I found over 25 emails expressing interest in this subject.
I thereby assume that the subject is of general interest and so I am posting
to the group.
The information presented below may contain errors or inaccuracies. I have
based them on my experimentations and website documentations.
I tried to be accurate, but to err is human....
Use it at solely your own risk.
If you find it useful please let me know.
I have other small interesting tidbits on the same subject and I am sure you
will come up with many. I was wondering if I should maintain a FAQ as I
could not find any resource anywhere which adequately, even scarcely covers
this subject. Let me know what you think...
Palm incorporates a IRDA device and contains IRDA protocol stack for
communication. It also has IRObex (a high level protocol, details later)
implemented on top of IRDA. For details on IRObex go to www.countersys.com
(Counter Point) or its parent company www.extendedsystems.com (Extended
Systems).
You might have noticed that you can beam appointments, memo, contacts from
one palm to another. These is done using IRObex.
Hardware:
I evaluated a some devices before choosing Jet Eye PC from Extended Systems.
Why?
1. It comes with Quick Beam suite (details later)
2. It comes with IRDA stack and IRObex (some competitors rely on the native
OS to provide the IRDA support, WIndows 98 and Windows 2k does so but not
Windows NT. I don't think however any of these OS's provide IRObex support
which you need)
3. It is better priced at around 89 when I bought.
Software
Here is the fun part.
So you have IRDA stack and IRObex. How do you use it? I found no sample code
anywhere and I searched a lot. (Let me know if you have better success)
(You can implement IRDA stack but that is a costly effort)
(Getting samples and source code costs 1000$ as I was informed)
I mean at the least you have to know which dll's to use and what methods are
available.. right?
I mentioned Quick Beam comes with Jet Eye PC (It can be bought separately)
This allows you to exchange files between two Quick Beam enabled PC using
infrared.
Anyway I found something interesting and undocumented.
QuickBeam exchanges data using IRObex. What it means is it speaks the same
language as palm.
Here are the key benefits:
The following data can be exchanged with palm using Quick Beam:
Memo - beam .txt files and it will be saved as memo
Contacts - beam .vcf (vCard) files
Calendar - beam .vcs (vCalendar) files
The file formats are defined in separate rfc's
Open the file in Quick Beam and Send it.
The exchange is bi-directional.
Most PIM's like Outlook can save data in this format. Outlook however does
some non-standard things(what's new?)
Another critical undocumented feature(even the Customer Service said it
cannot be done)
is that quick beam has a command line interface.
Just pass the file name.
So now from my application I can format the data in any of these formats,
save it as a file and excecute the program with the file name. Not the
neatest solution but it sure beats developing an IRDA stack and IRObex or
shelling out 1000$ for getting access to the source code.
Note: Palm in this context refers to all IRDA enabled palms (III, V and VII
I believe. I have tested with Palm V only)
Any feedback will be appreciated.
Angsuman
Sr. Software Engineer
SUN CERTIFIED ARCHITECT
for Java Technology
