Widgets

Information Board Widget

Description

Widgets was introduced in PS3 firmware 2.00 and was working officially up to 2.80 as a way to display dynamic web information in XMB, are very dependant and managed by the Web Browser. The only official widget was named Information Board

In firmware 3.00 was disabled, and the files related with "Information Board" was removed in 3.40 because his initial purpose of displaying dynamic web information was superceeded by the "What's New" display mode (in firmware 3.00)

• Notes
  • XMB loads all available widgets by using the function host://localhost/q? and the subclass x-host/widget (see: XMBML Functions), and are displayed using the class x-xmb/xmliboard (but the class x-xmb/xmliboard is not used anymore and has been replaced by x-xmb/xmlnpsignup). See: XMBML Coding
  • PSP introduced widgets in firmware 5.50 (the same information board inherited from PS3). This firmware update for PSP also had some improvements related with the web browser (Internet search for games directly from the XMB, Trend Micro Web Security, and Trend Micro Kids' Safety)

Information Board

It was posible to enable or disable the "information board" widget by pressing triangle over his icon in network column. The way that are build allows to add more widgets in a modular way (but was removed instead of adding more). For an overview of how the "information board" widget was working originally see the official user manual

It seems the removal of the widgets support was made only partially (are still supported by loading the widget from external devices), so it should be possible to (re)create it, or to create custom widgets

• 

  Information Board Widget
  ON/OFF

• 

  Information Board Widget
  Tab

• 

  Information Board Widget
  News

Information Board QA Server: Off/On

Debug XMB loads the widget by using the view ID "root_info" and Query "host_provider_flash". Same than retail XMB, but debug needs this setting enabled. See: QA Flagging

Widgets related files

dev_flash/vsh/module

xai_plugin.sprx

This file was removed, see: xai_plugin

To use xai_plugin.sprx in a different firmware version is needed to resign the file with the keys of the firmware where is going to be used. In this example is used scetool for the resigning with the "template" option and the file explore_plugin_full.sprx taken from the modern firmware

Decrypt

scetool.exe -d xai_plugin.sprx xai_plugin_dec.prx

Encrypt

scetool.exe --template explore_plugin_full.sprx --sce-type=SELF --skip-sections=FALSE --compress-data=TRUE --encrypt xai_plugin_dec.prx xai_plugin_new.sprx

dev_flash/vsh/resource

explore_category_network.rco

There is a widget entry missing in the rcoxml ? (most probably a MList to create a side-menu). And the squared icon in this screenshot ?. And the text strings translated to all system Languages "Use" and "Do Not Display" in this screenshot ?

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/explore/xmb

category_network.xml

Widget icons loaded by XMBML in Network column, widgets related segments was removed in firmware 3.00 by removing his <View id> and his attr

Code Sample

category_widget.xml

Widgets XMBML configuration file, this file exists in all firmwares with some segments disabled

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/explore/icon

widget.png

widget.png

This file exists in firmwares since 2.00 up to 4.83. size 17205 bytes. MD5:5ed81a2c29a6514a4c3b9b72efc5b9f2

dev_flash/vsh/resource/xai

extensions.xml

Contains: extensions.entry.module=Widget and extensions.entry.plugin=xai_plugin

Code Sample

widgets.xml

Contains: xai.widget.url=/dev_hdd0/widget/npdrm/informationboard

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/data/

This files was removed in firmware 2.20 at the same time it was implemented the "silk_nas" Web Browser

CEHtmlBrowserApp.bin

Up to firmware 2.17 (and removed in 2.20) See: SILKPADD

CEHtmlBrowserAppXaiWidget.bin

Up to firmware 2.17 (and removed in 2.20) See: SILKPADD

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/etc

fontinfo-Xai.xml

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk_nas/etc

fontinfo-Xai.xml

In firmwares since 2.20 up to 4.83. Size 3063 bytes. MD5:8C1102561C72A21B7866CC4D17D6EFBF

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/xai/widgets/informationboard/

Icon.png

widget XMB icon

Icon.png versions

Version	Size	MD5	Notes
2.00~3.30	16.506	4A7865D6E3C95C2098214C52A20C73CF	added in 2.00, removed in 3.40

config.xml

config.xml versions

Version	Size	MD5	Notes
2.00~2.17	447	F47704B937E193BF093D14A1EB1BE2F2	added in 2.00
2.20~2.36	447	D07FF7832F6860F4836FC48D84BC3C11
2.40~3.30	446	7B9689660000FD291E80B1B37233D0AF	removed in 3.40

