restarted. I was tired of running “services.msc” every time I wanted to restart it so I threw this together.
As of right now it is a standalone .exe file and I don’t really think any more use can come from it (though, as always, I am open to ideas).
It’s also worth mentioning that the Service Controller icon (along with pretty much all of the images in my applications) was created by Allen of planet-iphones.com.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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I created Drag N Drop basically to test myself and see if I could learn how to recognize files and folders and work with a drag and drop interface. A graphic designer/programmer friend of mine who has a Mac made something similar and is always bragging about how great Macs are so I sorta wanted to show him PCs can have a nice drag and drop GUI too.
Drag N Drop is made to make maintaining an Installer.app repository easier (though it has countless uses). When a .zip file is dragged onto the drop zone its MD5 CheckSum, UNIX TimeStamp, and filesize in KB are displayed with easy-to-use copy buttons (see pic 2). A slightly more beta feature (that I’m not really working on but would be willing to if someone wanted it) is the ability to drop a .artwork file onto the drop zone. Drag N Drop will then unzip the .artwork file into a separate folder of .png images. When this folder is dropped onto the drop zone, it is zipped back up into a .artwork file. Right now this only works with Other.artwork files and there are a lot of unhandled errors and exceptions that can occur so I would recommend using my iPhoneShop application to deal with .artwork files.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Drop Here image (along with pretty much all of the images in my applications) was created by Allen of planet-iphones.com.
Download below and comment with ideas, suggestions, questions, and requests!
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