On Thu, 24 May 2001, Dean Rochester wrote:
> In my terms...
>
> In a desktop DB a record is a row of one or several columns of data.
> In a desktop DB a field or cell is an individual column in a row.
>
>
> In the Palm DB is a record the whole row as in a desktop DB or is it a field
> or cell of a desktop DB?
Does anyone know of a place this is explained well in a FAQ?
A Palm "Database" is nothing like a desktop database. In the Palm, the
.pdb file has this general structure:
[AppInfo Block]
[Records]
+- [Record 1]
+- [Record 2]
The appinfo block is a place to put data that does not fit well into a
record type structure. An example of this type of information would be
settings or preferences for the app.
Then there's the records. A record is just a blob of binary data, there
is no further structure imposed by the operating system. Any fields you
want to use are imposed by taking the binary data and laying it into a
structure (c struct). This is all done in your application.
So, there you have it, there are no fields in palm dbs, only records. You
have the option to chop up the record however you like, but the OS doesn't
care.
> I have am reading in a commo seperated file, which is an extraction of rows
> from an oracle database and I am trying to write this data into my palm apps
> DB.
>
> When I use the write api, SyncWriteRec (CRawRecordInfo &rInfo) or
> rec.setMemo(String) for Java, they asking to specify the contents of the
> record. Is this just for the one field or the entire row? So do I parse my
> comma separated file into separate files and each one goes into one of these
> write commands?
>
> Sorry for so many questions about this, to me seemingly simple task, but I
> have not seen an example to cut my teeth on. If one exists for reading text
> from a comma or otherwise separated file and writing it into a Palm DB, that
> would be great. If someone knows of one, please advise
>
> Thanks in advance
> Dean-O
The big question is this, where is your data going to go when it gets to
the Palm? Do you have an app on there you want to read it with? Will you
be writing your own? The anser to this question will dictate how you need
to format your data as you copy it into the handheld.
--
Brian Mathis
Direct Edge
http://www.directedge.com
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