Conduits are programs that interface your handheld data with PC applications or sync your handheld data with files that can be used by PC applications. They can be written by third parties, to interface your PalmPilot™ to any application imaginable.
KPilot's configuration dialog allows you to select which conduits to run during a HotSync® and to configure those conduits. A window similar to the following will be displayed:
The Conduit Setup Dialog
Check the box to the left of the conduit name to make it active, uncheck to make it inactive or click on the conduit name to configure it.
Synchronizes the Memo Pad application with KNotes.
Exports the free hand notes of the handheld's Notepad application as pictures to the PC.
Sets the handheld's time to that of the desktop machine. Useful for keeping the clock of the handheld accurate.
Synchronizes the Datebook application with KOrganizer or with an iCalendar file of your choice.
Automatically converts and installs text files in the PalmPilot™ DOC format, so you can read the text files with most DOC-capable applications on the handheld.
Synchronizes the Address application with KAddressBook or with a vCard file of your choice.
Writes information about your handheld, (such as OS version, RAM available, and the list of databases) to a file. Useful mostly for debugging purposes.
Synchronizes the Todo list application with KOrganizer or with a iCalendar file of your choice.
Synchronizes your handheld with the AvantGo® server. The AvantGo® server offers general content (news, guides, stock quotes, etc.) in a format that is suitable for reading in a handheld. To use this conduit, you need to register, subscribe the channels you select and install the AvantGo® software on your handheld.
Sends mail written on the handheld through KMail. There is no provision for receiving mail, however.
The KNotes Conduit is a partial replacement for the built-in memo application. It keeps the notes you write with KNotes synchronized with the memos you write on your PalmPilot™.
Setting up the KNotes conduit is very simple.
KNotes Conduit Setup
In the General Tab there are two configuration options:
Uncheck this box if you wish to maintain the note on KNotes even if the correspondent memo was deleted on the handheld memo application.
If the Delete KNote when Pilot memo is deleted box is checked, you may check this box to automatically delete the notes that correspond to a deleted memo, without confirmation.
By default, the options “delete knote” and “suppress delete-confirmation” are turned off, so that notes will accumulate on your PC.
The Notepad Conduit exports the free hand notes of the handheld's Notepad application as pictures to the desktop. To set the folder to which the pictures should be exported, either enter it in the Output edit box or select it clicking the file picker button.
The Time Synchronization Conduit syncs the handheld's time to that of the desktop machine. It is useful for keeping the clock of the handheld accurate. There are really no configuration options other that enabling and disabling the conduit, as currently only one direction for the synchronization is enabled, you can only Set the handheld time from the time on the PC, and not Set the PC time from the time on the handheld.
Palm OS® Version 3.25 and 3.3 do not support setting the handheld system time. For these systems, the conduit will be simply skipped.
This conduit will synchronize your PalmPilot™ with KOrganizer and Kontact
or to an iCalendar file of your choice. In the latter case, the conduit will
need the filename of the calendar file (this will usually be a file that ends in
.ics
) to sync with, of if it uses the
standard KOrganizer iCalendar file, it will be under the $KDEHOME/share/apps/korganizer/
folder, where the
$KDEHOME
environment variable (typically
/home/user/.kde/
) points to the folder
that contains your configuration and data for the KDE applications.
Calendar Conduit Setup
In the General page, you can set the calendar options.
Choose between synchronizing with the Standard Calendar, or in other words, the KOrganizer standard calendar or with a Calendar file of your choice, that you must either write in the Calendar file edit box or select using the file picker.
You can use the calendar conduit with any application that accepts a file in the iCalendar format as a resource. However, some applications, like Evolution, do not handle the synchronization gracefully while they are open. As a rule of thumb, quit these applications before synchronizing, otherwise you will lose data. There is no need to take these precautions when syncing with KOrganizer or Kontact.
Check this box to save a copy of the archived records from your handheld on the PC, in order to keep a history of past appointments in you KDE desktop as well.
In the Conflicts page, you can set the calendar options, overriding KPilot's general settings for conflict resolution when you are using this conduit. For a detailed description of the different conflict resolution possibilities available, please refer to the HotSync Setup section of this handbook.
The Palm DOC conduit converts text files in your PC from and to databases in Palm DOC format in the PalmPilot™. You can use any Palm DOC reader to view these files on your PalmPilot™.
