Collapse all Symbian^3 Product Developer Library

 

This page describes how to optimise how ECom finds ROM-based plug-ins. It is intended for device integration engineers who produce and configure phone ROMs.

On startup, ECom finds which plug-ins are available are registers them. On releases before v9.1, it scanned drives for plug-in registration resource files, and then loaded each individually. v9.1 introduced the SPI file, which concatenates several resource files together. It is used to store the registration resources for all the ECom plug-ins that are on a read-only drive. This allows ECom to register the ROM-based plug-ins without having to scan the file system for individual resource files.

The use of SPI files is optional, and is a decision taken by the device integrators that build the ROM. If SPI files are not used, then ECom scans for individual plug-in registration resource files.

Specifying the plug-in in an Obey file

To specify that a plug-in should be included in a ROM, use the keyword __ECOM_PLUGIN, or its more concise macro equivalent ECOM_PLUGIN, in the component's Obey (.iby) file. These also provide the information that the ROM building process needs to create the SPI file.

For more information about the __ECOM_PLUGIN keyword, refer to the ROM Tools Guide in the Application Development Toolkit available for download at http://developer.symbian.org/main/tools_and_kits/index.php.

Creating the SPI file for ROMs

You can specify that an SPI file should be created, or not, either by making a setting in the obey files being built, or by giving an argument to the buildrom tool used to build the ROM:

• To use obey file commands, specify either enable_spi (to create the SPI file) or disable_spi

• To use the buildrom command line, specify either -spi (to create the SPI file) or –nospi. These command line flags override the obey file keywords if they are also used.

buildrom creates the SPI file in the ECom server’s private directory for each drive in the ROM image. No further action is necessary.

For more information on buildrom and other ROM building tools, refer to the ROM Tools Guide in the Application Development Toolkit available for download at http://developer.symbian.org/main/tools_and_kits/index.php.

Creating the SPI file for the emulator

You can create SPI files for use on the emulator, for purposes of testing or troubleshooting their use. Both the SPI file and the ECOM plug-in resource files can exist at the same time in the emulator build: ECom will use the SPI file, and ignore the individual ECom plug-in resource files.

To do this, run the spitool tool, specifying the location of the input registration resource files, and of the output SPI file. Set the output location to be the private ECom directory (\private\10009D8F) on the drive where the plug-in resource files were sourced.

For reference information on the spitool tool, refer to the ROM Tools Guide in the Application Development Toolkit available for download at http://developer.symbian.org/main/tools_and_kits/index.php.