g3gg0
25-11-2008, 11:33 PM
the post here comes so late because i had some forum problems which are fixed now :)
this is a public release.
no server login needed anymore.
also many bugs were fixed.
PPModd is a project designed for editing DCT4 / TIKU PPM files
its main goal is to edit those PPM files with a simple GUI and no need for
knowledge of the file structure or need to handle other tools.
its a out-of-the-box PPM editor.
initially i intended to distribute it in a commercial way, but now im not sure
if thats the right decision. however, i really appreciate any donation
via paypal, bank transfer or even some hardware! ([email protected])
that PPM stuff really was an assload full of work since its sometimes really
tricky. and we're not talking about some nights - its more about some
hundred hours...
well, ok. but the result really is a good thing thanks to TriX' plugin system
and fully based on XML (thx@krisha for your help!). with XML its really flexible
regarding extensions like automated translators or such.
to edit some strings, you have to do this:
- start PPModd
- drag 'n drop the PPM file into the window
- expand PPM
- click TEXT
- click the "Edit content" button
- wait
- still wait
- change the strings you wish (makes sense to change only those which are existent..)
- OK
- "Create PPM"
- flash that created PPM file
to translate a phone's PPM into another language (in this example lets say chinese):
before:
- find a PPM of a phone that is similar to yours and already has the wanted language. we need the FONT, CPI, LDB and AORD chunk from that.
- we DONT need the TEXT because for sure many strings were added/deleted (but you can use it as reference) ***
- it makes no sense to use a 8310 PPM for an 2610b of course...
step 1:
- open two instances of PPModd
- open both PPM files, the source and the destination file
step 2: (this is making editing more comfortable)
- in the destination-PPM (the phone you want have translated) choose the EN.. subchunk in TEXT chunk and copy it
- open an UTF8-capable (!!!) text or XML editor and selet edit->paste
- now you can (or let) edit the language strings (UTF16 and TOKEN are not needed, you can keep or delete them)
- when everything was translated, copy everything (edit->copy)
- in PPModd with destination-PPM again rightclick the TEXT section and select paste
- make sure the "----end----" chunk is the last in the list (rightclick, up/down)
step 3:
- in the source-PPM (the one of the similar phone that has the language already) look for subchunks that have names like the language (e.g. CHNS1, ZH17 (zhongguo/chinese) etc) normally thats in LDB, AORD, CPI
- copy those and paste them in the chunks on the destination-PPM
- also copy the FONT subchunk if the language has other letters (chinese obviously has....)
- build PPM
- test
of course it makes sense to check first, if the phone is capable of e.g. chinese before you pay someone for translating ;)
i had some phones which will just show [][][] although everything it needs was in the PPM.
to check that, just change some string like "Insert SIM card" to check if it works.
DON'T BLAME ME FOR ANY PROBLEM THIS APP CAUSES.
i know that this tool is far from perfect, but for the things i used it, it was always enough.
use it on your own risk.
Known Issues:
- some flasher/phone combinations require to set "Options" -> "core.fmt.phoenix.skip_claudia" to "1" else you will get no network or a "dead" acting phone
- 2610 and maybe others (DCT4Plus) PPM just readable when setting 'plugins.PPModify.ppm_header_ver' to '1' in option dialog
- 2610 and maybe others (DCT4Plus) PPM not buildable yet. build would succeed, but phone may not be able to read that PPM (to be tested)
- not all phones allow e.g. chinese letters, even with FONT, AORD, etc chunks. no idea why that. maybe pinyin support is not compiled into firmware.
- some newer phones (those with NAND flash for PPM) do not contain the "normal" PPM structure, but a FAT FS with a) a PPM file or b) dirs. in case of a) its able to modify after extracting the file. in case of b) theres no real chance to edit the PPM
Download: http://g3gg0.de/projects/PPModd/PPModd.exe
*** = hint for language translators
since PPModd uses XML files, some guys of you may be able build an own tool
which opens two TEXT chunk XML files and compare one language (english)
line for line and let the user add/remove text entries so the two english
chunks match - and this tool will have to do *the same* changes
for all the other languages in the TEXT chunk.
now you would be able to use the other languages as a base and you would
just have to translate the added/changed strings.
i did a very user-unfriendly script that does similar, but now even i cannot
remember how it worked exactly hehe
alternatively you could use all the other nokia-PPMs as translation source - simply dump
all strings and make a database for all english -> chinese, spain, german, .. combinations.
now you can build a string-translator which takes the EN.. subchunk
and translates every string into the e.g. chinese meaning.
this is a public release.
no server login needed anymore.
also many bugs were fixed.
