9 STORING AND ORGANIZING USER DATA

This section covers details about storing user data. There are two ways for an application to store user data, either in a database or in the file system. User data in databases should be organized using categories. User data stored as files should be stored in the predefined folder structure for files owned by the user. File folders are used to organize files. The concept of viewers is also presented in this section. Viewers provide users with a preview of received data and enable users to save it.

Categories are used to divide user data into user definable sets and act as filters in the application list view. Categories are used in applications that handle non-file-based items, for example, Contacts and Agenda. The default behavior of categories allows the user to ignore the category functionality altogether. By default, a new item should be assigned to the category Unfiled. This category cannot be renamed nor deleted. All items are visible in the All category. Depending on the application using categories, an item can be assigned to a single or multiple categories.

Here are examples from the Agenda and Jotter applications. Note that in Pen style the category menu is reached via an icon in the upper right corner of the Title Bar.

• In the application list view, the name of the currently selected category is displayed in the application’s title bar instead of in the application name. The application name is displayed when the All category is selected. The name of the current application is always displayed in the detail view of the application.

• Each application has its own set of categories. A category created in one application is not available in other applications.

• Category names are not case sensitive. For example, if there is a category with the name "aAaA", and the user tries to add/rename a category using the name "aaaa", the new category will not be allowed because it is considered to have the same name as the existing category.

• It is not possible to merge categories.

• The category menu is not compulsory. If it is not used, the space reserved for it is left empty in Pen style.

• In Softkey style the View-category command is reached via the softkey menu. In Pen style the category menu is reached via an icon in the title bar.

• "All" should always be placed at the top and "Unfiled" at the bottom. Folders created by the user should be sorted alphabetically between "All" and "Unfiled".

• The Edit-categories-menu command brings up a dialog to rename/ add/ delete categories.

• When adding a new category the currently selected category remains selected.

• If the currently selected folder is renamed, that folder stays selected and the name of the category is updated in the title bar. If a category that is not the currently selected one is renamed, the currently selected category stays selected.

• If the currently selected category is deleted, the "All" option is displayed. When deleting a category that is not the currently selected one, the currently selected category stays selected.

• Items are moved between categories using the Category-choice list displayed in the application space. When the user switches, for example, to "Business" the current item is moved to that category. If the application supports the functionality of putting an item in several categories, a list box is used to select/ unselect to which categories the item belongs.

• The Unfiled category is always placed at the bottom. Folders created by the user are sorted alphabetically before the Unfiled category.

Example of a category menu:

• Business

• Friends

• Personal

• Unfiled

The category setting of the list view is persistent per application, even after reboot.

The currently selected category in a Base view should remain selected if the user opens the detail view, moves the entry to another category and then returns to the Base view.

The category selected in the base/ list view remains even when the user changes category in detail view.

A new item is created in the currently selected category. If the category All is selected, then a new item is created in the category Unfiled.

The base/ list view only supports pasting items. For example, text cannot be pasted into the view. The entry will be placed in the Unfiled category if the All option is selected.

Applications can choose to store user data as files. UIQ provides a set of predefined file folders for organizing user data: Images, Audio, Video, Documents and Other. This folder structure is available both on the mobile phone’s internal memory and on the memory card.

When saving a file the framework will suggest a default folder (based on the MIME type), for example the folder Images when saving an image. But users can choose to store the file in any folder.

Additional folders can be created both on the mobile phone’s internal memory and on a memory card. There is no restriction on the number of sub-folders that can be created.

Access to files and folders on the internal memory is limited to the predefined folder structure, whereas users are given full access to a memory card’s folder structure. Tabs are used to separate the internal memory from a memory card.

UIQ provides dialogs with basic file operations like saving, selecting and copying files. The Select dialog can be launched in different modes depending of which file the calling application expects to receive. The Select dialog can support selecting single or multiple files, changing the sort order of the files and filtering the folders to only display files belonging to certain categories.

If the Select dialog, for example, is launched via the Add-attachment command in the Messaging application, multiple select will be enabled and no filtering of files will occur. When the Select file dialog is launched from the Contacts application with the purpose of selecting an image for a contact, the Select dialog will have a single select nature and only display files recognized as the category Images.

DCIM (Digital Camera Images) is a standardized folder located on the root on the memory card. The DCIM folder is used by digital cameras, and the mobile phone’s onboard camera, to store photos. Files located under the DCIM folder are mirrored in a folder named Camera located in the Image and Video folders on the memory card.

Viewers are used to preview and save files. UIQ has a set of viewers for displaying information that is received on an UIQ mobile phone. These files can, for example, come to the mobile phone by downloading them with Web, as email attachments or through beaming.

Viewers are not stand-alone applications, that is, they cannot be opened from the Application Launcher. Viewers operate as application-modal dialogs and appear in front of the application that launched them. When the viewer is closed, the user returns to the view from which it was launched, for example the detail view of an email.

Viewers for non-file-based items typically provide the option of saving information to the proper application, like the vCal viewer below that saves data to the Agenda application.

Pressing Save sends the data to the associated application and pressing Cancel does not. In either case, the user then returns to the place from which the viewer was launched.

Such viewers often include a View entry after save option. If this option is selected when Save is pressed the data will be saved to the associated application. The viewer will close and an application switch will take place so that the user ends up in the detail view of the correct application, viewing the data they just have saved.

When saving data to an application, no check is made to see if matching or similar data already exists. It is left to the user to resolve any duplication manually.

Viewers characterized above as type B provide the option of saving the file to the UIQ file system. Each application that handles a specific file type, or types, should have a viewer. File types are defined using the recognizer framework. The file’s MIME type decides which file category a file belongs to. UIQ uses five categories: Images, Audio, Documents, Video and Other. This means that a typical UIQ application, for example an image application, is designed with a list view, detail views and a viewer. If no viewer is present for a specific file type the default viewer is launched.

The viewer should, in a sense, be a subset of the application’s detail view. For example the viewer for an image application could allow the user to zoom and save the file via the MMFH frame work. The image application could then supply the user with much more functionality like rotating the image and Send as. The major task for the viewer is to allow the user to save the file using the MMFH framework.

Image application example