Last updated - July 28, 2002

REX 6000 Web Sync

Web Sync Sites/Services
A listing of available and soon to be available web sync sites and tools developed to replace Xircom's cancelled REX.NET service.:
VREX.NET
(Set Intellisync for local or web content)
Cool XML Tools & Resources
Miscellaneous Web Sync Information Use Email to get Web Content on Your REX

If you are a developer, consider joining the REX Developers Mailing List - see our Internet Resources page for info on subscribing. Also see our Programmer/SDK page for general information on developing add-ins and desktop programs for the REX.

Web Sync Options <back to top>

On September 1, 2001, Xircom closed their REX.NET web sync service. Though the REX.NET content left a lot to be desired, many REX users had enjoyed the ability to sync web content (news, entertainment, sports, and weather information, to name a few) to their REX.

Luckily, the talented REX development community has stepped up to fill the web sync void! Below is a non-technical summary of the two types of web sync options available to replace REX.NET sync. (Thanks to Larry for helping to summarize the current options.)

Option 1: Allow users to select a range of content and sync it to their REX in web format. See here on this page for examples of this type of tool that are in development.

Option 2: Replace the REX.NET web server with an alternate web server (or servers!) to provide web content. See here on this page for this type of service:

VREX.NET (From Victor) <back to top>

Note: Victor has apparently "left" the REX community - there have been no updates or communications from him for some time now. Version 1.3 of VREX.NET is likely the final version we will see.

Victor has released version 1.3 of VREX.NET, his program that redirects the REX.NET sync in Intellisync to other content on your hard drive or (new in 1.3) other web sync sites! See the VREX.NET configuration dialog below:

VREX.NET:

VREX.NET and Win2000 - fix for missing "MSWINSCK.OCX" problem. (From Daniel)

When I tried to run VREX.NET on my Win 2000 laptop, I received the following error message:

"Component 'MSWINSCK.OCX' or one of it's dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or corrupt."

Daniel (also on Win 2000) also got the error message (this file also works w/Win 2000 and Win XP):

"I had the same problem (also W2K). I've attached the missing file. Copy the file to c:\winnt\system32\ or where your windows installation resides. Then use your command prompt to run the following program: regsvr32 c:\winnt\system32\mswinsck.ocx . It should return with a message box that says that the operation succeeded. It just registers the activex control on your computer."

VREX.NET and Win 98 - fix for missing "MSWINSCK.OCX" problem. (From Maik)

"...My contribution to your service is: the two needed files to get VREX working with WIN98 (and WIN95):

VREX.NET can not sync files larger than 8KB. (9/13/01)

Victor has confirmed that VREX.NET has a problem syncing files larger than 8KB. This affects users trying to use it to sync content files from their hard drive. Victor is looking into this issue and hopefully we'll have an update in the near future.

8KB limit may be linked to your OS. (From Daniel)

". . .just upgraded my operating system to Windows XP corporate final (build 2600) and vrexnet works perfect. No troubles with missing components or 8k boundaries. That's rather interesting because I had installed Win XP RC 1 before and couldn't get vrexnet to work. Under Win 2k I only had problems with files bigger than 8k. Seems to be rather OS dependent."

Here are the first couple of paragraphs from Victor's readme:

"How it works
-----------------

Virtual Rex.Net [VRex.Net, VRexNet, VRN] is a program that acts like the Sync server at sync.rex.net. Therefore a registry setting is changed to that Intellisync connects to locahost instead of sync.rex.net

Content
----------

Now everybody can relatively easily add his/her own content. If you want, you can write a program that fetches your favorite page and converts it to the new xml standard and places in VRN's working directory. VRN will then parse this xml file into a category the next time you run Intellisync and do a web sync.

There are already some programs that do that, and more are under way

Operation
---------

The first time you run the program, it will ask you to select a directory. This directory will be the one where the "log.txt" file will be written. It is also the directory where the program searches for the various xml files that will be parsed to content.txt that will then be send to your Rex.

