Palm OS Programming, 2nd Edition

Registering and Unregistering

Before a conduit can be used, it needs to be registered. This is how the Sync Manager application knows that the conduit exists and knows which databases it is responsible for syncing. Depending on which version of the CDK you have, there are differences in what you do to register. We’ll tell you about both the old, difficult way and the new, improved methods.

The Old, Ugly Way

In Version 2.1 (and earlier versions) of the CDK, conduit registration was done by adding entries to the Windows Registry. Unregistration required removing entries from the Registry (and possibly renaming existing entries). This was an ugly process. It was prone to error and incredibly fragile: if one developer modified the registry incorrectly, he could cause some or all of the other conduits to fail.

These troubles only increased during the acquisition-of-Palm frenzy of the late 1990s. During these times, the keys used for the Windows Registry by various versions of the Sync Manager and the Desktop Manager changed from Palm Computing to U.S. Robotics.^[3]

As a result, conduits needed to be aware of various registry keys and needed to perform a careful set of steps when registering and an even more careful set when unregistering. As we said...ugly, ugly, ugly. The time was ripe for a better approach.

The New, Sleek Way

The Conduit Manager (part of Palm Desktop 3.0 and Version 3.0 of the CDK), contains an API for registration and unregistration. It knows about the various versions ...