Palm OS Programming, 2nd Edition

High-Level Forms Development

Palm devices are so numerous and applications so popular that there are even a couple of third-party development environments specifically for creating specialized forms-based Palm applications.

Satellite Forms

Satellite Forms, by Puma Technology, is an environment for creating very sophisticated Palm OS applications. In Satellite Forms, your application consists of a number of database tables and forms. Each form is tied to a specific table. UI elements on a form can be tied to fields from the table. For example, a checkbox will display the value of a Boolean field; tapping the checkbox will automatically update the field.

Instead of using C/C++ code, you control the actions of the application in one of two ways:

• You specify a set of built-in actions that occur when the user taps a control. For instance, when a button is pressed, you could request (among many choices) that a new form be opened or that you return to the previous form.

• You specify custom code that you want executed. The code is created using a scripting language that is very similar to Visual Basic.

The application comes with a number of built-in controls as well as a library of routines. Satellite Forms also has an extension mechanism that allows you to write C code for your own new controls and new libraries (imagine, for instance, a library of financial routines or a new UI control).

Satellite Forms has an ActiveX control that is connected to a HotSync conduit. You can use the ActiveX ...