19 Nov 1995
There is a way to load data into an OmniGo database. It involves using
a program that came with the 1993 Palmtop Paper subscriber bonus disk
("Free 1993 Subscriber PowerDisk"), GDBIO.EXE.
The key that made me try this is the fact that the database engine on
the OmniGo is similar to the database engine on the HP100LX and HP200LX.
Here is what I did:
I created a database on the OmniGo and transferred it to a SRAM card via
the OmniGo Transfer app. The Transfer app copies the necessary files to
the SRAM card to a time dated directory under the C:\@TRNSFER.000
directory. In my case the files were the database (ZOOMER_S.GDB, a
database of system files on the Zoomer), a file called MASTER.MDB (more
on this below), and a file named @APPNAME.000, a file to tell the
Transfer app where these backup files came from (I think).
I moved these files to my laptop and looked at them with the
GDBIO.EXE program. It was able to read the database file and show all the
data
and database structure.
Here is a small example of the data in the database file:
"ANSI C Library","ansic.geo","",""
"Card Library","cards.geo","",""
"Cell Library","cell.geo","",""
"Color Library","color.geo","",""
Here is a listing of the structure:
Fld Name Type Off Reserved Flags
1 geos name string 0 Relative
2 dos name string 2 Relative
3 notes string 4 Relative
4 Note note 6
After some fiddling I figured out what to do to get data into database.
The first part involved creating a file with data I wanted to add in the
same structure as the OmniGo database.
Here is what I added (OK definitely junk type of data :)
"jlb ANSI C Library","ansic.geo","my addtitions",""
"additional stuffCard Library","cards cards cards cards.geo","",""
"jlb again Cell Library","cell.geo","",""
"more more more Color Library","color.geo","",""
"again more Configuration Library","config.geo","",""
"more stuffDate Selector","datepick.geo","",""
Then I used the GDBIO.EXE program to combine the data to the original
database to create a new database.
Next, I had to create an entry in the MASTER.MDB. This file is used by
the OmniGo database application as a listing of OmniGo databases and
contains things like the OmniGo database name, number of records, files
size, and DOS filename. Just creating a database and putting it into the
GEOWORKS\DOCUMENT directory is not enough.
Here is what the original MASTER.MDB had:
"zoomer system files","30","2191b","zoomer_s.gdb"
To add an entry, I repeated what I did with the first database; I created
a file with an entry of the same structure as the MASTER.MDB data and
used GDBIO.EXE to combine the MASTER.MDB and the new entry data file to
create a new master database file. I used an editor to make sure about
the number of records (one line=one record) in the new database. (I am
not sure if this info is used other than to show the OmniGo user what
the database stats are and to inform the OmniGo database app where to
get the data; i.e.; how important is the accuracy of the file size or
number of records?).
Example of what I wanted to add:
"jlb zoomer tst","36","2077b","tmpgdb.gdb"
I moved the new database file and the new master file back to the SRAM
card. With these in the OmniGo, I used the Zoomer file manager to delete
the old MASTER.MDB file, rename the new master file to MASTER.MDB, and
move the new database file and MASTER.MDB to the C:\@TRANSFER\time dated
directory.
Then, I used the OmniGo Transfer app to copy the database from the SRAM
card to the OmniGo (I think they end up in the B:\GEOWORKS\DOCUMENT
directory).
[end part 1]
Rusty