Launching .exe from iGo script

[FourG]

So had a little breakthrough tonight to share. The code snippet that I lifted from Gurjon's 3.71 skin for calling the speedcam delete worked great as an example of how to call external executables, now my AVIC launches a little app called ResInfo.exe (taken from MioPocket's apps folder, sorry but the forum won't let me attach an .exe file, do a Google search for MioPocket for heaven's sake) every time I hit the 'Destination' button in MainMenu:

 

 

 

Adding the command was a one-liner in APL2\iGo\data.zip::ui_pioneer\common\ui\start.ui (pasting entire st_AdvMenu_UC state definition below for context, see towards the end of the script for the command):

 

Steps:

• [*:2tv61i16]Open data.zip using 7zip
  [*:2tv61i16]Find "ui_pioneer\common\ui\start.ui" in the 7zip file manager window
  [*:2tv61i16]Edit 'start.ui' using 7zip's 'File->Edit' command (launches your defined editor)
  [*:2tv61i16]Add these lines just below the one with 'EXEC "other.pioneer.postmessage" ...' in it:
  ;FourG Added: Start APL2\ResInfo.exe at the end of script
  15 START_APPLICATION "ResInfo.exe" ""
  [*:2tv61i16]Save the file
  [*:2tv61i16]Exit the editor so 7zip will check if the file has changed
  [*:2tv61i16]Answered 'Yes' when 7zip asks if you want to update the archive
  [*:2tv61i16]Copy "ResInfo.exe" and the updated data.zip to SD
  [*:2tv61i16]Enter test mode on the AVIC using LeetLauncher
  [*:2tv61i16]Open explorer and navigate to Storage Card
  [*:2tv61i16]Highlight data.zip and ResInfo.exe
  [*:2tv61i16]Edit->Copy
  [*:2tv61i16]Navigate to 'My Flash Disk'\APL2\iGo
  [*:2tv61i16]Edit->Paste, answered 'Yes' to overwrite data.zip
  [*:2tv61i16]Reboot

 

Now each time I enter the Destination menu (either from MainMenu.exe's Destination icon or back arrow from a sub-menu) ResInfo pops up. A similar technique can be used in some of the scripts the buttons on the map screen call to launch tools or even LeetLauncher, I'm willing to wager. *cough* Wi-Fi! *cough*

 

Off to do some more scripting and skinning!

[ill.die.trying]

very good find

[ill.die.trying]

so would you be able to create a shortcut on the adv screen for it instead of having it to pop up (or make it stockish looking)? how hard would it be? what else could we add to our units?

[Galadril]

nice!

[HAAK31]

Did you try for the wince? I believe in a tomtomskin for igo8(original) there was the possibility to launch wince, i'll see if i can find it.

 

Or maybe even tomtom, i believe there is the possibilty to shutdown igo(at least on the puffcoach mod i'm using now), maybe tomtom can be started then?

[FourG]

Did you try for the wince? I believe in a tomtomskin for igo8(original) there was the possibility to launch wince, i'll see if i can find it.

 

Or maybe even tomtom, i believe there is the possibilty to shutdown igo(at least on the puffcoach mod i'm using now), maybe tomtom can be started then?

I was going to try for it as soon as I figured out the right command line (assuming "\Windows\explorer.exe" for the moment). Will probably add it to the Destination menu and one of the icons in the map view.

[FourG]

Or maybe even tomtom, i believe there is the possibilty to shutdown igo(at least on the puffcoach mod i'm using now), maybe tomtom can be started then?

Yeah, that would be tricky. There is an exit app command in some of the scripts IIRC, so you have to time things right with the call to start Tom Tom and the command to EXIT. There may be the possibility that iGo will still have control of the GPS UART when Tom Tom starts, preventing Tom Tom from getting to use the GPS. Also might start reboots if MainMenu/AV.exe doesn't get certain messages from ezrider.exe on events.

 

Anyway, lots of experiments to try, will see if I can swing them in the spare time I have this week.

[BorisM]

Did you try for the wince? I believe in a tomtomskin for igo8(original) there was the possibility to launch wince, i'll see if i can find it.

 

Or maybe even tomtom, i believe there is the possibilty to shutdown igo(at least on the puffcoach mod i'm using now), maybe tomtom can be started then?

 

WinCE is the operating system of the unit. It is always running anyway. Explorer can be started, though. Or better yet, Total Commander.

 

If you shut down iGO, though, unit will reboot.

[bsnively]

this is a great find - really opens up some possiblities.

 

If the application was a full screen app - sounds you could start it from the igo and still hve music/etc playing in the background? Guess it would be hard to switch back/forth to the exe and avic app?

 

Thx,

Ben

[HAAK31]

Did you try for the wince? I believe in a tomtomskin for igo8(original) there was the possibility to launch wince, i'll see if i can find it.

 

Or maybe even tomtom, i believe there is the possibilty to shutdown igo(at least on the puffcoach mod i'm using now), maybe tomtom can be started then?

 

WinCE is the operating system of the unit. It is always running anyway. Explorer can be started, though. Or better yet, Total Commander.

 

If you shut down iGO, though, unit will reboot.

 

when i press the off buton on the navigation, it looks like igo is shutting down, ik get a black screen on navigation, but the pioneer doesn't reboot. And in the igo you can shut down the gps, maybe another application can use it then?

[FourG]

WinCE is the operating system of the unit. It is always running anyway. Explorer can be started, though. Or better yet, Total Commander.