PPModd is a project designed for editing DCT4 / TIKU PPM files
its main goal is to edit those PPM files with a simple GUI and no need for
knowledge of the file structure or need to handle other tools.
its a out-of-the-box PPM editor.
initially i intended to distribute it in a commercial way, but now im not sure
if thats the right decision. however, i really appreciate any donation
via paypal, bank transfer or even some hardware! ([email protected])
that PPM stuff really was an assload full of work since its sometimes really
tricky. and we're not talking about some nights - its more about some
hundred hours...
well, ok. but the result really is a good thing thanks to TriX' plugin system
and fully based on XML (thx@krisha for your help!). with XML its really flexible
regarding extensions like automated translators or such.
to edit some strings, you have to do this:
- start PPModd
- drag 'n drop the PPM file into the window
- expand PPM
- click TEXT
- click the "Edit content" button
- wait
- still wait
- change the strings you wish (makes sense to change only those which are existent..)
- OK
- "Create PPM"
- flash that created PPM file
to translate a phone's PPM into another language (in this example lets say chinese):
before:
- find a PPM of a phone that is similar to yours and already has the wanted language. we need the FONT, CPI, LDB and AORD chunk from that.
- we DONT need the TEXT because for sure many strings were added/deleted (but you can use it as reference) ***
- it makes no sense to use a 8310 PPM for an 2610b of course...
step 1:
- open two instances of PPModd
- open both PPM files, the source and the destination file
step 2: (this is making editing more comfortable)
- in the destination-PPM (the phone you want have translated) choose the EN.. subchunk in TEXT chunk and copy it
- open an UTF8-capable (!!!) text or XML editor and selet edit->paste
- now you can (or let) edit the language strings (UTF16 and TOKEN are not needed, you can keep or delete them)
- when everything was translated, copy everything (edit->copy)
- in PPModd with destination-PPM again rightclick the TEXT section and select paste
- make sure the "----end----" chunk is the last in the list (rightclick, up/down)
step 3:
- in the source-PPM (the one of the similar phone that has the language already) look for subchunks that have names like the language (e.g. CHNS1, ZH17 (zhongguo/chinese) etc) normally thats in LDB, AORD, CPI
- copy those and paste them in the chunks on the destination-PPM
- also copy the FONT subchunk if the language has other letters (chinese obviously has....)
- build PPM
- test
of course it makes sense to check first, if the phone is capable of e.g. chinese before you pay someone for translating ;)
i had some phones which will just show [][][] although everything it needs was in the PPM.
to check that, just change some string like "Insert SIM card" to check if it works.
DON'T BLAME ME FOR ANY PROBLEM THIS APP CAUSES.
i know that this tool is far from perfect, but for the things i used it, it was always enough.
use it on your own risk.
Known Issues:
- some flasher/phone combinations require to set "Options" -> "core.fmt.phoenix.skip_claudia" to "1" else you will get no network or a "dead" acting phone
- 2610 and maybe others (DCT4Plus) PPM just readable when setting 'plugins.PPModify.ppm_header_ver' to '1' in option dialog
- 2610 and maybe others (DCT4Plus) PPM not buildable yet. build would succeed, but phone may not be able to read that PPM (to be tested)
- not all phones allow e.g. chinese letters, even with FONT, AORD, etc chunks. no idea why that. maybe pinyin support is not compiled into firmware.
- some newer phones (those with NAND flash for PPM) do not contain the "normal" PPM structure, but a FAT FS with a) a PPM file or b) dirs. in case of a) its able to modify after extracting the file. in case of b) theres no real chance to edit the PPM
Download: http://g3gg0.de/projects/PPModd/PPModd.exe
*** = hint for language translators
since PPModd uses XML files, some guys of you may be able build an own tool
which opens two TEXT chunk XML files and compare one language (english)
line for line and let the user add/remove text entries so the two english
chunks match - and this tool will have to do *the same* changes
for all the other languages in the TEXT chunk.
now you would be able to use the other languages as a base and you would
just have to translate the added/changed strings.
i did a very user-unfriendly script that does similar, but now even i cannot
remember how it worked exactly hehe
alternatively you could use all the other nokia-PPMs as translation source - simply dump
all strings and make a database for all english -> chinese, spain, german, .. combinations.
now you can build a string-translator which takes the EN.. subchunk
and translates every string into the e.g. chinese meaning.