Palm DOC Conduit Setup
After changing the Palm DOC conduit configuration, you have to restart KPilot to let the changes you made take effect.
In the General page, you can set the location of the text documents in your computer and the direction of the synchronization.
Type on the text box or use the file picker to select the location of the folder that the Palm DOC conduit uses a as the place for the text files it will sync with the handheld. There, you may place the text documents you want install or synchronize to the PDA, and find the text documents created from Palm DOC databases in your handheld.
The file name has to end in .txt
for the
conduit to recognize it as text. If the file is not recognized as text, it will
be ignored by the conduit. Also, the text has to be in an encoding that is
compatible with your handheld encoding. Therefore, if the text file has
characters that are not being correctly recognized by the Palm DOC reader in
your handheld, try opening the file a text editor, like KWrite, and saving
it in an compatible text encoding using the Save As..
dialog, or set the encoding in the PC -> Handheld tab.
If you want to save a copy of the Palm DOC databases from your handheld in your computer, check the Local copy: box and type on the text box or use the file picker to select the location of the folder where these databases will be saved.
The Palm DOC conduit has the ability to sync from and to the handheld, automatically converting the text files to Palm DOC databases and vice versa. The Sync only PC to PDA option will convert all text files located in the folder you selected above to Palm DOC databases and install them in your handheld. The Sync only PDA to PC option will convert all Palm DOC databases from your handheld to files and install them in the folder you selected above. Finally, The Sync all option allows the synchronization to work in both directions.
When both the text file and the Palm DOC database are modified, you cannot merge the modifications, you have to choose one of the versions, losing the changes in one of them.
In the PC -> Handheld page, you can configure the Palm DOC compression and bookmarks settings to use when converting from text files to Palm DOC databases.
Palm DOC documents can be compressed, saving considerable amounts of available memory in your handheld. Most Palm DOC readers support compressed documents, but if you use a reader or editor that is not compatible with compression (for instance, the Sied editor), you will not be able to read or edit the compressed Palm DOC documents created by this conduit. Therefore, check this box to save handheld memory, but uncheck it if you have compatibility problems with compressed Palm DOC in your favorite editor or reader.
The Palm DOC format has a provision for bookmark records. Bookmarks allow you to
easily jump to selected parts of the document, making browsing long documents
easier. Check this box to allow the Palm DOC conduit to create bookmark records.
To create them, the conduit has to know the location in the text and the name of
the bookmark. There are three supported ways to let the conduit know the
location and name of the bookmark: from inline tags in the text, from tags at
the end of the text and from a .bmk
bookmark
file. To make the creation of bookmarks effective, you have to check at least
one of these boxes below.
Convert tags in the format <* BookmarkName
*>
located inside the text to Palm DOC bookmarks, where the location of the
tag in the text will be converted to the bookmark location and the
BookmarkName
text inside the tag will be converted to
the name of the bookmark in the Palm DOC format. The tag will be removed from
the resulting Palm DOC document, leaving the text clean.
This is a very easy and intuitive way to create bookmarks
in your Palm DOC documents.
Convert tags in the format <BookmarkName
>
located in the end of the text to Palm DOC bookmarks. Whenever the
BookmarkName
text appears in the text, the conduit
will generate a the bookmark in the resulting Palm DOC document pointing to it.
The tag will then be removed from the resulting Palm DOC document, leaving the
text clean. This is a simple way to create repetitive bookmarks, like one for
each “Chapter” in your Palm DOC documents.
This is the most complex but the most powerful way to create bookmarks.
The method involves using regular expressions (QRegExp) in a file
TextName.bmk
, where TextName.txt
is
the filename of the text, to search the text for bookmarks. See the
documentation
for an in-depth description of the bmk file format.
Set here the encoding of your handheld. KPilot will convert the text document to this encoding when exporting the file to the handheld.
In the Handheld -> PC page, you can configure bookmarks settings to use when converting from Palm DOC databases to text files.
The Palm DOC format has a provision for bookmark records. Bookmarks allow you to easily jump to selected parts of the document, making browsing long documents easier. The Palm DOC conduit can convert Palm DOC bookmark records to a format that is readable in your computer, either as a separate file or as tags in the middle of the text file. Select Do not convert bookmarks if you want to ignore the Palm DOC bookmarks, resulting in a text that is clean from bookmark tags.
