Jppy: AddressDB support in python-jppy

[Nicholas Piper]

David,

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007, David A. Desrosiers wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-02-13 at 13:43 +0000, Nicholas Piper wrote:

> > > At best, any conduit that we write now, that uses AddressDB, should
>                                            ^^^^^^^^^
> > > write those records to ContactsDb-PAdd and delete AddressDB.pdb from
> > > the device after a clean sync to ensure that those records get put
> > > in the right place. 

> > Do you mean 'that uses ContactsDB-PAdd' ? Anything that uses AddressDB
> > probably only does so because it is old code, *or* using a device
> > which is older. 

> No, I meant any conduit that uses AddressDB _in current conduits_, needs
> to be rewritten to use ContactsDb-PAdd instead, and here's why: 

I of course agree with this. AddressDB is only there for backwards
compatibility.

> I see a (growing) number of people who continue to use applications that
> request the CreatorID of 'addr' from their OS5 device; a device which
> natively supports Contacts, and does not natively support Address Book. 

> When an application on the Palm (or a conduit) requests 'addr', the
> Contacts application will create a "view" (in the SQL sense) of the
> ContactsDb-PAdd data suitable for backward compatibility with that
> "legacy" application. 

> Its _supposed_ to incorporate any changes made to the AddressDB "view"
> data back into ContactsDb-PAdd upon close/exit, but I've seen and heard
> reported many times that it does not (conduits crashing, Palm resetting,
> communication disruption or timeout or any other condition that can
> cause the two to become confused). 

Even if 'the application' on the Paml used ContactsDB-PAdd, it can
crash before they get synced to non-volatile memory. Old Palms used to
edit the memory directly, so couldn't loose changes in this way. I'm
certain you already are familiar.

> What I'm suggesting, is that on any OS5 device that supports Contacts
> _and_ has applications that request the CreatorID 'addr' (this means ANY
> device where ContactsDb-PAdd _and_ AddressDB are both present), we
> should take what is in AddressDB, compare it with what is in
> ContactsDb-PAdd, sync it to Contacts, and _delete_ AddressDB from the
> device.

This would be very very slow, and even the Palm Desktop I haven't
heard does this. Personally, I feel not required to go this far. Just
encourage everything to move to ContactsDB (which is happening: I
don't think any of my own apps use AddressDB natively any more.) I
understand you don't see people moving to ContactsDB though.

 Nick

-- 
Nick Piper, Developer, LogicaCMG           http://www.nickpiper.co.uk/
GPG Encrypted mail welcome!                             1024D/3ED8B27F
Choose life. Be Vegan :-) Please reduce needless cruelty & suffering !