AppInfo block

The AppInfo block begins with standard category support. See Palm::StdAppInfo for details.

Sort block

    $pdb->{sort}

This is a scalar, the raw data of the sort block.

Records

    $record = $pdb->{records}[N]
    $record->{day}
    $record->{month}
    $record->{year}

The day, month and year of the event. The day and month start at 1 (i.e., for January, "$record->{month}" is set to 1). The year is a four-digit number (for dates in 2001, "$record->{year}" is "2001").

For repeating events, these fields specify the first date at which the event occurs.

    $record->{start_hour}
    $record->{start_minute}
    $record->{end_hour}
    $record->{end_minute}

The start and end times of the event. For untimed events, all of these are 0xff.

    $record->{when_changed}

This is defined and true iff the "when info" for the record has changed. I don't know what this means.

    $record->{alarm}{advance}
    $record->{alarm}{unit}

If the record has an alarm associated with it, the %{$record->{alarm}} hash exists. The "unit" subfield is an integer: 0 for minutes, 1 for hours, 2 for days. The "advance" subfield specifies how many units before the event the alarm should ring. e.g., if "unit" is 1 and "advance" is 5, then the alarm will sound 5 hours before the event.

If "advance" is -1, then there is no alarm associated with this event. New records created via "new_Record" have a 10 minute alarm set by default. "undef $record->{alarm}" to remove this alarm before writing. An alarm icon will still show up in the Datebook if the "alarm" field exists, even with "advance" set to -1.

    %{ $record->{repeat} }

This exists iff this is a repeating event.

    $record->{repeat}{type}

An integer which specifies the type of repeat:

0

no repeat.

1

a daily event, one that occurs every day.

2

a weekly event, one that occurs every week on the same day(s). An event may occur on several days every week, e.g., every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

For weekly events, the following fields are defined:

    @{ $record->{repeat}{repeat_days} }
    

This is an array of 7 elements; each element is true iff the event occurs on the corresponding day. Element 0 is Sunday, element 1 is Monday, and so forth.

    $record->{repeat}{start_of_week}
    

Day the week starts on (0 for Sunday, 1 for Monday). This affects the phase of events that repeat every 2nd (or more) Sunday.

3

a "monthly by day" event, e.g., one that occurs on the second Friday of every month.

For "monthly by day" events, the following fields are defined:

    $record->{repeat}{weeknum}
    

The number of the week on which the event occurs. 0 means the first week of the month, 1 means the second week of the month, and so forth. A value of 5 means that the event occurs on the last week of the month.

    $record->{repeat}{daynum}
    

An integer, the day of the week on which the event occurs. 0 means Sunday, 1 means Monday, and so forth.

4

a "monthly by date" event, e.g., one that occurs on the 12th of every month.

5

a yearly event, e.g., one that occurs every year on December 25th.

    $record->{repeat}{frequency}
    

Specifies the frequency of the repeat. For instance, if the event is a daily one, and $record->{repeat}{frequency} is 3, then the event occurs every 3 days.

    $record->{repeat}{unknown}

I don't know what this is.

    $record->{repeat}{end_day}
    $record->{repeat}{end_month}
    $record->{repeat}{end_year}

The last day, month and year on which the event occurs.

    @{ $record->{exceptions} }
    $day   = $record->{exceptions}[N][0]
    $month = $record->{exceptions}[N][1]
    $year  = $record->{exceptions}[N][2]

If there are any exceptions to a repeating event, e.g. a weekly meeting that was cancelled one time, then the @{$record->{exceptions}} array is defined.

Each element in this array is a reference to an anonymous array with three elements: the day, month, and year of the exception.

    $record->{description}

A text string, the description of the event.

    $record->{location}

A text string, the location (if any) of the event (Calendar database only).

    $record->{note}

A text string, the note (if any) attached to the event.

    %{ $record->{timezone} }

This exists iff a time zone has been set for the event.

    $record->{timezone}{name}

The time zone name, e.g., "London" or "San Francisco".

    $record->{timezone}{country}

The country the time zone is in. This is an integer defined in Core/System/PalmLocale.h.

    $record->{timezone}{offset}

This gives the offset from UTC, in minutes, of the time zone.

    $record->{timezone}{dst_adjustment}

This gives the additional offset while daylight savings time is in effect. The offset from UTC is $record->{timezone}{offset} + $record->{timezone}{dst_adjustment} (actually only 0 or 60 are used).

    $record->{timezone}{custom}

Should indicate whether this location was created by the user, though this always seems to be true.

    $record->{timezone}{flags}

Reserved flags.

    $record->{timezone}{start_hour}
    $record->{timezone}{start_daynum}
    $record->{timezone}{start_weeknum}
    $record->{timezone}{start_month}
    $record->{timezone}{end_hour}
    $record->{timezone}{end_daynum}
    $record->{timezone}{end_weeknum}
    $record->{timezone}{end_month}

These define the period during which daylight savings time is in effect if $record->{timezone}{dst_adjustment} is non-zero. daynum specifies the day of week (0=Sunday, 6=Saturday) and weeknum specifies the week of month (0=1st, 3=4th, 4=last), analagously to the "monthly by day" repeating event. e.g., The "London" time zone has DST starting on the last Sunday of March, which is indicated with start_daynum=0 (Sunday), start_weeknum=4 (last week of the month), and start_month=3 (March).

new

  $pdb = new Palm::Datebook;
  $pdb = new Palm::Datebook({app => 'Calendar'});

Create a new PDB, initialized with the various Palm::Datebook fields and an empty record list. Creates a Datebook PDB by default. Specify the app parameter as 'Calendar' to create a Calendar PDB.

new_Record

  $record = $pdb->new_Record;

Creates a new Datebook record, with blank values for all of the fields.

"new_Record" does not add the new record to $pdb. For that, you want "$pdb->append_Record".