Then run Intellisync and sync with Rex.Net. Afterwards you will see that there is an item in your Web section."

Web Sync Communication <back to top>

REX.NET/Intellisync traffic captured. (From Peter)

Peter has helped before with REX communication captures. Now he's working on the REX.NET/Intellisync communication.

"I captured the traffic bewteen Intellisync and www.rex.net. I'll post the results later as there is a lot of cut'n'paste to do bewteen the sniffer's log and a text editor. The rex(intellisync) client posts the username, password, rex serial no. amd its all done in plain text, thus exposing your password to any traffic sniffer. A session cookie is obtained and the session is closed. A second session is opened using the new cookie and data about the software version of the rex and intellisync is sent along with the language, country (from worldclock) etc. There's a request for ads (empty) and a request for content. But I'm not going to bore you further. Hopefully I'll post a complete session similar to following sample later this evening for those willing to torture themselves."

For a sample of Peter's work look here.

For a zip file with his results, look here.

Web sync investigation results. (From Meert)

Has anyone tried to figure out the way the Rex is connecting to http://www.rex.net ? I was wondering how I can create my own Web Portal where I can put my own newspages and stuff.

I had a look at rexsync.exe with Hexedit and found this URL: http://sync.rex.net/portal/requestfilter

If you go there, you'll get this error:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<error request="malformed request"
type="RNERR_INVALIDREQUEST">RNERR_INVALIDREQUEST</error>

If I look at the following lines in Rexsync.exe, I find stuff like this:

RexNetConnector RNERR_ALREADYLOGGEDIN error
opensession_response</opensession>
</serialnumber><serialnumber>
</password><password>
</username><username>
<opensession>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
getstartupblock_response</getstartupblock>" ([email protected])

Web sync is more than an http get. (From Helge)

"Have a look at http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0001729/rex6000/sync.txt you can see there that it isn't a simple http get. You have to post some XML formated commands (with some of your data) and get back a XML formated reply... Currently I'm writing a http proxy that captures Intellisyncs posts and sends back his own reply of converted web pages that you have picked out..." ([email protected])

Web sync content generator. (From Joseph D.) <back to top>

Joseph appears to have stopped development on this tool. For an up-to-date content generator that works with the rex.mamy.to site, see here. For other XML conversion tools, see here.

"I now have semi good content being generated by my scripts. They now make some of the html content from webpages viewable on the rex. I am going to add some more useful content tomorrow. Advanced webpages still give me a little bit of trouble and will create bad wml. I have to figure out what yet needs to be filtered out. If interested take a look. I have moved them to a new server so goto:

http://www.2930online.com/rex

Does Anyone have a copy of the web icons that rex.net was using? I would like to get a copy. Anyone have any other icons? I am in need of some more descriptive icons then the email looking one from rex.net."

Cool XML Tools and Resources

WAPTool converts HTML to WML. (From Erik)

"I found an interesting piece of software, It's called WapTool and it converts HTML into WML. It has some nice features and is really easy to use. Best of all it free. You can get it at;

http://www.argogroup.com/waptool"

HTML > WML converter. (From Marek)

"Hi all! I released today html to wml converter. This is first version, but it works:-) This time no sources - sorry. But you have precompiled executables for linux, dos and win32. If someone will make unusable wml content with this - please let me know."

BMP to WBMP conversion tool. (From Larry) <back to top>

". . . I also did find some good utilities to convert BMP and JPEG's to WBMP's. This way when we figure out the image format, we should be able to code something up to create proper REX images. . . . The WBMP converter is here: http://www.checkit.cz/ and is called WAP-Pictus. You have to register but otherwise it is free and defintely worth it."

Tool to create icons for web sync. (From Marek)

Marek (provider of the rex.mamy.to web sync site) has created a new tool:

"I made small tool to convert wbmp image to 'xml' format. This works under windows. How to convert some image to wbmp, look into Dana's website [see BMP to WBMP tool above] or search about wap tools. You can download this from http://rex.mamy.to/rextools/wbmp2 rex.zip."

