[BB]

BlackBook v1.00c for OS/2

by Viêt-Tâm Luu


User's Guide


Copyright © 1996 Viêt-Tâm Luu.

This document may be freely distributed, but it may not
be modified (with the exception of conversion to other
formats) without the expressed consent of the author.


This document was created for viewing with IBM WebExplorer 1.03 or later. It will still be readable using other HTML viewers, but some parts may appear missing or formatted incorrectly.

4. BlackBook Records

Each BlackBook database contains zero or more records. Each record is a collection of data about one person, and contains a number of fields. Fields are the individual pieces of information that make up a records; for example, the person's name, address, and telephone number are each stored in their own fields. BlackBook provides an easy way to view, modify, and create records and their fields.

4.1. Record Fields

The record fields hold the individual pieces of information contained within a record. With the exception of the record name, all fields can be viewed and edited within the BlackBook record notebook, on the right-hand side of the BlackBook main window. Fields may only be changed when read-only mode is turned off. Also, when fields of a record are modified the record data is updated only when one of the following conditions occurs:

Record name: The record name is a text field with maximum length of 64 characters. It is the name by which the record is listed in the BlackBook record list. The record list is sorted by alphabetical order of the record names. The record name need not be unique; if you create or give an existing record a name which already exists in the record list, the record is placed after the existing records with identical record names. Note that record names are compared in a non-case-sensitive manner; for example, ``Macdonald'' and ``MacDonald'' are considered (alphabetically) the same for purposes of sorting.

The record name normally corresponds to the name of the person associated with the record. However, it is independent of the fields for the last and given names of the person to increase flexibility. For example, you may wish to make the record names the last and first names of the person, or the first name only, or a company name with whom the person is associated.

Also, the record name is the only field that must be set, i.e. that cannot be blank. Any other fields may be left blank or in their default state, though doing so will limit the availability of certain functions (such as the action buttons).

[BlackBook Record Fields 1]

Name, Last: The last name of the person. The maximum length for this field is 40 characters.

Name(s), Given: The first and middle names or initials of the person. The maximum length for this field is 40 characters.

Birthdate: Equally self-explanatory. The format of the date is determined by the settings you choose in the ``Country'' settings notebook in the OS/2 ``System Setup'' folder. If you change those settings, you must restart BlackBook for the changes to take effect. Entering no date or an invalid date sets this field blank once the record data has been updated.

Notify: This setting tells the BlackBook Birthday Notification Tool whether or not you should be notified (on days specified in the Configuration notebook) of this person's upcoming birthday. A checkmark enables notification (for this record); unchecking the box disables notification.

Photo: This field displays a photograph of the person, in one of the following bitmap formats: OS/2 and Windows bitmaps (BMP), CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), ZSoft PC Paintbrush image file format (PCX), Microsoft/Aldus Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), TrueVision Targa/Vista bitmap (TGA, VST, AFI), Amiga IFF/ILBM Interleaved Bitmap format (IFF, LBM), X Window X10 and X11 1bpp bitmap (XBM), and IBM Printer Page Segment (PSE, PSEG).

The photo is specified by pressing on the ``Select Photo Bitmap File...'' button, which displays a file dialog from which you can select the file. The entire pathname of the file, including the filename and extension may not exceed 80 characters.

If the photo file is in the same directory as the BlackBook file, or in a subdirectory of this directory, its path is stored as a ``relative path.'' This allows you to move the files for BlackBook database (the BlackBook file itself and its accompanying photo files) much more easily, without needing to re-select all the bitmap files after having moved the database (assuming the path relationship between the database file and the photo files is not altered in the move).

Note that selecting a bitmap file does not integrate the file into the BlackBook database (BB) file. What is inserted into the record is the pathname of the bitmap file, which is used to load the bitmap when the record is displayed. If for whatever reason BlackBook is unable to load the bitmap, or if the bitmap is in an unrecognized format, a blank (black) rectangle with the the word ``Error'' will be displayed.

