The Offical Pendragon Forms For Palm OS® Starter Kit [Paperback]

Debra Sancho (Author), Ivan Phillips (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764546511 | ISBN-13: 978-0764546518 | Publication Date: December 30, 1999

Moving from a pen-and-paper data collection environment to using Palm organizers can ensure more than just keeping your desk free of clutter -- it can also help you re-evaluate your approach to work!

The tools offered in this book take you beyond the built-in applications of a Palm OS organizer. From expense reports and work orders to merchandise inventories and data from the field, The Official Pendragon Forms for Palm Starter Kit helps you get a handle on the types of data collection you perform every day. With this book you can:

• Plan, design, and manage customized forms that provide solutions to your needs
• Construct specialized forms that perform calculations, branching, and more
• Use Pendragon forms with existing databases
• Control data flow from Palm OS devices to PCs
• Print from Palm OS devices
• Configure forms for and work in a multi-user environment

The CD-ROM accompanying this book includes evaluation versions of Pendragon Forms 3.0, Bachmann Print Manager, WaveSync synchronization server, MultiMail PRO, and all sample forms from the text.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The word "empalmable" does not yet exist (and probably won't since spell checkers would replace it with something mortifying) but if it did, Pendragon's developers/writers Debra Sancho and Ivan Phillips would be the "empalmers" to the masses. Their lucid text, The Official Pendragon Forms for PalmOS Starter Kit, introduces do-it-yourselfers, who see the promise of PalmOS applications but lack certain resources, to a software development solution that allows one to build PalmOS applications from scratch.

Pendragon Forms is akin to a scripting environment for PalmOS applications. Form style and internal data manipulation are constructed with the Pendragon tool kit on the PC side of the application, which uses Visual Basic for data manipulation. The PalmOS hot synchronization mechanism loads the Pendragon product and accompanying forms/scripts and (optionally) data records into the Palm device. With subsequent synchronizing, the new user entered data passes from the palm device to the host computer for entry into a permanent database. No form exists without the core proprietary Forms software, so no form could be considered, or used, as its own standalone application.

Sancho and Phillips are refreshingly candid about Pendragon's limitations. They provide a list of feasible as well as unlikely tasks in their opening chapter: yes, one can create user interfaces for recording on-the-spot selections from fixed lists or user generated text; yes, one can perform simple mathematical calculations (e.g., sums, averages); no, one can not synchronize collected data to an HTML/httpd server.

The Official Pendragon Forms for PalmOS Starter Kit is half the bulk of modern how-to texts with twice the content. Weighing in at just under 400 pages, the authors cover installation, form design strategies, ODBC interfaces to common commercial databases, and security issues. The text is copiously illustrated with PalmOS user interface design examples, screen dumps of the form-development environment on the PC side, and figures of the data entry/user interface environment on the PalmOS side. Tips, notes, warnings, and side bars do a masterful job of complementing the text. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing an evaluation copy of Pendragon Forms 3.0 distribution. --Peter Leopold

From the Publisher

Written by the lead developer of Pendragon Forms and the writer of Pendragon's technical documentation. Includes Synchronization Rules for controlling data flow from Palm to PC and vice versa. Link Pendragon Forms to existing databases (Access, SQL Server, Oracle). Use Pendragon in a multi-user environment and as an Enterprise solution. CD includes a free 30-day evaluation version of Pendragon Forms 3.0 and sample form designs to illustrate examples used in the book!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (December 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764546511
• ISBN-13: 978-0764546518
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,868,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Starter Kit, June 12, 2000

By 

Alberto A. Borges "alborg" (Oakton, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Offical Pendragon Forms For Palm OS® Starter Kit (Paperback)

The textbook and the associated trial software (as well as thediscounted price for the full software if you decide to buy) isa great package. It covers everything from the initial nuances of database programming to writing code. The Pentagon software itself is relatively robust. The only hidden problem is that once you have a workable/sellable software, they'll charge you $849.00 for the rights to distribute your database (ie "sale price" upgrade if you go through the Starter Kit- it's $995.00 otherwise). This is steep enough for me that I'll wait on going through the purchase of this otherwise good software package for now and go with HanDBase instead. The kit itself, though, is an excellent initial product.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why Read it, if it costs you $1,000 to use it, March 14, 2001

By 

pjpanaro (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Offical Pendragon Forms For Palm OS® Starter Kit (Paperback)

The book is interesting but covers a topic that if you use it, you have to pay $1,000 in rights to distribute it. The book ends up being a long advertisement for the software

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, yet affordable, February 25, 2000

By 

Rochelle Day (Watertown, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Offical Pendragon Forms For Palm OS® Starter Kit (Paperback)

As an experienced developer, time has always been my enemy. With Pendragon Forms, I'm able to quickly get an application into the hands of my customers, while keeping costs down for them - and me! This book provides the information I need to get the software from development to my customers quickly. Thanks for developing a great product and for giving us developers a break!