Readerware Mobile for Palm OS

Readerware Palm Editions are lightweight editions of the desktop product that run on a Palm or compatible device. It is not a standalone product but an add on to Readerware. You can transfer your databases to your Palm. Once there you're fully mobile, take your Readerware databases with you when you visit your favorite brick and mortar stores. You can easily search your databases to identify the titles you already own. Your Readerware Want List is also transferred to Readerware Palm Edition so you can easily display the items you are looking for.
 
 

Installing Readerware Palm Edition

Readerware Palm Edition is distributed as a self extracting executable or zip file, it includes Readerware, ReaderwareAW and ReaderwareVW for the Palm. You must first extract the contents of this file into a temporary directory. Just double click on it to extract the files which must be transferred to your Palm. The first two must be transferred regardless of which product(s) you install. Transfer the others as appropriate.

Important: You must install these files on your Palm OS device, Readerware will not work if installed on an expansion card.

All Products:
waba.pdb
waba.prc
Readerware:
Readerware.prc
RWare.pdb
ReaderwareAW:
ReaderwareAW.prc
AWare.pdb
ReaderwareVW:
ReaderwareVW.prc
VWare.pdb
Start your Palm Desktop application, click on the Install button. Click on Add and select each of the files in turn. You do not have to transfer any other files included in the Readerware Palm Edition distribution. Click Done. The Palm software will display a dialog telling you that the files will be transferred on the next HotSync. Start the HotSync from your Palm as normal.

You should now see new icons on your Palm home panel. Depending on the products you installed, you will see the familiar Readerware, ReaderwareAW or ReaderwareVW icons and another called Waba VM. To start a product, just select the appropriate Readerware icon.

If you start Readerware now, you will see an about box and an empty window. This is because before you can see your data, you must transfer your database from your desktop to your Palm.

That's the next step, your now ready to create your Readerware Palm Edition databases.

If you have trouble running the Readerware programs on your Palm, see the Installation/Synchronization problems section.

Exporting to Readerware Palm Products

Readerware Palm Edition is optimized for small devices providing a quick and easy way to search your entire database and your want list on a portable device. You do not create the Readerware databases using Readerware Palm Edition, rather you create them on your desktop and then transfer the database to your Palm.

The basic process is the same for all products. Do a search to establish which items you want to export. If you want to transfer your entire database, click on the Browse button in the toolbar. Now you will see the search results displayed in Readerware as normal.

To create your Palm database, select the File->Export menu item. Select the Palm format from the drop down list. Select a directory for the database. The database name defaults to the correct name for each product, you should not change the name, just the directory.

The Palm database, the file you export from Readerware and transfer to your Palm, must be named correctly:

Readerware:  readerware.pdb
ReaderwareAW:  readerwareaw.pdb
ReaderwareVW:  readerwarevw.pdb

TIP: Select your Palm HotSync Add On directory. This will make it easier to actually transfer the file to your Palm. When you click on Create, Readerware will create the file, the next step is to transfer it.

Start your Palm Desktop application, click on the Install button. Click on Add and select the appropriate .pdb file using the file selection dialog. Then click Done. The Palm software will display a dialog telling you that the file will be transferred on the next HotSync. Start the HotSync from your Palm as normal. Now when you start the applications on your Palm, your new database is loaded automatically.

When you want to transfer updated data to your Palm, just repeat the above steps to export and HotSync your database. You need to transfer the full database each time, Readerware replaces rather than updates the database.

In order to conserve space and allow large databases to be stored on a handheld device, only the following fields from the Readerware database are exported to Readerware Palm Edition:


In order to conserve space and allow large databases to be stored on a handheld device, only the following fields from the ReaderwareAW database are exported to ReaderwareAW Palm Edition:

In order to conserve space and allow large databases to be stored on a handheld device, only the following fields from the ReaderwareVW database are exported to ReaderwareVW Palm Edition: The primary field determines the sequence in which the items are displayed and which field is the search field. You can only search a Palm database on the primary field.

That's it, your now mobile.

If you have trouble running the Readerware programs on your Palm, see the Installation/Synchronization problems section.  


Using Readerware Palm Edition

To launch a Readerware Palm Edition application simply select the appropriate Readerware icon on your Palm home panel. Readerware will start, load the database and display the first page of results.

Along the top of the screen you will see the application title and a row of buttons:

Select the application title to display the about box. This includes program information as well as the number of items in your database.

Select the left arrow icon to display the previous page.

Select the right arrow to display the next page.

Select the home icon to return to the first item in the database.

Select the magnifying glass icon to display the search dialog.

Select the shopping cart icon to display your Readerware want list list.
 

Below the title bar are the items in your database. The primary key is displayed in a bold font followed by the items, i.e. books by that author. The items are displayed in a plain font. ReaderwareVW displays just the video title. You can select any title and a detail page is displayed which includes all the information about the selected item.
 
 

Searching


When you select the search icon, the search dialog is displayed. Enter the text you are looking for. This must be text in the primary field:
 

Readerware Author
ReaderwareAW Artist
ReaderwareVW Title

Enter the data using Palm graffiti just as you would in any other application. The search data is case sensitive and the search always starts with the first character of the field. You can have Readerware automatically uppercase the first character for you. Enter as much of the field as necessary to match the required entries. For example to search for books by "Rendell, Ruth", you might enter "ren", without the quotes, in the search field. Select the Search button and Readerware will display the first matching item, if any, at the top of the page.



Installation/Synchronization problems

You must install the Readerware program and database files on your Palm OS device, Readerware will not work if installed on an expansion card.

There is one open issue when exporting your database to Palm format. You need to select a table view before running the export. If a tree view is active, the database PDB file will not be created correctly. So make sure you select a table view from the Views drop down list in the Readerware toolbar, then select File->Export.

If a Readerware program does not run on your Palm, chances are one of the files is missing. Refer to the list of needed files and transfer them again. As the names are similar it is possible to get pieces of different applications instead of one complete application. For example instead of transferring Readerware.prc and RWare.pdb, you could have transferred Readerware.prc and VWare.pdb.

If the Waba VM displays the message " Error: can't access app classes ", it means that the Readerware program was not found. The file RWare.pdb (Readerware), AWare.pdb (ReaderwareAW) or VWare.pdb (ReaderwareVW) was missing. Transfer the file again.

Palm T5/Treo 650

Early versions of these devices included serious bugs that could corrupt the new Palm persistent file system. An update for T5 owners is available and this should be installed before using Readerware on your T5. Visit PalmOne at http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/tungstent5/tungstent5update.html

Due to the way the new file system allocates memory, the maximum size of a Readerware database that the device can handle is severely limited. For example on a Palm Tungsten T, I have no trouble accessing a 30,000 record Readerware database. But on the T5/Treo 650 the limit is about 5,000 records. This is because the new file system allocates records in 512 byte blocks. The size of a typical Readerware database record is less than 100 bytes, but with the new file system it takes up 512 bytes. This results in limited database capacity.

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