jsciii

I have tried to understand the directory structure and have not figured it out.

I have an X3 with a SD card. When I explore it from my computer I see the following:
Mobile Device
-My Pocket PC
--Databases (Lots of files I don't know if I need)
--Application Data
---Volatile
--Built-in Storage (I've emptied it)
--ConnMgr
--My Documents (Where is this? Built-in?)
--Not Sure (I renamed this file to this. Had lots of my stuff in it but I moved them to the SD card)
--Profiles
--Program Files (Where is this?)
--Storage Card (Now here's something I can understand)
--Temp
--Windows

I've tried to represent the levels with dashes with "Mobile Device" at the root.

The folder "Not Sure" contains a "Template" folder I can't delete

I have some skins in the SD but can't get them to be used. Where do skins have to be put in order to be found?

Basically, I guess I'm asking is there a document that describes the default directory structure and where system files (like skins) have to be placed in order to be found.

Thanks...JC III

davrol

Try using Resco Explorer 2003. There is a trial copy on your Axim CD. It will make the whole directory structure clear and show you the contents of all folders and sub-folders as well as allowing you to do all sorts of operations on the like copy,cut, paste,delete, find and so forth. Vastly superior to the File Explore included in the OS.

An indispensible utility in my view.

jsciii

Thanks for the tip. I've gone to the website and it looks pretty nice.

BTW, I'm using Total Commander to explore files.

But, I still need help with understanding what objects go in what directories....JC III

Gerard Samija

I too use Total Commander, and Resco Explorer, and FtpView... Any of these is capable of displaying the directory structure. In fact your question puzzles me a little, as Total Commander should show you what's going on rather clearly, in terms of folder heirarchy. If you are not asking that, but rather for a set of rules about what should go where, that's a rather tall order. Complex to say the least. If you specifically need to know just about a few file types, such as themes (TSK files), then that's a lot easier.

TSK files go into Windows by default. It is not necessary to have all the TSK files there though. There are theme manager softwares which enable keeping them on a card, if wasted memory is a worry for you. I use FunnySnake TKReater, which is an on-device theme generator. It is a bit buggy on my PPC2002 X5 and iPAQ 3835, but works if I follow the rules. Saving a new theme to \Windows is the only option which works, in my experience. Then I move the TSK file to the \SD Card\progams\funnysnake folder, where I installed the application, just because that makes a sort of sense. Then whenever I wish to activate a given theme, I open TKreater and browse to that location, select the file, then activate it from within the program. A few seconds later I am dumped back to the Today screen, which shows the new theme. This way there are never more than three TSK files in the \Windows folder; the two which reside in ROM and cannot be deleted, and my theme of the moment, which has been over-written by this most recent one.

In general, if you want a document of the types which Pocket Word or Pocket Excel or Notes can display to show up in those programs' list views, it must be either in \My Documents or \SD Card\My Documents or \CF Card\My Documents, or one folder level down. One sub-folder is all Microsoft allows, no further, or the files will simply not be displayed in list views. Of course, if you are partial to better organising your files and folders, you can just manually tap-launch these files from any folder location.

Using tGetFile.dll (from Tillanosoft, limited in use to programs specifically designed to use it) and/or gsGetFile.dll (part of a number of Japanese program installs, most usefully and centrally of FileChangeDialog), you can access a more global Open and Save As dialogue in most applications. Get the latter here (not to worry, it's in English - just tap Yes to the question it asks on installation about registering on startup) -
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Cupertino/2039/

The basic folder heirarchy is simple enough. There are a small handful of root folders in a Dell X5:
\Built-in Storage
\CF Card (if one is present)
\My Documents
\Program Files
\SD Card (if one is present)
\Temp
\Windows

That's usually it. I put in the backslash, as it represents the root directory in device paths on any Pocket PC. For instance, in Total Commander, to select root folder view you tap the \ button near the top of the screen. Any path you wish to use when modifying the registry paths or somesuch should start with that backslash. If you wished for some reason to display a file in My Documents called 'file.txt' in Pocket IE, you would write into the addressbar file://\My%20Documents\file.txt
The %20 means space. Microsoft should be spanked for using spaces in root folder names, or for making this sort of glitchy limitation, either way. Sometimes it's a pain dealing with the gap problem, for me recently in an example where I was making nPOP my default system email client. Ended up having to install nPOP to the root, as a new root folder, because Program Fles has a break in it and no amount of registry editing would allow it to work there.

