JFile 2.2
Documentation

IMPORTANT NOTES!
- JFile users can install this program right over top of the older one.  

Features:
- Password protect access to databases
- Remembers the last sort/filter/find options performed
- Field types including popup lists, date, integer, floating point, and Boolean
- Filtering of records
- Sorting on secondary and tertiary sort fields
- Forward and reverse sorting by field (when tapping column heading twice)
- Columnar formatting when viewing a database
- Cut/Paste between fields
- Local find function in the database view
- Columnar formatting in the database view
- Export a record to MemoPad
- Duplicate a record

Limitations:
- 30 databases (2 in the unregistered version)
- field names can be no longer than 20 characters
- 20 fields per databases
- 500 characters per field of data


Creating A New Database:

To create a new database, tap the 'New DB' button. Enter the name of the
database, which can be up to 30 characters in length. The next step is
to select the field names for each record and the field types.

The field names can be up to 20 characters each in length, and must be
continuous on the 'New Database' screen, JFile will not permit you to
leave an 'unnamed' field in the list of field names.

You may choose a different Field Type for each field, with the only
restriction being that the last field in the database cannot be of type
Boolean, JFile will alert you to this situation if it arises, and ask
you to create another non-Boolean field after the Boolean field.


Field Types

String: this is the 'normal' field type allowing strings of up to 500
characters to be entered in the field list.

Bool: this is the Boolean type of field type, and will appear in your
databases as a checkbox that is either checked or unchecked.

Date: this is the Date type of field type, and will popup a Date picking
dialog box when you click on the name of the field

Time: this is the Time type of field type, and will popup a Time picking
dialog box when you click on the name of the field

Popup: this is a Popup List field type. You can define the contents of
the popup list once you are in the editing view of the database itself
(instructions for this are listed in the Editing portion of this
documentation.

Int: this is the Integer field type. Sorting on this field will be valid
for integers up to approximately 9 digits in length.

Float: this is the Floating Point field type. Sorting on this field will
be valid for integers up to approximately 9 digits in length


Database Modification

You can now change the names of fields, their Field Types, as well as
the database name after the database has been created. You can also add
fields to the end of the field list, and delete fields from the end of
the field list in the database. To modify a database in this way, go to
the Main view in JFile, tap the 'Mod' button, which will become
highlighted, and then select the database you wish to modify.

The only field(s) that may be deleted from a database are the ones at
the very end of the field list. To remove the final field in a database,
simply erase the name of that field, again note that this can only be
done for the FINAL field in the database list, and should be immediately
followed by a 'Done' button hit.

To change the name of a particular field or the database name itself,
just tap on the item you wish to change, and enter the new text for the
name, then hit the 'Done' button.

Similarly you can change the types of Fields in this screen. Note
however that if you change from non-compatible field types, you will
have a loss of data. Example: you have a field with a string type with a
lot of text in each record in that particular field. If you switch that
to a Boolean type of field, you will lose each of those strings, and the
field will be reset to allow input of a Boolean/Checkbox type of input.


Viewing A Database:

While on the main view screen, tap on the title of the database you
would like to view. A new screen comes up, with the title indicating
which database you are in. For a new database you will see only the
column/field headings.


Sorting a Database:

While viewing a database, you can tap on any of the column headings to
sort the database by that particular column/field. Tapping the same
column heading again will sort the database in the reverse order.

A menu option to sort the database with secondary and tertiary sort
fields is also available.


Setting Up Column Formatting

In the database view, selecting the menu item 'Column Formatting' will
take you to a setup screen to determine how you would like to view the
database. You have up to 20 columns to display your data in. Each field
(1-20) gets its own column. The usage for this screen is different that
in JFile 1.6b and earlier versions.

You are no longer confined to 160 pixels across for the total of all
field widths. What happens now is that you are able to set the width for
each column up to 160 pixels, and JFile will display as much as possible
of the columns that are shown on the screen. Remember though that column
1 is a static column, and will not scroll left and right.

As an example, say you set each of you columns to 80 (pixels), you would
see two columns on the Database view screen, each of 80 pixels, and when
you scroll left or right, you would scroll 1 field to the left or right
(again, the leftmost first column will remain stationary). Experiment
with the column formatting screen to understand the new usage.


Horizontal Scrolling

Horizontal scroll buttons added to the database view. The first column
is a non-scrollable column (this may change in a future version to allow
the first column to scroll also) and any other visible column will now
scroll left and right through the available fields.


Password Protection

You can now set a password for each database. This is done from the
Database Prefs menu option while viewing a particular database. The
password you set here can be up to 10 characters in length. It will be
required to enter this password each time you try to access the database
from the Main view of all the databases.

The Auto-Lock on App Exit checkbox will automatically return you to the
'Main' view of JFile if this item is checked, and if a password has been
set. What this means, is that normally, JFile will try to return you to
the last position you were at in the database should you leave the
application and return. If you do this with a Passworded database, you
will not be asked the password, and will get instant access to the last
place you were at. This checkbox, if checked, will automatically return
you to the main screen if you leave the JFile application, and therefore
the Password will need to be re-entered if you wish to access the
database in question.

NOTE: There is no encryption being done on the data items in the
database itself! The purpose of this password function is only to
prevent the casual user of your Pilot from accessing you more Private
data. Example: say you want to hand it to a friend to try out the Pilot,
with the Password set for the database, and the Auto-Lock on, the person
will not be able to access that particular database in JFile without the
password you have set. Similarly, the data is not encrypted in the
resultant .pdb file on the PC following a HotSync, so that it is
possible to access the data in a Password Protected database after a
HotSync on the PC. Again, the purpose of the password is simply to
prevent the casual user of you Pilot from accessing data that you would
not like them to have access to.


Adding Records To A Database:

While viewing a database, tap the 'Add' button. You will be presented
with a form showing the field names, and space to enter your data. When
through editing your data, tap 'Done' to save the changes, 'Cancel' to
cancel them, and 'Del' if you wish to delete the record from the
database.

The different field types require different methods to input data. In an
integer field you are only permitted to enter numerical digits for
instance. In a date field, when you try to modify it a Date Picker
dialog box will be presented. Popup lists are discussed in the next
section.


Working With Popup Lists

When editing a record, fields of type Popup List will appear with a Bold
field name to indicate it is a popup list. You can manually enter data
into the field simply by clicking on the underlined area to enter data
into. You can also select from the Popup List by tapping the Bold field
name and you will be presented with the current Popup List for that
field. One of the list items will be Modify Popup List, which will allow
you to add or delete items from the Popup List for that particular
field.

Popup lists are not intended to be used for very long lists of data.
There are limitations in JFile that limit each Popup List to 100 items,
and each list is limited to approximately 2000 characters of data (this
will likely be modified in a future version to allow lengthier popup
lists).


Changing the Editing Record Format

While editing a record, you can use the Menu to increase or decrease the
amount of space allotted to the data fields. Each time you tap on the
menu item the 'data' portion of the screen is incremented or decremented
by 5 pixels in size. This allows you to view more or less of the field
names if the data is small, and vice versa if the data is large compared
to the field names.


Viewing Fields That Contain Much Data:

If you have a lot of data in one field (more than 200 characters
usually), and it spills of the screen, you will need to drag the cursor
down the field (i.e. selecting the text) to scroll to the remainder of
the data in that field. This may be modified in the future for easier
usage of long data fields.


