Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide

Registering and Unregistering a Conduit

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

The Old, Ugly Way

In version 2.1 (and earlier versions) of the CDK, this registration was done by adding entries to the Windows Registry. Unregistration required removing entries from the Registry (and possibly renaming existing entries). Further, this process for adding entries was fragile—one developer modifying the registry incorrectly could cause some or all of the other conduits to fail.

These troubles only increased during the acquisition frenzy, when the keys used for the Windows Registry by various versions of HotSync Manager and the Desktop Manager changed from Palm Computing to U.S. Robotics.^[7]

Conduits then 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.

The time was ripe for a better approach to registration.

The New, Sleek Way

The Conduit Manager, provided as part of Palm Desktop 3.0 and as part of the 3.0 version of the CDK, contains an API for registration and unregistration. It knows about the various versions of HotSync, the different keys used in the Windows Registry, ...