New Rough Cuts Chapter Up

[eclipxe]

Sadly the SDK looks abysmal. There is such limited access to other applications and services that so many of my app ideas seem to be off-limits. It looks like you can't access the system wide calendar from the SDK. You can write events to it, but you can't read events.

Both Contacts and Calendar will allow applications to add information that will get merged into an integrated view. They don't allow applications to read, delete or update any data that wasn't created by the same application.

Hopefully the SDK gets updated to allow better access but this kinda sucks.

[jtlapp]

They probably had to write a lot of code to enforce this constraint. There is a security issue here. I don't know if this is the best way to deal with it, but it's certainly one way. Do they impose similar constraints on access to contacts?

[Jason Robitaille]

Eclipxe, ya had me confused at first, lol. I kept trying to find the quote you posted in the newest chapter, Chapter 8. Turns out it was in Chapter 7.

IMHO, it's a safety matter. Wouldn't want someone making an app that edits your contact/calendar data.

[Kev1000000]

***. That is horrible news... =( A lot of my app ideas have just been thrown out the window as well

I guess I can't write a "Today" app...



To get around this seciruty issue, they just need a "This app would like to read/write from your calendar, do you accept?" Happens once, gets stored as a setting.

[Jason Robitaille]

What app ideas have to involve editing/deleting Contacts and calendar appointments created by an app other than yours?

EDIT: Keep in mind this will be SDK version 1.0. They need to get the basics in before adding the fine details developers love

[Kev1000000]

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

What app ideas have to involve editing/deleting Contacts and calendar appointments created by an app other than yours?

A Today/Tomorrow app that reads all calendar entries and shows which you have upcoming.

[Carioca_FL]

Originally Posted by Kev1000000

A Today/Tomorrow app that reads all calendar entries and shows which you have upcoming.

But in that case you'll only be pulling from the calendar, not editing it, correct?

[eclipxe]

Originally Posted by Carioca_FL

But in that case you'll only be pulling from the calendar, not editing it, correct?

That's the thing - you can't even *READ* from the calendar. Lame.

The whole scenario of the phone going through your calendar, gathering maps and wikipedia info overnight, seeing that you're late based on the gps, etc, etc, etc. All fantasy. I was really looking forward to having intelligent apps around my PIM data but if it continues to be crippled like this it will be a problem.

[tenaku]

Originally Posted by Kev1000000

A Today/Tomorrow app that reads all calendar entries and shows which you have upcoming.

With the pre's compressible calendar do you really need that? The calendar does that already.

[eclipxe]

Originally Posted by tenaku

With the pre's compressible calendar do you really need that? The calendar does that already.

Only compresses free space - if I have a 4 hour meeting in the morning I can't see my evening plans on one screen.

[nerdtalker]

Still waiting for SDK approval. Palm is dragging its heels on this one, so I can't even tell what functionality there is, if any, that I'm interested in.

[tenaku]

Originally Posted by eclipxe

Only compresses free space - if I have a 4 hour meeting in the morning I can't see my evening plans on one screen.

Fair enough. It looks like the calendar screen can fit 7 or 8 hours of stuff on the screen, which is typically plenty for me, but I can see how someone might want more.

I would love if the calender were a little more open, but I can see how this is a double-edged sword for palm. All it takes is one rogue app to leak some celebrity's calendar for some seriously bad press. I think they are erring on the side of too much caution, but I can see why they are doing it.

[Kev1000000]

Yeah, where can we voice our opinion to palm about this?

[Xyg]

Originally Posted by Kev1000000

Yeah, where can we voice our opinion to palm about this?

protip: Palm USA - Mobile Products for Consumers, Professionals, and Businesses

[Kev1000000]

I think I'll wait until I become an official developer and have access to the forums. People might be *****ing already.

[mobileman]

You people need to stop making excuses for Palm. This is terrible news. Even the blackberry (who is known for security) can do this.

[cohoman]

It is odd, that you can't even "read" Calendar events from the SDK API routines. Let's hope Palm adds that functionality soon if it isn't in the official release.

[dwhitman]

If this is true, I'm having a lot of trouble understanding the rationale for the decision.

If there's a security issue, I'd be much more worried about giving J. Random Application write access to my calendar and contacts, not read access.
But yet it appears you can write but not read. ***?

[tenaku]

Originally Posted by mobileman

You people need to stop making excuses for Palm. This is terrible news. Even the blackberry (who is known for security) can do this.

Not making excuses, I think it's a bad decision, but I can see some of the logic behind that decision.

BTW, blackberry appears to be the exception to the rule. From what i can tell after an (admittedly quick) search, neither android nor the iphone have a calendar API at all. it appears android devs are getting around this by going out to the net and looking directly at the user's google calendar.

[PalmKing]

Updated:
My bad. I see where your quote is from.
Here is another passage from the Palm webOS book (not sure why this seems different here):

Originally Posted by Palm webOS Book

Almost all of the core applications can be launched from within your application, and there are CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) functions for the calendar, contacts and todo databases.