Anyway, that's a lot more than I think you asked about, but I hope it's helpful.

Gerard Samija

oops, seems I forgot a thing or two about paths... seems a TXT file launched from PIE opens in the default program, in my case GigaPad... sorry for that mistake. But launching an HTML file in a similar way works in PIE, and of course images would work unless you have another image viewer associated with the specific filetype.

Gerard Samija

Oh yeah, and databases aren't in the normally viewable file system. You'd need Phatware's dbExplorer or dbView or some other database program to view and delete these. Backup first. Danger. Phatware's app lets you empty databases, which is at least a bit safer.

Gerard Samija

Gosh, certainly forgetful this morning. You asked abou a missing file or folder. Since you have Toal Commander, just use the Find function in that program while the root folders are displayed and none selected in blue. It's a great global search engine, and if you can remember the file extension just use that, or whatever fragment you can remember. For filetypes, just put *.xxx (the x's being the letters of the extension) into the search box to find all files of that type.

jsciii

THANKS GERARD!!!!!

What I'm looking for is an understanding of the why's and where's of the directory structure and you answered most of my questions.

I couldn't understand why I couldn't choose a theme I'd downloaded into My Docments folder. Now I know why, it has to be in the Windows folder unless you have an app.

What about the TEMPLATES folder? I have a folder that I didn't create but playing around renamed to NOT SURE and in it is a TEMPLATES folder that I cannot delete. It's in the root.

Is the ROOT the root of Built-in memory?

Can I delete APPLICATION DATA folder without having a problem?

My goal is to keep Built-in Memory as empty as possible (I have a 256MB SD card).

Thanks again and please feel free to enlighten me somemore....JC III

Gerard Samija

Quote:

What about the TEMPLATES folder? I have a folder that I didn't create but playing around renamed to NOT SURE and in it is a TEMPLATES folder that I cannot delete. It's in the root.

Did you somehow rename a system folder? If you don't have at least the root folders I list above, minus the SD and CF card folders if you lack those cards, then it would seem you've somehow renamed either \Temp or Built-in Storage, as you say you still have a \My Documents and \Windows folder intact. Is this it, or is it some other folder some program installed? Or \Program Files? I am confused about how this came to be, and why it is acting, it would seem, as though in use by some program or process. Normally a folder will only be impossible to delete if it is a) in ROM or b) contains some EXE or DLL file which is currently in use. Perhaps soft reset and try again? Or look in your \Windows\Startup folder, and see if a shortcut points to some file in this unknown folder... Shortcuts are just simple text files with an LNK extension, and can be viewed using the Edit function in Total Commander. The path therein will be pretty obvious to read.

Quote:

Is the ROOT the root of Built-in memory?

No. The device root directory is the area above which you cannot go in a file explorer, wherein you see listed such things as \Windows and \Built-in Storage.

Can I delete APPLICATION DATA folder without having a problem?

Quote:

My goal is to keep Built-in Memory as empty as possible.

If by Built-in Memory you mean Built-in Storage (in general it's a good idea to keep terminology exact and specific, when asking technical questions), then why bother keeping it free of files? It is there to be used, and serves no other function. It is not part of RAM, but rather the left-over area after the operating system files are put in place by the manufacturer, or when you do a ROM update. In my Axim X5 it's a bit over 18MB, and I have it about 2/3 full of program installation files. It's like having a small storage card, always in the device.

Gerard Samija

Oops yet again; I missed quoting one of the questions in there, where you ask about deleting the APPLICATION DATA folder. I've never heard of an APPLICATION DATA folder. Where did you find that? Oh, wait, is that in \Windows? If so, are you running Macromedia's Flash plugin? It's possible it might be some very deep nest of folders with some config/id sorts of files buried deep inside the layers. If so, yes, I have seen those appear as though by magic, twice. I deleted them. Some sort of backdoor-ish nonsense some Flash providers dump into the system I think, like a cookie.