SunriseXP reference

About

This is a reference for the settings in the Sunrise XP application. Those unfamiliar with this application might want to read the tutorial first. This reference was originally part of the Help documentation bundled with the application, but was converted to Wiki format to facilitate community writing.

TODO:

• Add screenshots.

Document Properties

Main tab

Document section

Name

The name of the document. A document name can be up to 26 characters long, per the Plucker specification.

Click the ellipsis button next to the text field to attach a Date Stamp to the document name.

Category

Here you can assign a category to the document. A category can be up to 15 characters long.

You can either pick the category from the list or enter custom category. You can also edit the list of categories.

Note that you can assign only one document category. (The Plucker format allows for multiple document categories, but this is not supported by Sunrise XP.)

Language

The document's language.

Currently, the language is used only for classification purposes. In a future release, the list of languages will be expanded to include non-Western languages such as Russian and Chinese. The language setting will then determine which character encoding is used in the Plucker document. (For example: Windows-1250, Big5, G2312)

As of the current release, documents are always encoded in Windows-1252, which is suitable only for Western European languages (English, French, German, etc.) and Indonesian.

Source section

The Source is where Sunrise XP starts retrieving a document. It must be one of the following:

• Web page.
• RSS feed.
• Atom feed.
• Plain text file.

URL / File

The URL or filename of the source. Click the ellipsis button to browse for the file.

The following formats are recognized:

• Website URLs starting with "http://" or "https://".
• File URLs starting with "file://".
• Windows file paths. For example "c:\temp\document.html".

Link Depth

The link depth determines how "deep" Sunrise XP will follow links. Every anchor link is considered to be one level deeper than its containing page. Embedded images are considered to be at the same depth as their containing page.

A link depth of 0 means that links are not followed. In this case only the source (and any images it contains) are retrieved.

Note: Excercise caution when setting the link depth to values greater than 2. Greater link depths usually increase the amount of downloaded content (and with it the document's size) significantly.

Bandwidth can be quite expensive for web site operators and downloading too much content from a site is downright rude. Be considerate and try to download as little content as possible.

Restrict to domain / server / directory

You can restrict which links Sunrise XP follows. The table below describes the settings and their effect:

Example URL: http://www.server.com/directory/index.html
Setting	Description & Examples
Restrict to domain	Download only links in the "server.com" domain: http://www.server.com/index.html http://images.server.com/logo.gif
Restrict to server	Download only links on the server "www.server.com": http://www.server.com/index.html http://www.server.com/images/logo.gif
Restrict to directory	Download only links in the directory "www.server.com/directory/" or any of its subdirectories: http:///www.server.com/directory/index.html http:///www.server.com/directory/images/logo.gif

Images embedded in HTML pages are NOT subject to the link restrict setting. This behaviour is by design, as many sites store their images on another server or domain. Use a link filter if you want to exclude particular images.

Update only if source has changed

Enable this setting to have Sunrise XP check whether the source has changed since the last update. If the source has not changed, the update is ended prematurely and the document is marked as "Not Modified".

This setting should be enabled for documents that you update frequently. It saves time and bandwidth for both you and the web site.

Technical Note: Sunrise XP compares sources by computing their CRC32 checksums.

Image section

Colors

This lets you set what type of images you want to include in the document. See the table below for recommended usage:

Recommended color depths for Palm OS devices
Color Depth	Recommended Usage
Black & White (1bpp)	Older PalmOS devices with monochrome screens. Note that Plucker works best in 1bpp mode on monochrome devices.
4 shades of gray (2bpp)	Older Palm OS devices with monochrome screens. Use if 1bpp is not satisfactory.
16 shades of gray (4bpp)	PalmOS devices with monochrome screens that support this bit depth. Use if 1bpp and 2bpp are not satisfactory.
230 colors (8bpp)	Older PalmOS color devices that support only 8bpp or newer color devices with a limited amount of available memory.
Thousands of colors (16bpp)	New PalmOS 5 color devices with enough available memory.

Maximum Size

This lets you specify the maximum size of the images included in the document. Larger images are rescaled to fit these dimensions.

Consult the table below for the recommended images sizes when using the latest Plucker release (as of this writing) running on Palm OS handhelds.

Recommended maximum image sizes for Palm OS handhelds
Handheld Display	With vertical scrollbar	Without vertical scrollbar
160 x 160 pixels	150 x 160 pixels	159 x 160 pixels
320 x 320 pixels	300 x 320 pixels	318 x 320 pixels
320 x 480 pixels (portrait)	300 x 480 pixels	318 x 480 pixels
480 x 320 pixels (landscape)	460 x 320 pixels	478 x 320 pixels

Note that these dimensions were determined through trial-and-error and do not represent the "definitive" sizes.

Include full-size alternate images

Enable this setting to include the full-size versions of any rescaled images. Tap the rescaled image in the Plucker viewer to bring up the full-size version.

Note: The full-size version is only included if the image was rescaled using a factor less than 90%.

This setting is handy for images that become unreadable after being shrunk. For example: comics, maps and diagrams. Including the full-size version may increase the size of the document significantly, however.

Output tab

Schedule section

Disable automatic and scheduled updates

Enable this setting to disable automatic updates.