The bitmap rectangle is 128 pixels wide by 160 pixels high. For best results, take an existing photo, reduce/resample and/or crop it to these exact dimensions. This also has the benefit of reducing the size of the bitmap file used, and consequently lowering the time it takes to load and display the photo. BlackBook will stretch or compress any bitmap to fit the rectangle, so for a correct aspect ratio a 5:4 height-to-width ratio should be used.

The photo field can also be used to display other bitmap graphics, such as a company logo, etc.

[BlackBook Record Fields 2]

Permanent Address: The person's principal or primary mailing address. The length of this field is limited to 200 characters, including 2 characters for each line break.

Current Address: The person's temporary or secondary mailing address. The length of this field is limited to 200 characters, including 2 characters for each line break.

Side note: The use of the terms ``permanent'' and ``current'' address stems from the author being a university student engaged in a cooperative (work-study) program, with friends (similarly enrolled) who tend to move around on a regular (every four months) basis. Hence the ``permanent'' address (often the parents' address) is an address to which mail can always be sent (but forwarded slowly), whereas the ``current'' address is the address where the person currently resides (but which may expire within a few months). For non-students, two separate addresses could be a company (business) address and a home address, a main address and a secondary address at a cottage or summer residence, etc.

Phone Number 1: The primary phone number (with area code) at the associated address. This field can be at most 32 characters long.

The ``Dial -> ... Address'' action buttons open dialer windows with the primary phone numbers for each address. The BlackBook Dialer attempts to detect whether or not this is a North American number, and if so, to reformat it into the proper number to dial. (See section 5.1 for more information on the rules used to reformat the number.)

Phone Number 2: The secondary phone/fax/modem (etc.) number at the associated address. This field has a maximum length of 32 characters.

E-mail Address: The (full) Internet E-mail address of the person, if any. Maximum length is 64 characters. The ``Send E-mail...'' action button opens a BlackBook Mailer window with this set as the destination address.

WWW Home Page: The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the person's WorldWide Web (WWW) home page (or company home page, etc.). This field can be at most 64 characters long. The ``Go to WWW Home Page...'' action button opens the specified WWW browser at this location.

[BlackBook Record Fields 3]

Additional Notes: Enter any additional information or text that pertains to this record here. This field can theoretically hold up to 16 megabytes of text (16777216 characters), but has never been tested with anything more than a few lines of text.


4.2. Action Buttons

The six action buttons are located on the lower half of the first record notebook page. Their actions are described below:

The ``Dial -> Permanent Address'' button starts the BlackBook Dialer with the primary phone number specified at the first (permanent) address. The button is accessible only if a valid (containing one or more digits) number has been entered.

The ``Dial -> Current Address'' button starts the BlackBook Dialer with the primary phone number specified at the second (current) address. The button is accessible only if a valid (containing one or more digits) number has been entered.

The ``Copy Permanent Address'' button copies the contents of the ``Permanent Address'' field (on the Address page) to the clipboard. This can then be pasted into a text editor, word processor, etc. This button is accessible only when the contents of the ``Permanent Address'' field are not blank.

The ``Copy Current Address'' button copies the contents of the ``Current Address'' field (on the Address page) to the clipboard. This button is accessible only when the contents of the ``Current Address'' field are not blank.

The ``Send E-mail...'' button invokes the BlackBook Mailer (or an external E-mail program, if you have so specified), allowing you to send E-mail via the Internet to the address specified for the current record. It is available only if the Internet address for the record has been specified. Furthermore, the BlackBook Mailer may not be invoked if BlackBook's Internet mail feature has not been correctly configured (see Section 2.3, Configuration, for more details).

The ``Go to WWW Home Page...'' button launches the WWW browser specified in BlackBook's configuration to the WorldWide Web site specified by the ``WWW Home Page'' URL (Uniform Resource Locator) field of the current record. It is available only if the said field is non-empty (presumably containing a valid URL).


[Contents | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C]