XML conversion Tools, Editors, and Browsers (From Maik)

"http://www.xmlsoftware.com A very good resource... just in case someone didn't know this..."

Miscellaneous Web Sync Information <back to top>

Web sync can support more than 8 categories. (From Antmelnat)

"Just did a web sync with rex.net. They have added a new category of sorts "rex.net" with the message they emailed to everyone about the demise of the R6K and rex.net. Apparently more than 8 web sync categories can be added to the web section in the R6K. Wonder if this has any implications for our developers? Check it out and see."

Deleting web content from your REX.

There are two ways:

  1. Initialize your REX using REX tools. This is pretty drastic, as it clears of everything off your REX and also removes your Intellisync for REX settings. It will take a few minutes to reset your Intellisync for REX configuration and resync your PIM data to your REX.
  2. Use the "webclean" add-in from Damjan. (Easiest way).

You can not use REX Tools to delete Web content directly by deleting items listed in the window. The web content does not show up in the list of items on the REX.

Web Sync Sites/Services <back to top>

Web Content/Sync Tools <back to top>

These tools allow you to point at web sites (or grab content from them) and sync that content to your REX, ususally after convernting that content to local documents stored on your computer. There are tools here that sync web sites to both Web content format, and to memos you would read on your REX as notes.

Web2Rex ver 1.5 (From Laurent)

"After the loss of the source code of Web2Rex several months ago, I finally bring back to life Web2Rex with this version 1.5. Unzip it anywhere and click the "REX Info" button to know more about what you can do and how. Hope the REX communitity will enjoy it.

Important Update: "Yahoo just changed the layout of its web site just after web2rex was released. Here are the customization of the tags you may want to do have the news working again (maybe you already figured out the changes to do by looking at the help)

* If you download the "technology news" you need toreplace the original tag "Computers and Internet" with "]More Science"
* If you download the "sport news" you need to replace its previous tag "Internet Broadcast" with "]Photo [" (without the "" and with a space character right after Photo)

"

Web2Rex ver. 1.3 "secrets revealed!" (From Laurent)

"Hi, as promised, version 1.3 includes much more features:

1) weather forecast: USA and Europe (in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish language).
2) News: 3 categories of news in English or French
3) Movie Summaries: in English or in French
4) Stocks and exchange rates
5) Driving direction: in the USA and France
6) Astrology: the horoscopes of the day (in English)

And dont forget to read the release notes for more info and FAQ. Enjoy.

"Web2Rex version 1.3 has some "undocumented" features that I just forgot to mention when I wrote the release notes. Hope you will find some of them usefull:

1 - AutoRun your web downloads
2 - The 5th element
3 - Start IntelliSync from a specific directory
4 - Web2Rex is computer "pollution free"
5 - Automatic Exchange Rates in Euro
6 - Start Web2Rex in debug mode"

See here for detailed descriptions of the hidden features!

"Thanks from Laurent (on January 22, 2002):

"Rexers, thanks for your support and ideas. But as everyone can imagine there is no limit of what you could imagine to download in Rex from the web (your specific web pages, your country, music news, etc) ... but in practice it takes time, efforts and anyway, at the end there are always compromises.

So because I do not have enough spare time to release updates of Web2Rex every two days (it's not like I don't want to, but I have a life beside REX you know... ;o), I plan to come later with a more flexible/customizable version of Web2Rex (let's say a version 2.0) but this will not happened before one month from now. Hope you'll be patient and won't get ride of you REX for big Palm ;o)

PS: it's highly recomanded you select the setting option "delete previous web downloads" otherwise you may have the overlap of icon display bug on the REX (no big deal, but it's not nice)."

Sync web content to your REX using memos. (From Sebastian)

"I'm a rex6000 user and i've made a little tool to synchronize web infos on my rex : a little program made in delphi to convert text web pages to outlook notes.You must have Microsoft office 2000 & a Windows OS with "active desktop" ...