Documents with no explicit schedules are considered to have an "automatic" schedule, meaning they are always updated whenever the HotSync conduit runs or when Sunrise XP is run through an update shortcut. This setting can disable the default functionality.

Schedules

Here you can add/edit/remove schedules.

It's possible to specify multiple schedules. You can reorder the schedules by dragging and dropping them with the mouse.

Destination section

Specifies the destination to store the document.

It's possible to specify multiple destinations. You can reorder the destinations by dragging and dropping them with the mouse.

There must be at least one destination configured for the document to be updated. If no destination are configured, you will be notified when you attempt to update the document.

Feed tab

The settings on this tab only apply to RSS/Atom feeds. They have no effect when used with regular web sites.

Formatting section

Include feed logo

Includes the feed logo on the document home page. You may want to leave out the logo if it takes up too much space. Include feed description

Includes the feed description on the document page. You may want to leave out the description out if it's too long. (This way you don't have to scroll vertically to get to the actual content.)

Layout

See the table below for a description of each setting.

Feed Layout
Layout	Description
Single page list	Lists all feed items on the home page. Best used for feeds with short descriptions.
Single page list + index	Same as above, but adds an index at the top of the page to quickly jump to each feed item. Best used for feeds with longer descriptions.
Multiple pages + index	Places each feed item description on a separate page and adds navigational links at the top and bottom of each page. Recommended for feeds with full entries that have a lot of content.

Feed Items section

Sort Date

Determines how the feed items are sorted. It's only possible to sort by publication date if the feed, indeed, contains publication dates for each item. (Not all feeds do.)

Sorting by date received only makes sense when saving the feed items.

Save feed items

By saving the feed items, Sunrise XP can track changes to a feed over time. Primarily, it can determine whether a particular feed item is new and track when a feed item was first retrieved (handy if the feed has no publication dates). To achieve this, it compares the saved feed to the new feed on the the server.

Limit

Limits the number of saved feed items. It's recommended you leave this on Automatically, unless you want to output older feed items as well.

Output only new feed items

Causes only new feed items to be outputted. This way you can ignore older feed items you already have read.

It's recommended you use this setting in combination with a Date Stamp. This prevents existing, older documents (with older feed items) to be overwritten automatically.

If this setting is enabled and no new feed items are detected, the document is marked as "Not Modified" and no document is outputted.

Advanced tab

Update section

Store downloads in cache

Stores downloads in the Windows internet cache.

The cache is shared with other applications that use the Windows Internet functions. (Most notably, Internet Explorer.)

Use the "Internet Options" in Control Panel to manage the cache.

Send Internet Explorer cookies

Causes Sunrise XP to send cookies from Internet Explorer. This is primarily meant for accessing login-based web sites.

Priority

Affects the order in which documents are updated during HotSync or through an update shortcut. Documents with a higher priority are updated first, documents with a lower priority are updated last.

Links section

Include URL info

Includes information for each link in the Plucker document.

It's recommended you disable this when updating a document on the local filesystem.

Don't display unresolved links

Removes links that are not included in the document. You might find this less distracting.

Link Filters section

Using link filters you can exclude, include or rewrite particular links.

It's possible to specify multiple link filters. You can reorder the filters by dragging and dropping them with the mouse.

Preferences

General tab

Interface section

Reopen SXL at startup

Enable this setting to have SunriseXP automatically reopen the last active SXL when it starts up.

Note that if an unsaved or blank SXL was last open when the application exited, SunriseXP will start up with a blank SXL.

Fill in URL from clipboard automatically

With this setting enabled Sunrise XP automatically fills in the source of any new documents if there's a URL on the clipboard.

This setting is best used in combination with copying URLs from web pages or the web browser's address bar.

Close update window automatically

Enable this setting to have the Update window closed automatically after all updates have been completed.

Note that the Update window is always left open in case there were any failed updates.

Updates section

Maximum active updates

This setting controls the maximum number of documents that Sunrise XP will update at a time. Sunrise XP can update up to 5 documents simultaneously.

Note: Updating more documents requires more memory and more network bandwidth. The optimal number varies for each computer configuration (speed, amount of memory) and connection type (dial-up, broadband). Experiment for best results.

Retain update reports

This setting determines how long update reports are retained on disk. Specify "0 days" to have the reports deleted when Sunrise XP exits.

AutoUpdate section

Disable Windows Task Scheduler integration

When AutoUpdate is enabled, Sunrise XP automatically schedules the next update through Windows Task Scheduler when it exits. This ensures that the documents are updated even when Sunrise XP is not running. Check this setting to disable this functionality.

Network tab

Proxy Server section

If you must access the internet through a proxy server, you can configure the settings here.

• Use system proxy settings: It is recommended that you use the system proxy settings. Sunrise XP will then use the proxy settings configured in "Internet Options" in the Control Panel. This works in nearly all cases.

• Use custom proxy settings: If necessary, you can fill in the proxy settings manually. It is assumed you have the required information at hand. If not, contact your network administrator.

Identification section

User Agent

The User Agent determines how Sunrise XP identifies itself to web servers. You should only change this field if necessary.

Click the ellipsis button to access a list of User Agent presets. (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.)