Miscellaneous

Limitations:

To keep things small and simple, and due to Windows CE limitations, CCBrowse does not implement all features you would probably expect from a web browser:

The most severe shortcoming is the lack of support for secure communications (SSL). 

No Java VM for Windows CE is available hence there is no support for Java or JavaScript.

Animated GIF's are not supported. You may encounter JPEG images that will not display correctly. This is due to a bug in the IMGDECMP.DLL that comes with Windows CE.

Known issues:

A caveat. CCBrowse supports Basic HTTP Authentication, that is if a server asks for legitimation you are prompted for a valid user name and password. In this dialog you may allow CCBrowse to store this data into the Registry for later access. Note, that this data is not encrypted!

The frame rendering module is in a very early stage of development. Should you encounter problems here, please be patient - and kindly mail us the URL that causes the problems. See the Feedback area of our web site on how to file a report to us.

Backgrounder:

Unsupported protocols

If CCBrowse encounters mailto: and ftp: protocols in a link it will issue an error. The upcoming FTP Client CCTransfer and Mail Client CCFreeMail will eventually fill this void. See the News area of our website for release schedules. The protocol https: for secure connections over the Internet is currently not supported on Palm PC's. This will be addressed in a future release.

Files and Locations

CCBrowse uses the following files for record keeping: 

• cocos.cac - maintains a list of the cached documents, the docs themselves also have the extension "cac".

• cocos.coo - maintains a list of the accepted cookies, the cookie data is stored in files which have the extension "coo". These are simply text files.

• cocos.fav - maintains a list of your favorites.

• cocos.his - maintains a list of the history.

All files reside in the folder that is specified for the cache (See File->Options->Cache). You can anytime safely delete all files that bear the above mentioned extensions. CCBrowse will simply create new files in this case. If you change the cache folder to a new directory, you can manually transfer the "fav" and "his" files to the new location, the cookies and cache files however are lost in this case.

Hard- and Software considerations 

During the development process we relied heavily on the Win32 port of the Apache Web server. This server can also act as a proxy. If you want to give it a try (it's freeware) see the Apache site at http://www.apache.org. 

For development and testing we used a.) a standard 115 kBaud serial connection and b.) a Socket CF LP-E Compact Flash Ethernet adaptor to connect to the Cocos company network. For an excellent overview of networking with Windows CE devices and a troubleshooting guide you should have look at the Ethernet FAQ section of Chris de Herrera's top rated site.

Here are the settings we used for the combination of the CF adaptor (inserted into a Casio Cassiopeia E-105) and the Apache proxy server (on a desktop PC running Windows 98):

On the PC: 

Set Control-Panel->Network->TCP/IP->IP address to "Static address", with 192.168.1.1 as the address and 255.255.255.0 as the submask. Leave all other settings unchanged.

In the httpd.conf file for the Apache set the "server name" parameter to 192.168.1.1. (You can enter a real name here if you modify your HOSTS file accordingly).

On the Palm PC:

In Settings->Network set the "IP address" to static. Enter 192.168.1.2 here with a submask like the one above. In the name server field enter 192.168.1.1 into the "Primary WINS" field. All other fields remain empty.

Finally, in CCBrowse in the Options->Connection Dialog enable "Use Proxy" and enter 192.168.1.1 as the proxy address. All other fields remain unchanged.

Here is a quick test to see if everything is setup properly: On the desktop PC run PING.EXE from the DOS command line, e.g:

c:\ ping 192.168.1.2

You should get response times from the Palm PC in the range of 2 to 10 milliseconds. 

Cocos Development Ltd. will provide network analysis tools for the Palm PC in its upcoming collection CCNetTools. See the News area of our website for release schedules.

"about:" sequences

The following "about:" sequences are defined:

• about: blank

• about: info

• about: cocos

• about: credits

Error messages

Some error messages you may encounter while you are surfing:

• "Connection reset. If you are using a proxy is it online?" Reason: Either you are not connected at all or your proxy didn't reply to a request. Check the proxy settings, especially the address and port.

• "Name not resolved" Reason: Will occur if you use an Ethernet card to connect to the Internet via a proxy. Make sure that the settings in the Network section of your device, especially the IP adresses for the DNS and WINS are correct.

• "URL not found or link not resolved." Reason: You opened a locally stored HTML document and tapped on a link, but this link could not be resolved.

• "Timeout occured while trying to connect." Reason: If you get this message regularly in conjunction with a specific site this can indicate heavy traffic. It might be useful to increase the timeout. 

• "A severe error occured during the download process. Trying to recover..." Reason: Probably the proxy dropped dead or the server running the proxy crashed while a request was processed. Usually this will lead WinInet to crash taking everything with it.  

(c) 1999, Cocos Development Ltd. All rights reserved. Products and company names herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.