How it works ? It runs microsoft word (in background), downloads the web page, save it as text, opens outlook (in background too), add a note with the web page text.

You can actually configure a list of web pages and specify a title for each note.

The categorie for all notes is REXWEB_(current_date) : it allows the program to delete old notes, so you only have the most recent on your rex ...you can autorun the program with the /autorun command

If you want to test it, you can download the program here (click on the "The REX Corner" link on Sebastian's page.)

Aaron's java programs grab content for sync to your REX.

See the readme.txt file on Aaron's site. He has some java programs available that can be used along with Victor's VREX.NET program to download and sync web content to you REX. He has java programs with source code available for download at http://www.voisine.org/rex:

  1. bmp2rex.class converts a 56x51 1 bit per pixel bmp file to rex icon data.
  2. Slashdot.class grabs today's stories from slashdot.org and outputs a rex websync file.
  3. Rex6kNews.class grabs the 20 most recent stories from rex6000.org news and outputs a rex websync file.
  4. weather.class grabs a five day forcast for a given city from weather.yahoo.com and outputs a rex websync file.
  5. stocks.class grabs stock quotes from finance.yahoo.com and outputs a rex websync file.
  6. movies.class movie listings from movies.yahoo.com and outputs a rex websync file.
  7. Content.bat is an example batch file to get it all working. This batch file should be modified to change locality and stock preferences. If you have more than four xml files, the images get drawn on top of each other for some reason I haven't yet been able to determine, however you can still select the empty space where the 4th-8th icons are supposed to be drawn, It's just ugly. The batch file can be set up to run automatically as often as you want from the win-doze scheduler in the task bar.

Aaron has added versions of the above programs that grab only 8KB of content, to work with VREX.NET until the 8KB sync limit for local content is fixed by Victor. Those class files have "8k" in their name - e.g., slashdot8k.class.

Download the Java run time environment here: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/ and install it.

The jakarta-oro-2.0.4.jar file is required for slashdot and rex6knews. Download it from Aaron's site and copy it to:

- C:\Program Files\JavaSoft\JRE\1.3.1\lib\ext\

From Aaron: "The jakarta-oro file is required for all the grabbers. It is a perl 5 regular expression engine that I use to match patterns in the html files to find relevant information even if they change other parts of the file."

Look here on our Websync page to download VREX.NET. See the readme.txt file on Aaron's site.

Some tips that may help users trying the Java programs:

  • For some reason, running the programs via the "Start/Run" command prompt does not appear to work in Win 2000 (and might not in Win 98 - untested as of yet). When run via the "Start/Run" command prompt, the xml files are not created. Instead, make a batch file and enter your command string for each content program you want to run, and run that batch file. (Here's an example batch file - you can simply modify the diretory paths to match your setup. Thanks to Daniel for the file.)
  • To run the weather program you'll need to use an underscore for cities with more than one word. For example, San Francisco must be entered on the command line in the proper place as San_Francisco. I have not been able to use a zip code as a parameter, which may just mean that the zipcode tested was too obscure for Yahoo weather!
  • If you want weather for multiple cities, you should be able to simply create a different line in the batch file for each city, and give the xml files different names (e.g., sdweather, sfweather).

An updated version of VREX.NET (see story above) will be required to sync the xml files created by the Java programs - except for Weather they tend to be larger than 8KB.

Rex.mamy.to - a site that replaces REX.NET <back to top>

http://www.rex.mamy.to/rexnet/start.php (From Majek)

Marek's site is a replacement for the REX.NET site that Xircom/Intel closed. His site allows you to use Intellisync to sync a wide range of content, and you can even add your own (public or private) content to sync from his site (including eBooks). There is no cost (amazingly!) and it works very well and reliably.

Go to: http://rex.mamy.to/rexnet/start.php" More content is being added all the time, including eBooks!

