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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript Apps
I've developed a moderately-crude approach to syncing AvantGo to a Palm OS device. I'm sure that a proficient AppleScript programmer could improve on this, but it does the job. Here's what you need to do:
  1. Set up an account on AvantGo. Download and install the Palm apps ("AvantGo" and "AG Connect").
  2. Get the command line tool malsync. Don't use the AvantGo software that comes with it, however; it's old.
  3. Copy the malsync application to /usr/local/bin, and make it executable by everyone by typing:
    chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/malsync
  4. On your Palm, set up AG Connect (see item 5 in README_AvantGo that comes with malsync).
  5. Use the following AppleScript to semi-automate the process of doing an AvantGo sync:
    
    tell application "HotSync Manager"
      activate
      open setup
    end tell
    
    set promptString to "Please disable HotSync in HotSync Manager"
    display dialog promptString buttons {"Cancel", "Disabled"} ¬
      default button 2
    
    if button returned of result is "Disabled" then
      -- NOTE: Enter the following THREE lines as ONE line with a space
      -- between 'export' and 'PILOT' and between '/malsync' and '>/tmp'
      do shell script "export PILOTRATE=115200;export 
        PILOTPORT=/dev/tty.USA19QI23P1.1;/usr/local/bin/malsync 
        >/tmp/malsync.log 2>&1 &"
      tell application "Terminal"
        activate
        do script "tail -f /tmp/malsync.log"
      end tell
      set promptString to ¬
        "malsync started; press hotsync button to connect Palm"
      display dialog promptString buttons {"OK"} default button 1
      set promptString to ¬
        "Remember to re-enable HotSync in HotSync Manager"
      display dialog promptString buttons {"OK"} default button 1
    end if
    
I'm sure the AppleScript can be improved, but there are limits, as HotSync Manager doesn't appear to be very scriptable.
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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript | 10 comments | Create New Account
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Which Mac / Palm combinations supported?
Authored by: Han Solo on Sep 09, '03 11:12:00AM
What Mac / Palm hardware are you working with? If I understand the information below correctly (copied from the malsync web site), regrettably only a very small fraction of Mac users still will be able to access AvantGo -- namely those with serial ports....

I have had some requests for an OSX version of malsync, and the intrepid Douglas M. Lowder was kind enough to supply one. If you have a USB to serial Adaptor, you can try this binary malsync_2.0.7.darwin.tar.gz . Until someone is good enough to either send me a Mac with OSX or port pilot-link to Apple's USB interface if you only have USB on your Mac you a out of luck.


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Which Mac / Palm combinations supported?
Authored by: Sawtoothed on Sep 09, '03 03:05:19PM
The solution is to set malsync to do a network sync, install and activate USB-TCP Bridge, then do a regular (cable/cradle) hotsync on the palm.

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Which Mac / Palm combinations supported?
Authored by: bthoma on Sep 11, '03 11:34:46AM

Okay - newbie poster here... I didn't see a forum topic relating to this hint, hope this is the right place to look for help.

I miss AvantGo and I'm not prepared to pay for iSiloX yet. Beyond that, I like to make things work where I can...

I'm using a standard Palm USB cradle, plugged directly into my PowerBook. I was using AvantGo under 9.2 so it has the associated .prc files installed and configured. AvantGo worked correctly under 9.2.

I know next to zip about Unix and CLI, but I'm trying. I am unable to get malsync to work, with or without the USB-TCP Bridge app.

According to the "Readme-AvantGo" documentation in the malsync download:
"Determine the correct serial port to which your Palm device is connected. Two common options are /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1. Do one of two things:
- set the PILOTPORT environment variable to that device, e.g.
setenv PILOTPORT /dev/ttyS1
- OR, bind the /dev/pilot port to the serial device, e.g.
ln -s /dev/ttyS1 /dev/pilot (root access required)"

Looking at Apple System Profiler I see that my cradle is plugged into USB 0, while I have a hub plugged into the other USB port (USB 1), therefore I presumed that the correct device port should be ttys0. In the supplied applescript I changed the orignal line "PILOTPORT=/dev/tty.USA19QI23P1.1" to "PILOTPORT=/dev/ttys0"

I disabled HotSync, ran the script, Terminal output said it was waiting for HotSync. I pressed the sync button on the cradle, but no connection is ever made between the device and my laptop. Eventually the hotsync operation times out with an error.

