Importing the roster to your Palm Pilot

(this information contributed by one user, no official support available)

An overview of how to convert the Jaycee Roster into pilot-db database format:

1. Take the CSV version of the roster and remove all non-member data. All lines must be only Jaycee member records.
2. You can use command-line options or put the options in an info file. I put most everything in the info file except the name. This would easily let you vary the name with its date ("JC Roster Jan 17, 2003").
3. Generate a PDB (Palm Data Base) file using the converter.
4. That's it.

Example:

1. Assume roster information is in ROSTER.CSV
2. My ROSTER.IFO contains:

           field "Last" string
           field "First" string 
           field "Street" string
           field "City" string
           field "St" string
           field "Zip" string
           field "Homephone" string
           field "Workphone" string
           field "Cellphone" string
           field "Employer" string
           field "Email" string
           field "unused" string
           view "Default" "First" 50 "Last" 50 "Street" 100 "City" 40 "St" 15 "Zip" 30 "Homephone" 65  "Workphone" 90 "Cellphone" 65 "Employer" 50 "Email" 140
           view "Phones" "First" 50 "Last" 50 "Homephone" 65 "Cellphone" 65 "Workphone" 90
           view "Email" "First" 50 "Last" 50 "Email" 100
   
   

   If you want to rename or modify any of this, please do so. The view stuff sets up columns and widths for the display. We've the capability of making it read only or non-beamable -- I don't see any reason to do it. Notice the "unused" field. I included this because of the extra comma at the end of each field in the current ROSTER.CSV format.
3. Execute the following

           csv2pdb --title "Roster: 12 Jan 03" -i roster.ifo roster.csv roster.pdb 
   
   

4. That's it. The Pilot-DB file is roster.pdb and is ready to be HotSync'd into the Palm. The user should be able to double click on roster.pdb and have it automatically added to the HotSync list. If this doesn't happen it could be because 1) pilot-db has not yet been loaded or 2) they don't have HotSync capabilities. Multiple rosters will reside in the Palm if each has a different title. The user will have to manually delete unwanted rosters in this case. If they always have the same title then it won't be an issue. I like having the date in the title; you decide what's best for the general membership.

Where to get the translation program: The site http://pilot-db.sourceforge.net/ has all the executables and sources needed for this. The translation program CSV2PDB.EXE can be found at http://download.sourceforge.net/palm-db-tools/dbtools-0_3_5.zip. (Or maybe you need http://download.sourceforge.net/palm-db-tools/palm-db-tools-0_3_5.tar.gz )

None of this matters if the pilot-db is not loaded in the Palm. This can be found at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pilot-db/db-1_0_3.zip?download. It should work on any Palm OS version. You'll need to click on the funny file icon for the location closest to you (probably Ibiblio in Chapel Hill). The icon is on the right side of the page. You'll need to unzip the files and double click on DB.PRC. This should automatically add the DB.PRC to your HotSync list. Next, do a sync and verify that the DB program works on your Palm