Example: config.xml 2.00~2.17

Code Sample

Example: config.xml 2.20~2.36 (the example below only shows the changes)

Code Sample

Example: config.xml 2.40~3.30 (the example below only shows the changes)

Code Sample

rss.swf

Main widget window, in shockwave flash format. For a preview of how it works you can drag-and-drop the file to your PC webbrowser, or use a shockwave flash editor/player. There are 4 versions of this file:

rss.swf versions

Version	Size	MD5	Notes
2.00	26.696	02C716D84790374294AB11AD5CEBF3DD	added in 2.00
2.01	26.707	50963C30BBAA23449B1CB120699EDD20
2.10~2.17	26.741	B4A8EB9960DAB44F654B370D8B97083B
2.20~3.30	28.749	F36212A8B66226655ACD64CF9E462186	removed in 3.40

setting.xml

RSS URL list by Target_ID, for non QA

setting.xml versions

Version	Size	MD5	Notes
2.00~3.30	1.344	ACAEE5D6C9B174FE558B721A03022F94	added in 2.00, removed in 3.40

Code Sample

setting_qa.xml

RSS URL list by Target_ID, for QA

setting_qa.xml versions

Version	Size	MD5	Notes
2.00~3.30	1.380	B49C94FDE6385E5CA03D9CFDAFA53F47	added in 2.00, removed in 3.40

Code Sample

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/xai/widgets/informationboard/<language>.lproj/

15 folders named <language>.lproj for different languages (e.g: da.lproj, Dutch.lproj, etc...), and every folder contains a text file named InfoPlist.strings

See: .lproj localization in Mac widgets

InfoPlist.strings

The file contains the name of the widget in a single text line, is the same file for all languages except: japanese, korean, and russian

dev_flash\vsh\resource\silk\xai\widgets\informationboard\

Folder	File	Version	Size	MD5	Example
da.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30	42	5BEB6E9B277784341D1C0722432CF248	CFBundleDisplayName = "Information Board";
Dutch.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
fi.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
French.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
German.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
Italian.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
nb.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
pt.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
Spanish.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
sv.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
zh_CN.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
zh_TW.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30
Japanese.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30	61	353290330A59BCD35A0CDD579A5F883E	CFBundleDisplayName = "インフォメーションボード";
ko.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30	47	2752CF3440FB92C82EE71C780605C664	CFBundleDisplayName = "인포메이션 보드";
ru.lproj\	InfoPlist.strings	2.00~3.30	56	36BCD9EC73A01A85C7745735D47FAB78	CFBundleDisplayName = "Доска объявлений";

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/xai/widgets/informationboard/strings/

One folder named strings containing 16 files for languages. This files was renamed 1 time (in 2.10), and updated 2 more times (in 2.20 and 2.50)

infob_<language>.xml

The examples below are for english versions only as reference, for a complete list of languages see: Template:Dev_flash\vsh\resource\silk

dev_flash/vsh/resource/silk/xai/widgets/informationboard/strings/

File	Version	Size	MD5	Notes
informationboard_english.xml	2.00~2.01	699	BFDEFDEBFE2908766A2CA6A6A452CB4C
infob_english.xml	2.10~2.17			file renamed
infob_english.xml	2.20~2.43	779	45FB0F73555CBB3D17C57A0D6A7E8F69
infob_english.xml	2.50~3.30	779	C5FD80D50C8C84C1D8A1465A271C5B15

• Example: informationboard_english.xml 2.00~2.01 and infob_english.xml 2.10~2.17 (is the same file, renamed)

Code Sample

• Example: infob_english.xml 2.20~2.43 (one line was added in first position for msg_error_server)

Code Sample

• Example: infob_english.xml 2.50~3.30 (The two names PLAYSTATION previouslly in uppercase was replaced by PlayStation)

Code Sample

dev_hdd0/widget/npdrm/informationboard

The existence of this path is a deduction because there is other file where it can be seen this is an alternative path to load widgets. The file contents on this path is unknown but most probably are the same files used in the informationboard directory under dev_flash, so the only difference is the device (dev_hdd0 instead of dev_flash), and the npdrm signature ?

• Notes
  • Loaded by Query "host_provider_flash" using src="host://localhost/q?path=/dev_hdd0/widget/npdrm&suffix=informationboard&subclass=x-host/widget"
    • The src XMBML code in the line above means:
      • host://localhost/q? (this is a XMBML Function)
      • path=/dev_hdd0/widget/npdrm (the path where are located the files that are going to be loaded)
      • suffix=informationboard (in this case seems to be part of the path, also the name of the widget)
      • subclass=x-host/widget (indicates what to do with the files by his type)