I'm at a loss and any help would be appreciated. Again, I apologize if this is the wrong place to be asking this kind of stuff.



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Which Mac / Palm combinations supported?
Authored by: stiber on Sep 10, '03 01:08:33PM
Sorry, I guess I did forget a few details. I'm using a Palm IIIx, so I would imagine almost every Palm out there would work (of course, I have a very active imagination). I'm using a Keyspan serial to USB converter; you'll need to do a ls /dev/tty* in Terminal to find the device file to substitute for the /dev/tty.USA19QI23P1.1 in PILOTPORT=/dev/tty.USA19QI23P1.1. This device file is automatically created by the driver when a USB device is plugged in (and deleted when unplugged), so you have to have it plugged in to find out (as long as you always plug it in in the same place, the file name shouldn't change). I was also assuming you would set the communication rate to 115,200 baud.

Now that I re-read the question and quote from the malsync site, it seems that the implication is that your Mac must have a serial port. While mine does (an upgraded Beige G3), I'm using the USB port and a Keyspan adapter for the serial Palm hardware. I would think that this would work for Palm USB hardware, too. I haven't played with pilot-link on my Mac, but it might work --- one of the great features of Unix is the file-oriented device interface (special device files in /dev), which provides a uniform set of basic commands for interacting with any I/O device. Since USB is a serial interface, I would think that all the operations (the fcntl, etc. calls) that pilot-link does would be sufficient. This is assuming that the high-level communications (i.e., data formats, commands to Palm and responses from it) are the same regardless of whether the link is serial or USB.

BTW, kudos to the macosxhints folks for reformatting my code to fit the screen.

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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript
Authored by: milari on Sep 09, '03 03:56:50PM

When I moved to X and lost AvantGo I started using iSilo & iSiloX (www.isilo.com) instead.

Many sites have their AvantGo data available or a specific 'light' PDA section. Some standard pages 'translate' for the PDA very well.
I've been very happy and now don't miss AvantGo at all.

I't also great for grabbing one-off long web articles for reading later.



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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript
Authored by: amacaulay on Sep 10, '03 06:08:59AM

I did the same. iSilo is one of the few pieces of software I was prepared to pay for. I haven't used iSilo as heavily as I could, but it grabs the BBC news perfectly from their text only site (with a little fiddling in the set up to get all the pages I need without crawling the whole web site). The 5 day weather too, with all graphics.

Now how do I get iCal to map my travels onto the BBC's location codes to get the weather for where I'm going...?



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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript
Authored by: subcultured on Sep 09, '03 07:44:31PM
i've been using plucker (link), a free offline browser and html parser. it's not perfect (it fails from time to time to parse some pages, it can be rather slow and the automation features aren't great) but it does fill the AvantGo void for me.

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AvantGo-Palm sync software??
Authored by: pairof9s on Sep 09, '03 11:36:03PM
It takes some hunting, but under "Manage Account" is the Software Downloads section. But neither the OS 8/9 or UNIX-OS X options have the "AvantGo" and "AG Connect" software in them for the Palm. This was stated as the components needed for the Palm.

So what really needs to be uploaded to the Palm?

(In the end, this still seems very complicated, very limited, and very outdated. I agree w/ another user that iSiloX and NewsMac grab just about anything AvantGo can...so forget this!)

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iSilo vs Plucker
Authored by: sinebubble on Sep 10, '03 10:51:44PM

I tested out iSilo/X and Plucker a few weeks ago. While iSilo reader is free for only 30 days, it is certainly better than Plucker. It allows you a bit more granularity in your web site filter (this is very important) and does a better job rendering.

Here is a thread I started on this topic. Note that I now use iSilo/X...

http://www.palminfocenter.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16013

BTW, to the reader that downloaded the BBC, I figured out how to get the low image version to work quite nicely with iSilo/X. Nothing like getting images with your news every morning!



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AvantGo-Palm sync using a basic AppleScript
Authored by: barrierobinson on Oct 03, '03 05:29:40PM

I get this issue:

[barrie:~] barrierobinson% tail -f /tmp/malsync.log
Unable to bind to port '/dev/tty.USA19QI23P1.1'.

Any idea what could be wrong?

Thanks



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