Mobile Web Server: new release 1.5 available!
It’s that time of the year again, Mobile Web Server 1.5 beta has been released.
Brings easier access rights management, intelligent network handling, improved RSS feeds for effortless sharing and more.
This stuff might sound familiar, because we have discussed those here in the blog and other media. The access rights management page is a personal win for me, it makes life so much easier. Users are still added in the device UI, that’s an architectural feature we couldn’t change anymore.
The new RSS feed is really something to check out. With that you can share content, contextual information or even your own custom feed if you have one. Because the feed is put together and served via the mymobilesite.net service, it is always available even when your site is down. You will find the feed by logging in at mymobilesite.net, and navigating to Edit account -> Feed settings. There are some defaults set up, but you should tune it to your liking.
For you developer types out there, we have now opened up the possibility to add own custom (Python) applications into the MWS framework. This means that your own application can utilize the security framework and be shown in the MWS menu just like the other apps. Head over to MWS wiki to read the tutorial and to get the example applications. There are also a couple of new REST APIs created for Calendar (checking calendar data and making new requests).
Last but not least, check out our new promo video at Nokia Conversations channel.
BTW. I am actually away this week, mostly without net access (can you believe it!). But don’t worry, my colleagues are reading all the comments and replying to you as necessary.
-Jukka
I cannot install MWS 1.5 on my N95-1 V30.0.015.
I already have python 1.4.4 installed and the other requiered plugins but I get an “Installation Failed” message.
I read that this new version includes the version 1.4.5 of Python but I don’t want to uninstall my current version.
What can I do???
Regards.
Hi Carlos.
Some of the functionality in MWS 1.5 requires the new 1.4.5 PyS60. New script shell is not yet available, but it will be in the near future. Otherwise there should be no problem updating to newer version of PyS60. Everything should work with that if it has worked with the older one.
In which phase do you get the error message? The installation has two phases. First comes the installer package that asks all the questions and finishes rather quickly. Then comes the real installation/updating phase that takes little longer. Both have their own progress bars.
Juha,
I get the error message on the “long” installation (the second one).
I managed to get installed but I had to remove Python 1.4.4, the script sheel and the megaPyModulePack 1.5.2.
But with the MWS installed, I can’t install the MegaPyModule Pack 1.5.2 nor the new version, the 2.0. Therefore, my Python apps (PyMoneta, nShatter, PyPiwo, among others) won’t run anymore.
I uninstalled the MWS and the Python 1.4.5 kept installed and now I could install the new megaPy 2.0 BUT I can’t reinstall the MWS. I get that message on the long installation, again.
It’s an incompatibility problem between the MWS and the MegaPymodulePack (specially one ot its components).
I hope this helps to develop an compatible verison of MWS for those who have python apps installed.
Cheers!
All installed with the update on my N95 and things seem slightly faster overall. There seems to be less load on the device, and accessing the site, whether logged in or not, seems faster. I am working through Google Chrome right now, so that might add to the perceived speed difference.
Some items with this update:
- I always lose my custom stylesheet when doing an update. The whole site is pretty much nuked, though because my MWS/Data file isn’t, it looks for the CSS that is no longer there. That would be a harder thing to manage, in terms of keeping customized site templates, but that would really make it easier towards making sure these updates work.
- This time around, I lost also the HTML/Python edits that I did. Things like making my own custom start page (which I really like, but should have been in Python), and changes to the Blog and Presence template code which (of course) were overwritten with the new pages. Thankfully, I did back up everything to my memory card before doing the update
It will just be a matter of going back and redoing a lot of code.
- I noticed that the app URLs are different. They are more descriptive, yet the old links still work. Great job there!
- Really liking the new Access Rights page. Much simpler (and given a new site skin, it might be easier to work with
- RSS doesn’t seem to work for me in terms of pulling my Blog feed into Jaiku. The issue might be on their end though so I’ll have to test some more
All in all, I feel good about this update. Personalization issues aside, this is still a very slick solution. In terms of things to look at for the future (or a developer looking for something to do), integration with Presence services such as Friend View, Sports Tracker, and nviNe would be great as they essentially do the same thing, but are hosted services. Being one that can “host your own viNe” would make even more fun for services like that.
I’ll look into writing up something about personalizing the MWS skins after I peer through the changes in this new one. I’ll have a better way towards doing some things, and hopefully in a way that will not break on the next update.
Again, keep up the great work. Folks here in the US don’t get it; but I do. And what you do really has enabled a level of freedom for me that’s just hard to let go of.
Antoine, thanks, we can always rely on your valuable feedback
Custom CCS: yep, all of the custom content is lost when updating and I think it’s mentioned also on the documentation. That’s not good, but trying to keep everything is not that easy. Let’s take a look if stylesheet could be saved, since there is a dependency to settings (which are saved).
Feeds: Yep, Jaiku doesn’t seem to work with any feeds I have recently tried (such as this blog). I haven’t yet found a way to federate stuff into Jaiku. Maybe they will fix importing at some point.
US: Folks need to have smartphones (and even S60 in our case) first, then they might get it
Thanks Jukka;
I’ll add this to a post (hopefully sometime this week), but it would be great to have the AddThis.com button to be another default button. This would enable MWS content writers to better get their content out to search engines and such, and thereby add some more visiblility for the MWS.
I’ve got to add it back to mine since this and a few other items were lost that really added some solid funcitonality.
Getting more folks S60 smartphones is really an aim of mine. I just don’t have the funds to give phones away, because I really would if I could. Then things like MWS could be much easier marketed.
Antoine, all: To highlight once more the updating procedure everything under /Mobile Web Server/htdocs will be deleted at installation time. So be sure to back up your own stuff in there before doing the install. If you have created new folders under /Mobile Web Server those are kept however.
Is there any reason why the Feed Settings don’t also appear within the MWS Control Panel? Its only manageable from the MyMobileSite > Settings area. It would seem like one would want to manage this aspect just as we are doing access rights.
On the presence page in MWS would it be possible to have a link like
http://stable.toolserver.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=MWS¶ms=51.0632_N_1.3085_W_region
So that the Location Coordinates could be viewed in the mapping system of choice.
The link to Nokia landmark unfortunately only works where viewed in S60 browser.
@ARJWright: There is a technical reason, the feeds are hosted on the portal and not the phone part.
@John Bamber: Yes, you can have the link there but you need to edit the Presence page a bit. Check here: http://blogs.s60.com/2008/06/more_about_the_location_featur.