Managing BlackBerry Configuration Settings Remotely - Part Two

OK so let's dive in and see what we can do with the SQL table SyncBackupRestore. First of all it looks like there are separate entries for different types of settings. Let's start with the entry for Message List Options for UserConfigId #9, which is the only user in this test environment:


It looks like the Data column is encoded in some sort of binary format, let's see if we can use OSQL to see what's in there:


So after a bunch of header information we finally see the data string, and it looks like this:

0x350000010101000001010001000301010200051E0001000600020008
01000100090102000B000002000C000002000D000001000E00000000

As it exists now, this string represents the state of the options for the Message List, i.e. the Messages screen on the BlackBerry. The best way to discover what pieces control which device settings is to change an option on the device, wait for it to get synced up to the server, then check this string again to see what is different.

We will first test by changing a single option on the BlackBerry, Hide Sent Messages from the default of No to Yes (a common enough request!). Now the issue is waiting for the device's backup agent to push the change to the BES server, however I discover to my pleasant surprise that turning off the antenna and turning it back on will trigger the handheld agent to push any device changes up to the server. (Restarting the BlackBerry has the same effect).

I have been using the Unix "tail" utility to follow the BES server's CBCK log file (Backup connector), which is set to the debug logging level of 7 through the registry (4 is the max via the UI). When the device connects to the network we see the following update come through:

[60000] (01/30 14:26:07.086):{0x151C} [ODBCRecord::DoSetValue] DATA = "DbVersion[1] Data(first 32 bytes)[0x350000010101000001010001000300010200051E000100060102000801000100] UserConfigID[9] DatabaseName[Message List Options] UID[1] ".

This log entry only shows the first 32 bytes of the updated field, so we have to go back to the OSQL utility to display the full field again, and it is now set to the following:

0x350000010101000001010001000301010200051E0001000601020008
01000100090102000B000002000C000002000D000001000E00000000

The only change in this string is the highlighted '1' near the end of the first line has now been changed from a '0' previously. This leads us to believe that this number controls the Hide Sent Messages option on the device, and that modifying it from '0' to '1' enables it.

In the next post we will try to update this field in the SQL database and (somehow!) get that update pushed to the handheld.