 

OK, Total Commander works, though it won't let you overwrite files in use (like DATA.ZIP) while iGo's running on the system. So you'll still need TestMode for updating some of the hacks. I tried "\Windows\explorer.exe" first but after launching the graphics in the APL applications got all screwed up by the start menu displaying over the top of the apps.

 

 

 

 

Process I used to add a "File Manager" button to the "Navi Settings" menu in the official F90BT 3.0 (iGo 8.3) DATA.zip:

• 
  [*:27jew9fr]Using 7Zip, I opened DATA.ZIP (Right click, select "7-Zip"->"Open Archive" from the context menu)
  [*:27jew9fr]In the 7-Zip file manager, navigate to the ui_pioneer\common\ui folder. Highlight "advmenu.ui" and hit F4 on your keyboard to edit the file with your configured editor. I used vim so it would let me forcibly overwrite the file.
  [*:27jew9fr]At the bottom of the file, I added the following lines:
  

;!!!fourg adding FileMan launch script, replace the command below with your favorite

[*:27jew9fr]Force-save the file (in vim, this is :w!) so 7-zip will detect the file has been updated.
[*:27jew9fr]Quit the editor
[*:27jew9fr]7-Zip will prompt you that "File 'advmenu.ui' was modified. Do you want to update it in the archive?". Click OK to update the .zip file's copy with your changes.
[*:27jew9fr]Now that we've added the script that will launch our command, it's time to browse to the UI that will actually display the button to call the script. Pioneer's put their "Navi Settings" menu under the DATA.zip's ui_pioneer\800_480\ui\ folder. Navigate to this file in the 7-Zip file explorer.
[*:27jew9fr]Highlight "setting_800_480.ui" and press the F4 key to edit.
[*:27jew9fr]I added a button in the footer of the "ui_navisettings" layer to call the FileMan launch script (which is what calls Total Commander in this example). Browse or search for the "ui_navisettings" layer, then scroll down to find the line of code that looks like this:

I inserted the code for the button and an additional separator above this line. You'll probably want to play around with the "x=" value to get it lined up perfectly, but I wasn't anal enough to do so for this example. Add the lines:

above the line of code that defines the button for Sound Settings.
[*:27jew9fr]Once again, save the file you're editing (:w for you vim'ers).
[*:27jew9fr]Exit the editor.
[*:27jew9fr]7-Zip will prompt you that "File 'setting_800_480.ui' was modified. Do you want to update it in the archive?". Click OK to update the .zip file's copy with your changes.
[*:27jew9fr]Quit 7-Zip
[*:27jew9fr]Copy the updated DATA.zip file to your SD card with carver's Testmode 2.3 on it. We're going to be copying some files out of carver's Testmode folder, so you'll want to use it anyway.
[*:27jew9fr]Boot into Testmode w/ the SD card (no, I'm not telling you these steps because if you can't get into Testmode, you have no business hacking on the system yet anyway, go search the Hacks forum first).
[*:27jew9fr]Once in Testmode, open up Total Commander
[*:27jew9fr]Navigate to "Storage Card\TESTMODE" in the left window and "My Flash Disk" in the right window.
[*:27jew9fr]Making sure you have selected "Utils" in the left window, select the "File"->"Copy/Move" command
[*:27jew9fr]Tap the "Copy" button to copy the "Utils" folder to the root of "My Flash Disk".
[*:27jew9fr]Now in the right-side window, navigate to the APL2\iGo folder
[*:27jew9fr]Highlight the "DATA.zip" in the right-side window
[*:27jew9fr]Select the "File"->"Rename" command
[*:27jew9fr]Rename the file to "DATA_orig.zip" or something easy to identify that it's the original DATA.zip file
[*:27jew9fr]In the left-side window, navigate to the folder you saved your modified DATA.zip in.
[*:27jew9fr]Making sure you have selected the "DATA.zip" file in the left window, select the "File"->"Copy/Move" command
[*:27jew9fr]Tap the "Copy" button to copy the "DATA.zip" file to "My Flash Disk"\APL2\iGo\.
[*:27jew9fr]Eject the Testmode SD card and reset the system
[*:27jew9fr]Once the system has reset, you should be able to select "Settings", then "Navi Settings" to see the newly added "File Manager" button in the footer.

 

To restore the original setup, simply delete the APL2\iGo\DATA.zip file, rename DATA_orig.zip back to DATA.zip and delete the "Utils" folder from "My Flash Disk".

[ill.die.trying]

so that means we could use this to launch the map changer,

[mightycouger]

FourG, would it be possible to incorporate your mod and Miotoo's wifi mod (viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26523)to where you could have a button and it launch Mio's Opera browser mod?

[FourG]

FourG, would it be possible to incorporate your mod and Miotoo's wifi mod (viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26523)to where you could have a button and it launch Mio's Opera browser mod?

 

Yeah, it's kind of "Step 1" for that mod, which in reality is exactly the same as the one MioPocket already does for the Portable Navigation Assistants that run Windows (Mios, my iPaq 310, etc, etc). We're just porting it over to the AVIC piece by piece.

 

I would have the script call a MortScript script file to copy the Spectec driver DLLs over to \Windows, update the registry for the driver and then call Opera. I would, *if* Opera hadn't caused a Fatal Exception when I tried to close it which restarted the system. We also need a way to enter SSID/WEP/WPA information, so you can use it on secure networks. Still testing.

[mightycouger]

Awesome, thanks for the reply FourG. I think that this would be one of the best mods yet, if we could get wifi to launch from the AVIC UI. Looking forward to seeing the results of your testing!