The Convert into .bm file options also result in a clean
text file, as the bookmarks are converted to a separate file in the bmk format,
as described here. The file is saved with a .bm
extension to avoid conflicts with .bmk
files
created previously.
Finally, the Convert as inline tags option creates
inline tags inside the resulting text file form <*
BookmarkName
*> placing each tag in the place that
was previously referenced by the bookmark, and using the bookmark name as the
BookmarkName
text inside the tag. Now you You can
edit the bookmark name, move it or delete it and convert back to Palm DOC, as
you wish.
If you check this box, only changes in the text will trigger conversions from Palm DOC to text files. In other words, changes in the bookmarks only will not result in updates for the text files in your computer.
In the Conflicts page, you can configure how the conduit deals with files that changed both in the computer and the handheld.
The Palm DOC conduit does not feature merging the modifications when a text is changed both in the handheld and in the computer. Therefore, the choice is between working with the files out of sync, or discarding the changes in one of them. The No resolution option will avoid synchronizing texts with conflicts, the PDA overrides option will overwrite the computer text file version in case of conflict, the PC overrides will do the same, but the other way around, and the Ask the user option will bring a dialog to let the user decide on a file by file, case by case basis.
This option will always bring the conflict resolution dialog, even if there is no conflicts to solve. The advantage is that you can keep track of all the files that are being covered by the conduit.
This conduit will synchronize your PalmPilot™ with the KDE address book or to
a vCard file of your choice. In the latter case, the conduit will need the
filename of the
vCard file (this will usually be a file that ends in .vcf
) to sync with, of if it uses the standard
KDE address book file, it will be under the
$KDEHOME/share/apps/kabc/
folder, where the $KDEHOME
environment
variable (typically /home/Login Name/.kde/
)
points to the folder that contains your configuration and data for the KDE
applications.
KAddressBook Conduit Setup
In the General page, you can set the general address sync options.
Choose between synchronizing with the Standard address book, or in other words, the KDE standard address book or with a vCard file of your choice, that you must either write in the vCard file edit box or select using the file picker.
You can use the address book conduit with any application that accepts a file in the vCard format as a resource. However, some applications may not handle the synchronization gracefully while they are open. As a rule of thumb, quit these applications before synchronizing, otherwise you may lose data. There is no need to take these precautions when syncing with the KDE address book.
The handheld offers an option to archive deleted addresses in your desktop. If that option is selected, check this box to keep the deleted addresses from your handheld in your PC address book. These addresses will be no longer synchronized with your handheld.
In the Conflicts page, you can set the address book conduit options, overriding KPilot's general settings for conflict resolution when you are using this conduit. For a detailed description of the different conflict resolution possibilities available, please refer to the HotSync Setup section of this handbook.
In the Fields page, you can set the conduit options for synchronizing the handheld address fields that do not have a direct counterpart in the KDE address book.
The “Other” field in the handheld address application can be used for many things (for instance storing a secondary email address). It is not clear how to classify this field in KDE. Depending on your usage, select in the dropdown the field from the computer that will be synchronized with the “Other” field from your handheld.
While the “Address” field in the handheld address application is the only default option for storing an street address, the KDE street address field can be a home address or a business address. The preferred address will have precedence over other addresses, and the conduit will try to set this status by default. Either the home or business street address will be used to store the handheld street address. Select in the dropdown the option that suits better your needs. For instance, if you use this field mainly for business addresses, select Preferred, then Business Address. If not, select Preferred, then Home Address.
While the “Fax” field in the handheld address application is the only default option for storing a fax number, the KDE address book can store a home fax or a business fax number. Select in the dropdown the option that suits better your needs. For instance, if you use this field mainly for business faxes, select Business Fax. If not, select Home Fax.
In the Custom Fields page, you can set the conduit options for dealing with the “Custom” fields from your handheld address application. Since there are no natural correspondence between these fields and other KDE address book fields, you can set them as you like. You can use them to store a URL, a IM Address, the Birthdate of your contact or the obvious: Store as Costume Field.
