RaceBase


Chapter 9: Advanced Features

Transferring Times from one PalmPilot to Another.

Multiple PalmPilots can be used for timing. This might be different lanes of a race, one for the first half of the finishers and another for the last half, or other situations. Or, you might be recording results with PocketTimer on one PalmPilot, but want to do the scoring on another PalmPilot running RaceBase. In order to accomplish these things, you must be able to transfer times from one copy of PocketTimer residing on one PalmPilot, to another copy residing on another PalmPilot. To do this requires a copy of a piece of software called DirectSync, available online from PalmGear HQ (DirectSync is not sold by Stevens Creek Software). DirectSync comes with a cable that directly connects two PalmPilots, and lets you transfer data from any program (including PocketTimer) from one PalmPilot to the other. Obviously, if you do this, you should experiment before race day to make sure you understand how this works.

Archiving Data

RaceBase (as well as PocketTimer) only has room for one set of data. When one race is done, you'll need to clear the databases before the next race. Now remember that RaceBase itself really uses data it takes from three sources - names (and other information) from the Address Book, categories from the Memo Pad, and times (and bib#'s) from PocketTimer. So RaceBase per se doesn't really need to be backed up; you can always re-import the data and re-score the race if you need to for some reason. You can make a backup copy of the data in the Address Book very simply from your PalmPilot desktop software. From your desktop Address Book, select Export All Items from the File menu and the names and other information will be saved in a text file. You can then delete all the names from the Address Book. Later, if you want to review that race, you can select Import from the File menu and bring those names back into the Address Book (and from there to the handheld unit via HotSync).

The only complicated backup is the times from PocketTimer. Just making a copy of the times for archival purposes is quite simple - from PocketTimer, you transfer the data to the Memo Pad application (that's one of the options within PocketTimer just as it is within RaceBase), HotSync to your desktop, and you have a backup copy of the times and bib#'s as recorded. However you cannot re-import these back into PocketTimer, so you won't be able to ever use them again (e.g., for purposes of re-scoring an old race). If you want to do that, you need to go again to your Pilot Desktop software, go to the HotSync configuration screen, and configure "System" to "Pilot Overwrites Desktop". "System" affects any databases on the Pilot which do not have a regular "conduit", that is, special software for synchronizing desktop and handheld data. When you configure things like this, after the next HotSync the PocketTimer database will be transferred to your desktop. Look in your PILOT folder, and in that look in the folder whose name matches the user name of your Pilot (e.g., Fred). Inside that folder is a folder named Backup, and inside that folder you'll find a file named PocketTimerDB.PDB. That is the file that contains your times. Move that file to another folder (or make a copy and move it), where it won't be modified or used by the Pilot HotSync software. Now if at sometime in the future you need to re-score a particular race, you can use the standard Pilot INSTALL software to install that file PocketTimerDB.PDB), in the same way that you install software on your PalmPilot. After it is installed, when you go to PocketTimer you'll see that those recorded times have re-appeared. Although this explanation has been a bit long, in practice this is quite a simple operation, and backing up your data routinely in this fashion is strongly recommended; you never know when it might come in handy. If you want you can rename each file as appropriate (race1.pdb, race2.pdb, etc.), if you ever need to restore one of those sets of data to your PalmPilot, just rename it back (to PocketTimerDB.PDB) and install it on your PalmPilot.

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