PalmConv

PalmConv is a free, open-source conversion utility that reads Palm Desktop address and date book records, and writes eBookMan Address Book and Date Book records. It runs on the Franklin eBookMan.

PalmConv is released under the GNU GPL version 2.

Suggestions or comments are welcome; send e-mail to mpicker0@yahoo.com

Rationale

I got my eBookMan in November of 2002, and as of January 2004, still hadn't converted my Palm address book and datebook. I tried converting the address book with the Outlook synchronization; it was a difficult experience and I ended up mapping some of the fields incorrectly. I never found any means to convert the datebook.

After over a year of frustration, I finally sat down and coded PalmConv. PalmConv reads the Palm Desktop files address.dat and datebook.dat, and converts them for use within the eBookMan's Address Book and Date Book applications.

Description

PalmConv runs on the eBookMan itself. Ideally, it would run on the PC and convert the files there, but I could not get the database access code to compile under Cygwin. The only alternative was to make it an eBookMan program.

There is no synchronization done. This is not a HotSync utility; it just reads Palm files and writes eBookMan files. If you make changes to the eBookMan database, there's no means that I know of to sync those changes back to the Palm Desktop. This is best used as a one-time conversion, since it takes a little while (at least if you have lots of records). But you could use Palm Desktop as the authoritative source, and use the eBookMan as a read-only display, transferring your datebook/address book and running PalmConv every time you make a change on Palm Desktop.

It's not super fast, but for one-shot use should be fine.

Conversion # Records Time (sec)
Datebook 1045 49
Address book 100 4

Converting your Palm Desktop records

It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: back everything up before starting. This shouldn't do any harm (unless you tell it to remove existing records) but there's always a possibility it will.

Preparing to run PalmConv

  • Put your Palm Desktop address.dat and datebook.dat in your eBookMan Desktop Manager's Contents folder

    1. Find out what directory your Palm Desktop is installed in. It is usually in c:\palm or c:\Program Files\palm
    2. Find your username within that directory. I have c:\Program Files\palm\PickerM
    3. Within this directory, find the address directory and the datebook directory
    4. Copy the address\address.dat and datebook\datebook.dat files into your eBookMan contents directory. This is probably C:\Program Files\Franklin Electronic Publishers\eBookMan Desktop Manager\Data\Contents

  • Copy these two files (address.dat and datebook.dat) to your eBookMan

    1. Start eBookMan Desktop Manager
    2. Drag over address.dat and datebook.dat to the right pane (the eBookMan side)
  • Exit eBookMan Desktop Manager

Running PalmConv

Screenshot of PalmConv

Using PalmConv is easy. The screen is divided between the Datebook converter and the Address Book converter. It's probably easier if you have a screen shot.

Datebook

If your datebook file is called datebook.dat, it should show up in the Palm file: field automatically. If it's called something else, click the ... button to select it.

The eBookMan doesn't have any concept of time zones. The Palm Desktop stores UTC. When you run the conversion, you have to specify your offset from UTC (a.k.a. GMT) in the Hour Offset: field. For me, in the US/Eastern time zone, it is -5. Also, if your area observes Daylight Savings Time, you need to check the DST checkbox. This uses United States rules for determining Daylight Savings Time. Note: this has not been updated to take the 2007 DST changes into account.

If you want to save space, check the Drop before: checkbox and select a date. This will drop expired records earlier than the date you pick. Since the eBookMan doesn't have a Find feature like the Palm, you may decide you can live without the older records. However, all the records still must be read from the input file, so checking this doesn't speed up the conversion.

Checking the Delete existing records checkbox will delete your current eBookMan Date Book records before converting.

Click Convert Datebook to begin the conversion.

Address Book

If your address book file is called address.dat, it should show up in the Palm file: field automatically. If it's called something else, click the ... button to select it.

Checking the Delete existing records checkbox will delete your current eBookMan Address Book records before converting.

Click Convert Address Book to begin the conversion.

Credits

PalmConv relies on source code and information made available by many kind folks out there.

eBookMan database access

Palm database formats

Other

Known problems and limitations

Address book

  • Some eBookMan fields don't exist on the Palm (Spouse, Children, etc.). Nothing is put into these fields.
  • The Palm has 5 phone number fields and no e-mail field. The eBookMan has 4 phone number fields and an e-mail field. The 5th Palm phone number is put into the eBookMan e-mail field.
  • All addresses are put into the Home Address fields. The Palm only has one set of address fields.
  • No category or secret information is converted. Secret records on the Palm are not secret on the eBookMan (the eBookMan doesn't have secret records)
  • If Palm Desktop is set to display a phone other than the first one, that information isn't preserved. Again, I'm looking for help on this.
  • If you've renamed the custom fields within the Palm Desktop, the new names aren't applied to the eBookMan.

Datebook

  • Exceptions to repeating events aren't handled.
  • Some details of repeating events may be incorrect; as far as I can tell, though, they come across in pretty good shape.
  • The eBookMan date selector won't let you go before 1/1/2000, so you can't select an earlier date in the "Drop before:" field.
  • The Daylight Savings Time calculations do not take the 2007 DST changes into account.

Other

I use Palm Desktop 3.01. This should work on later versions, but I haven't tested them.

I only have my address book and datebook files to test with. It's possible your address book and datebook have things in them that mine don't. So, you may run into problems I haven't seen.

Changes

  • 1/7/2004 9:30 EST

    Version 1.1
    Fixed phone number type conversion; now the type of phone number is displayed correctly on the eBookMan

  • 1/6/2004 17:00 EST

    Version 1.0
    Initial release