PalmPilot Timesheet Application

Palmpilot Timesheet Application, Version 1.5.4

[Slightly modified from Stuart Nicholson's original pages]

"I used to work as a consultant for an IT company in Auckland, New Zealand. At the end of each month I had to submit a timesheet listing the tasks I had completed during the month for various clients.

Before discovering the PalmPilot, I used to lug around a hefty filofax and write it all down. After purchasing a PalmPilot I threw away my filofax with a sigh of relief and started tracking everything in the Datebook.

Unfortunately the Datebook still didn't quite fit my needs. Then I discovered the nifty GNU Palmpilot SDK and started coding up my first Palmpilot application. Three weeks later, Timesheet v1.0 was complete.

Get the Application

Timesheet version 1.5.4 is available here. (It's a tiny fix of Stuart's original version 1.5.3).

Timesheet should be considered beta software. Make sure you backup your PalmPilot before you start using this app.

Get the Source

"I have discontinued development on version 1.5.x of the Timesheet application so I'm releasing the zipped source code under the GNU Public License. (Again, this is the slightly modified version).

"This doesn't mean I've stopped developing the Timesheet application. I'm in the midst of a complete re-write to produce version 2.0.0. This version will hopefully include conduit support with a desktop application for the PC. ([jo] We've looked and looked but Stuart seems to have vanished, and version 2 never materialised).

License and Warranty Details

Version 1.5.4 of the Palmpilot Timesheet Application and the related source code are distributed under the GNU Public License.

To Install

Download the tiny PRC file.
Start your Palmpilot install tool and browse...
Select the Timesheet.prc file for installation the next time you Hotsync.
Hotsync and Timesheet will appear on your Palmpilot, enjoy!

User Documentation

"Here's the user documentation which includes details on using the Timesheet2CSV export utility.

I have also started to build up a Timesheet Mini FAQ.

Future Features

"Here's a brief list of features I had intended to add to Timesheet in future versions.

Subtotals by Client for the Weekly summary view.
Monthly summary by Client/Project/Task.
Ability to move an existing entry to a different day.
Decimal time representation. Eg. 3 hours 30 minutes becomes 3.5 hours.

Although I've stopped developing v1.5.x of Timesheet, all of these features should be available in v2.0.0 so stay tuned!

Compatibility

Stuart's original program ran under PalmOS version 2. We've tested the modified version 1.5.4 on the PalmOS emulator (Palmos version 4), on A Palm Zire 31, and on a Palm (Handspring) Treo. It seems to work fine.

Technical Notes

"Timesheet presently has no Hotsync conduit support, however I am currently investigating developing a conduit for Timesheet. Hopefully within a couple of versions Timesheet will work with the Hotsync manager (at least under Windows).

"The Timesheet database does have the backup attribute set, so every time you Hotsync your Palmpilot a copy of your Timesheet database will be copied onto your PC/Mac. Should anything go horribly wrong, you can recover your Timesheet data by transferring the application (*.PRC) and the backup database (*.PDB) back to your Palmpilot.

Technical Documentation

"I have described the Timesheet database format in detail for anyone interested in developing utilities that work with Timesheet. This page also covers reading the TimesheetDB.PDB file, which is a backed up version of the Timesheet database.

Version history

"Timesheet is currently version 1.5.4. A detailed version history is available (but not terribly interesting). Comments, bug reports and suggestions for improvement are more than welcome, e-mail me!" (Unfortunately Stuart is now incommunicado).

author: stuart nicholson

Version 1.5.4 should work on most Palm PDAs (but we don't guarantee this, see the GPL!). For details of version 1.5.4 and source code, click here.