New things on the way for web sync. (From GPF)

"I'm developing a web-based program that works with rex.mamy.to to provide complex web information, like graphical weather report, finance/stock market information, etc. I figured by generating graphics on the fly, I can have precise control over rex screen. It may be possible to squeeze 1 week's weather report into one screen, or display stock prices/charts/headlines on rex.

It's a rather complex project, and I need other REXers' help. Currently I'm looking for a conversion function that can convert bmp to rex web format(base64 encoded text). My program is done in C#, but I have no difficulty to translate C++ code to C#.

Another issue is I don't have the bandwidth to host this program. When it's done, is there a REX user can kindly take over this program?

A early screen shot can be found here:

http://home.attbi.com/~ceciliachen/rex.html"

Meert's Grabber scripts are fully operational and tested! (From Mans)

Meert's "grabber" scripts allow you to set up content that is dynamic (updated on a schedule you set) and available for download to your REX via Marek's websync site.

Update to Meert's web sync content-grabber page. (From Meert)

"Thanks to Rich (blackmanx) there's a new version of my content grabbing page for http://rex.mamy.to.

Here's the explanation from Rich:

Meert's content grabber allows you to select just portions of a page for content creation. If you use Meert's Content Grabber to create content, you should be aware that V2.1 is now available. The code it produces to grab the page is far more robust (it includes error messages and tries to protect against bad HTML) and it allows you to add a title and a timestamp. Meert says he has coppied the new code to everyone's directory, it should say "Version 2.1" at the top of the index page when you click on it. In order to take advantage of it, you will need to regenerate your own content code:

  1. Rename your php file to a txt file.
  2. Take a look in the txt file to get your start and end tags
  3. Delete the txt file
  4. Click on the index.php file
  5. Verify you're running v2.1
  6. Enter the new tags, urls, etc.

Couple of things:

1. The new version will start the search for the "end text" AFTER it finds the "Start text" (avoiding those annoying blank pages.

  • End text is now optional (if you don't specify it, it will just grab to the end of the page)
  • If either start or end text are not found, it grabs from the begining/end of the page.
  • Meert's content grabber is available at: http://meert.kicks-ass.net/rex/wml/"

April 9, 2002: New content available via rex.mamy.to web download page (From GPF)

"I had some nice progress on the Rex Content Provider project. Now the generic module and weather module are almost finished. To have a preview of sample output, go to rex.mamy.to and sync "Graphical Weather Report Sample" under "Test" category to your REX. :)

I need some icons for the weather report. Can someone help me to create several 16*16 b/w bitmaps to represent "Snow", "Cloud","Rain","Sun","Wind" etc? I tried to make Sun icon myself, but it turned out very ugly. Thanks! Hope my site goes live soon!"

Rex.mamy.to updated January 23, 2002 (From Mans):

Rex.Mamy has online, real-time chat feature now!

~ just go to MainPage and click on the Chat:-) Link below the the message board link. Got to chat with a couple of rex users/developers there and really helped me out a lot with my configuring grabber scripts by Meert (Meert assisted me step-by-step actually, and eventually changed the settings himself!) I met two other Rex users there who quite apparently never post here at Rex Rumor (mike and jane).

Updated November 4, 2001:

Marek generously provides the only web-sync replacement site for REX users. His web sync site provides content ranging from weather to football news. Best of all, users can choose to add their own content and make it private or public. Thanks, Marek!

"Hi all!

I updated my site http://rex.mamy.to/rexnet/start.php. I updated Help/FAQ section and.... now pages can be updated automatically!

So, with dynamic pages you are able to have fresh news, weather etc. It can be updated once or twice a day. Just watch new field named Url:-)"

Updated 9/28/01

Now you can see on first page (in REX) icons of categories and all content is categorized. No more 'all in one page' :-) Some minor bugfixes (now there are only about 5% failed sync sessions!). And html to wml converter is coming soon...

Hawk521 tried it (before content was available) and the sync evidently does work!

