Using the Backup Conduit
You may have an application that doesn’t require its own conduit. In such cases, you can rely on the Backup conduit. First, let’s discuss the types of applications that can profitably use this approach. Then we’ll tell you what you need to do to set this up on your application.
The Backup conduit works on any database that has the backup flag set
and has been modified since the last sync, unless the
database type is DATA
and it has an associated conduit.
The Backup conduit will always back up non-DATA
databases, but it will back up only those
DATA
databases that have no associated
conduit. The built-in PIM applications use DATA as
their database type; that way, if the associated conduit exists,
it’ll be responsible for backing up the database, but if the
conduit isn’t there, the Backup conduit will take over.
Whenever the Backup conduit is used, the data in the database is completely copied from the Palm device to the desktop and saved as a PDB (database) or PRC (application) file. Since each record is copied from the database, you don’t want to use this as a solution for large databases that change often.
Applications That Might Use the Backup Conduit
The Backup conduit is well suited to the following types of applications:
- Games
Where you save top-score information
- Utilities
Where you save some user settings
- Alarm clocks or other timers
Where you save world clock information or other types of alarm settings
- Electronic books
Where you save display information, ...