Chapter 3. Palm device applications and databases

Table of Contents
Overview
Detailed discussion
Creating support for custom databases

Overview

Most applications on the Palm device are associated with one or more databases which contain their data. These databases can be identified through their application's Creator ID, their type, and their name. Databases are composed of a header and of a number of database records. The layout of these records is of variable length and specific to the particular application. Many databases are also associated with application information. These application infos typically contain user-preferences which are associated with that particular database. The most notable kind of user-preference is the number and naming of the database categories. Each application can have as many application infos as it has databases. In addition to the application infos, an application can also have preferences which are not associated with a particular database. Preferences are identified through their application's Creator ID and an ID number. They can store arbitrary application specific data.

The SyncBuilder framework contains a number of classes that model these entities on the Palm device and which help you to deal with them.

Figure 3-1. Classes related to databases and applications