"Okay Majek, I signed up. It actually did sync up. . ."

Aris was having some difficulty syncing to Marek's site, until . . .

"...I worked it out. I was using old Rex login and password ... I know... RTFM"

Several people have reported problems syncing with Marek's site. As Aris so gently reminds us, read the FAQ on Marek's site. Also, you'll need to have REX.Net sync selected in Intellisync, and your login/password must match the one you set up on Marek's site.

REXSync - http://www.crust.net/portal (From Chris M.)

Chris appears to have stopped work on this site - we haven't heard anything from him on it for quite a few months. (Jan 11, 2001)

Although Chris' site isn't fully functional yet, it is up and looks very good! You can create a new user account on it. Chris is working on the rest of the guts of the site:

" I'm just wrapping up coding a complete replacement for rex.net . . . You can take a look a the front end (which, fortuneatly did not get blown away...) at http://www.crust.net/portal."

The current message on his site when you create a new account (appears after you activate your account via a URL provided in an email sent at a mid-point in the registration process):

"UNDER CONSTRUCTION

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REXSync is currently in alpha testing. For this reason, logins are currently disabled.
You will be notified when REXSync is available for public use. Thanks for registering.

Please note that your password has NOT been changed and is still ##### [edited for use here]. Please do not report failed logins as bugs, as they are currently disabled..."

It looks cool!

 

Mailing lists and can help you replace content lost w/REX.NET. <back to top>

Antmelnat pointed out this use of Maillosaurus REX some time ago. You can use available REX programs to sync emails from Outlook to the REX as Notes for reading on the REX. (If you haven't yet, see here on our Add-ins and Other REX Programs page for links to the programs and more information on the technique.)

Additional web content sources. (From Greg)

Greg has done a great job of finding a range of providers with interesting content:

"Seeing the coming demise of rex.net coming, I found a few mailing lists to replace *all* of the rex.net channels that I had subscribed to. Using Maillosaurus REX with Outlook, this works very well. Details at my web site:

http://gregsearle.tripod.com/rex_net.html

If you know of other good mailing lists that are text-only or formatted for wireless devices and PDA's, please let me know and I'll add them to the page."

New email tools developed for the REX. (From Mihail)

"I have written a couple of macros to transfer e-mails to REX. As I hope I will do something else sometime, I have made also a special web page - www.rex6000.narod.ru, where you can find them. It may become also a Russian Rex 6000 web page (as I could not find any existing), but usually I am so lazy..."

Mihail must not be as lazy as he says, given his new page and macros! <g>

Ralf provides even more links and ideas.

"Dear REX6000 community,

With rex.net terminated - and as a Palm Vx + AvangGo user - I'm also struggling to get meaningful - up-to-date content easily into my REX6000. I liked very much the idea of Greg [based on Antmelnat's original idea] to use mailing lists and mailrex to have at least the information handy as a memo. Together with one of the find add-ins this is at least something.

I did some further digging about how to get content, and found an interesting way to grab content of real web-sites:

I'm using web2email services, such as "[email protected]", "[email protected]", "[email protected]", "[email protected]", to retrieve certain web-pages as email. With a filter in Outlook, this is transferred to a "REXcontent" folder, which then synchronizes into Memo with mailrex. Still a little bit awkward, but at least a way to go ahead without too much programming (I've go no idea how html, xml etc. works...).

Now I'm on the search for really smooth content, in text format. getweb grabpage.com from above send the information in a quite reasonable format. But how can I make the web-page retrieval a little bit more sophisticated, like tranferring a parameter to a form ? E.g., want to retrieve aviation weather for "LTBA" on the page http://adds.awc-kc.noaa.gov/projects/adds/tafs/. If I do it manually, I fill "LTBA" into the form and press the "TAF AND METAR" button. Any way to include these two actions into the url, so that the email robot can fetch it?

In any case, would be a good idea to collect meaningful text links for these purposes. Working on it and let you know."

<back to top>