Restoring a Lost NPDS Hit Count

By Grant Hutchinson

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Disclaimer
  3. Using Stewpot To Edit Your Hit Count
  4. Using SBM Utilities To Edit Your Hit Count
  5. Contact Information
  6. Change History

Introduction

Discussions on the NPDS mailing list prompted me to compile the following instructions on how to edit and restore your NPDS hit counter information using a soup editor.

Why would you need to do this?

Occasionally, your NPDS hit count will be reset during installation of a new version of the nHTTPd module. Other times, it becomes necessary to wipe your NPDS data and perform a fresh installation due to stability issues. This document will help you to restore your hard-won hit count to its former glory.

Disclaimer

This document offers instruction on modifying the internal system data on your Newton. Doing this has the potential of causing hanging, crashes or instability. In a worst case scenario, you may be required to perform a brain wipe, resulting in the complete loss of your data and the resetting of your Newton to its “fresh from the factory” state.

If you are not completely confident in what you’re doing, don’t do it. It’s as simple as that.

The author of this document is not responsible for any loss (data, hair, patience or otherwise) if you decide to plough ahead and follow the instructions contained in this document.

Using Stewpot To Edit Your Hit Count

Stewpot is a soup inspector and editing utility originally developed by Mark Underwood. Stewpot 1.1 can be downloaded, along with documentation, from UNNA.

  1. Make sure that NPDS is not running.
  2. Launch Stewpot. [ fig. 1 ]
  3. Select the internal store (Newton) icon at the top of the window.
  4. Select the ‘System’ soup in the first scrolling field. [ fig. 2 ]
  5. Using the ‘Prev’ and ‘Next’ buttons, locate the soup entry whose list of slots starts with the following slot names: (I am assuming that this will be the same order that the slots appear on your Newton, as Stewpot does not seem to organize the slots alphabetically like SBM Utilities does.)
    • css
    • hitBeep
    • sport
    • hlcolor
  6. Scroll down through the list of slots and select the one named hitCounter. (Note: There is also a slot named hitCounterSince which stores a time stamp. Do not select this slot.) [ fig. 3 ]
  7. Edit the slot information.
  8. Tap the ‘Update’ button.
  9. Close Stewpot.
  10. Relaunch NPDS.

Using SBM Utilities To Edit Your Hit Count

SBM Utilities is a suite of Newton maintenance and informational tools by developed Softwarebüro Müller. the suite includes a soup inspection and editing utility. SBM Utilities can be downloaded, along with documentation, from UNNA.

  1. Make sure that NPDS is not running.
  2. Launch SBM Utilities. [ fig. 4 ]
  3. Tap the ‘Soups’ icon.
  4. Select the internal store from the list at the top of the window.
  5. Select the ‘System’ soup in the first scrolling field.
  6. Select ‘Edit Entries’ from the action picker (Envelope button). [ fig. 5 ]
  7. Using the navigation arrow buttons, locate the soup entry whose list of slots starts with the following slot names: (SBM Utilities lists slots within a soup in alphabetical order, unlike Stewpot.)
    • bgcolor
    • css
    • dontInstallBtn
    • epPoolSize
  8. Select the slot named hitCounter in the list of slots. (Note: There is also a slot named hitCounterSince which stores a time stamp. Do not select this slot.) [ fig. 6 ]
  9. Select ‘Edit’ from the action picker. [ fig. 7 ]
  10. Edit the slot information. [ fig. 8 ]
  11. Tap ‘Save’.
  12. Close SBM Utilities.
  13. Relaunch NPDS.

Contact Information

To obtain help or ask questions, please subscribe to the NPDS mailing list.

This document was written by . Comments are welcome.

Change History

15 Jun 2007
Updated style sheet to use fixed page width
Changed doctype to XHTML 1.1 Strict
Added ‘Contents’ section
Fixed anchors for the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Contact Information’ sections
Removed extraneous anchor from NPDS Mailing List link
07 Apr 2007
Removed a few extraneous text leftovers
Updated UNNA links to SBM Utilities and StewPot
16 Jan 2007
Changed the name of the ‘Background’ section to ‘Introduction’
Minor formatting changes coinciding with updates to external style sheet
Removed document draft date
Added author attribution
Added standard meta tags
Added links to screen shots of Stewpot
Added links to screen shots of SBM Utilities
14 Jan 2007
Linked SBM Utilities cross reference
Correct capitalization of slot names
Add note regarding hitCounterSince slot
11 Jan 2007
Initial release