If you select to store birthdays, remember to use a date format that is consistent with the settings in the Date format dropdown, so that the conduit can correctly identify the date from the record and vice versa. Possible placeholders are: %d for the day, %m for the month, %y for the two-digit year, %Y for the four-digit year. For example, %d.%m.%Y would generate a date like 27.3.1952, while %m/%d/%y would write the same date as 03/27/52.
This conduit generates a page with your handheld information. Some info about your KDE, KPilot and Pilot-Link version is included as well. The available output formats are HTML, text or custom template. The conduit output and in special, the debug output section of the output may help the developers track down bugs.
System Information Conduit Setup
In the General page, you can set the output location and format.
Write in the edit box or use the file picker to select the location and file name of the output file where the handheld system information will be written.
Choose between HTML, Text file (plain text), or a selectable Custom template. To create a custom template, you can use the default template as a reference.
In the Parts Included page, you can set which parts will be included in the output, one by one, by checking or unchecking them in the Output Type list.
This conduit will synchronize your PalmPilot™ To Do List application with KOrganizer and Kontact, or to an iCalendar file of your choice. The configuration dialog looks and behaves exactly the same as the configuration dialog for the Calendar Conduit. The only difference is that instead of synchronizing the Calendar, you will be syncing the To Do List.
Calendar Conduit Setup
The MAL (AvantGo®) Conduit synchronizes your handheld with the AvantGo® server. This conduit is based on Jason Day's libmal. The AvantGo® server offers general content (news, guides, stock quotes, etc.) in a format that is suitable for reading in a handheld. To use this conduit, you need to register to a service provider, for instance, AvantGo.com, subscribe the channels you select and install the AvantGo® software on your handheld, and configure the software on your handheld to find the MAL server.
The installation software for the handheld client is usually only available for Microsoft® Windows®, if you do not have access to a windows computer, you can try installing the databases available in the MalSync Homepage, with different versions, one for PalmOS™ 5 and other for older PalmOS™s.
To configure the software on your handheld to find the MAL server, open the
AGConnect application in your handheld, click Settings...
and enter your MAL server address, the User Name and
Password you got while registering. The
AvantGo® server address is
sync.avantgo.com
, and its port is
80
. On some installations, you should use the MobileLink
instead of the AGConnect application on your handheld.
MAL (AvantGo) Conduit Setup
In the General page, you can set the synchronization frequency options. It can be set for Every Sync, Once per Hour, Once a Day, Once a Week or Once a Month. The conduit only runs when you hit HotSync® on your handheld, so Once per Hour, for instance, really means that KPilot will only try to synchronize with the MAL servers if it is more than an hour since the last MAL sync.
The MAL conduit can work through a proxy server. In the Proxy page, you can set the proxy settings.
If you connect the Internet directly, select No proxy, requiring no further configuration. But if you use a HTTP proxy or a SOCKS proxy, select it, to enable the rest of the dialog and to make the conduit use it to connect the MAL server.
Write in the Server Name dropdown box the address of the
proxy server to use, in the form foo.bar.com
, not
http://foo.bar.com
or
http://foo.bar.com:8080
.
Check the box Custom port: if your proxy uses a non standard port, and enter the correct port number.
In the No proxy for edit box, you may enter the list of MAL
servers that do not need the use of a proxy, separated by commas. For instance,
localhost,lan
.
If your proxy require authentication, enter your User name and Password in the respective edit boxes.
In the MAL Server page, you can set the MAL server address and settings. Currently, you can only configure this settings using the handheld MobileLink or AGConnect applications, so this page is disabled.
This conduit allows you to send mail using a transport. The configuration of the Mail Conduit is fairly simple.
The Mail Conduit Conduit Setup Dialog
There are two tabs in the setup dialog for the Mail Conduit, one for Sending mail and one for the credits of the mail conduit.
Depending on which send method you choose, different fields will be activated in the remainder of the tab, allowing you to enter the necessary information. Currently, the only method available is Using KMail, which has a very simple configuration.
Your email address can be entered in the Email Address: field. This is the email address that goes in the “From:” line in outgoing mail. If you enter a file name in the Signature File field then that file will be appended to each outgoing mail as a signature.
When sending mail through KMail, KPilot automatically places it in your KMail outbox. KMail saves mail in the outbox until you request that those pieces of mail are really sent.
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