Handbase

Review: Handbase



HandBase by DDH Software is a relational database that can be used on PCs and Pocket PCs. HandBase offers a lot of functionality, which would take a long time to explain. So this review takes a different approach, illustrating the use of HandBase via a case study – can HandBase help me to manage my CD collection so that I stop buying duplicates?

Thanks to Kevin Doel for providing a review copy on behalf of DDH Software.




Supplier: DDH Software
Product: Handbase Professional
Cost: $39.95
Supplier Web Site: HandBase

What I need
I have a collection of CDs covering a wide variety of music. There are too many for me to remember what I have. Although my tastes are wide, they are consistent, so I’m prone to buy the same CD more than once, because I don’t remember that I already have it. Years ago I started using an Access database on the PC to manage them. I’d like to be able to look up what I have on my PPC, but the on-board options of Word or Excel aren’t up to handling the volume of data – searches take too long. So I need to be able to import my data into a database program for my Pocket PC.



Installing
HandBase is designed to sync between PC and Pocket PC, so it has to be installed on both, using an exe installer. The Professional version installs the HandBase database program and a second program to design forms. These two programs use about 800k on the device. There is a trial version available. During the PC install there are choices to install plug-ins for synchronising with Access (HandBase Professional only). I installed all of these. HandBase installed and ran on my device’s storage card without any difficulties.



After installation
After installing I entered the registration key on the desktop and device. In both cases the forms program picked up the key from the database program. Screenshots after opening HandBase on the PC and device are shown on the left. The blank screen is a little daunting, and none of the menu items do much, except New to create a new database. Usually I muddle my way through a new program and look at the Help afterwards, but this approach isn’t very suitable for HandBase, so it was time to investigate the various sources of support.



Help
The Help files and online tutorials are essential for using HandBase, even for users who are experienced database programmers. So the quality of the assistance provided is as at least as important as the quality of the programs themselves.
Selecting Help on the PC launches an Acrobat manual of 126 pages. As you’d expect in such a large manual it is comprehensive – everything I needed was in there. And also a lot I don’t need, as the manual covers both Palm and Pocket PC. The manual is a good ‘sit down and read’ type introduction; the bookmarked chapters lead you logically through the program. However an Acrobat file is not so good for looking up specific details. For instance, I wanted to sync a HandBase database with a different device. Searching on sync yielded 64 references to wade through, and even ActiveSync yielded 5. DDH need to do two things to improve this:
- Provide html Help on the PC as well as the manual, with a what’s this feature
- Separate the manual into one for Palm and one for Pocket PC. A lot of the information needed for PPCs is in sections headed Palm.

On the PPC the Help menu only has an About item. The Help is installed, but has to be found in a long-winded way: Start Menu, Help, Help for Added Programs, HandBase. The PPC Help is a brief introduction only. To get any serious work done without using the PC you would need to put the Acrobat manual on the PPC as well.



Getting started
The best way to get started with HandBase is to use one of the tutorials on DDH’s website here:
Tutorial I: Designing and Using a Simple Database
Tutorial II: Taking advantage of Date, Time, and Calc fields
Tutorial III: Using the Link and Linked field types
Tutorial IV: How to use the Relationship Field Type
Tutorial V: HandBase Forms Tutorial VI: How to use the DB Popup field type

There are videos too. If you are not familiar with using a database working through the tutorials on you device and PC provides a good staged introduction. As an experienced user I found browsing the tutorials was a better way to start using HandBase than diving into the manual or Help. However there is one big gotcha in HandBase – DDH use the terminology ‘database’ to mean one table which is stored in one HandBase file, whereas normally a ‘database’ means a collection of tables and the relationships between them. It took me a while to work this out, but once understood it is not a problem.

Import existing database
My database of CDs has tables for contributors (bands, choirs, singers, orchestras and other musicians), labels and discs. Since one artist can have many discs, and one disc can have many artists (a many to many relationship) there has to be an intermediate table for disc contributions to handle this. On reading the HandBase tutorials I realised that to get my CD information onto my PPC I would need to import each table to create four HandBase ‘databases’, and set up the relationships between them. Although HandBase can deal with this situation it looked like a lot of work so I decided to reassess my needs.

Requirements
The point of putting my CD catalogue onto my PPC is to be able to look up what I already have. When I buy a new disc I’m not going to stand around in the shop entering its details onto my PPC straight away. Waiting until I get home to do the input on my computer is more convenient. So the PPC need is to be able to view the database, not to enter new data. This removes the need to synchronise changes

Tables and queries
A very useful feature of HandBase is that the Microsoft Access import can deal with not only tables but also queries which can combine data from multiple tables. Importing a query makes synchronisation of changes from the PPC back to the PC impossible, but the query can be set up to present information on the PPC in the best possible format. So I set up a query in Access which extracted only the information about CDs I needed on my PC: Artist, Title, Label Name and Number and exported this to a .csv file.



Import
Importing a csv file into HandBase to create a new database (i.e. table) is very easy. Select Import from the file menu, browse to the file to be imported, then hit import. Unfortunately the import reported it had failed, and I had no option but to close HandBase on the PC. However next time I opened HandBase the database was there and it works fine so there was no problem.



Sync
The next task was to get the database to sync to my device. I was expecting HandBase on the PC to do this with some setting or preference, so I spent quite a while looking around the menus failing to find it. Then I resorted to the Help file. The information I wanted is in there, but the Help file is a pdf with no hyperlinks and only a simple string based search. Eventually I found the answer – manually move the database file to my sync folder – but the Help really needs to be a proper Windows Help file.
HandBase sync has its own dialog for syncing so it is really easy to see what is happening. The sync log makes working out sync problems easier.



Filters
Imagine me stood in a CD shop with a CD in my hand, by an artist from some country whose alphabet includes lots of symbols so I can’t easily enter the name or title. How do I find out whether I already own the CD? I can get round the alphabet problem by searching on the label name. But if I were searching in a spreadsheet I would have to keep hitting search to find all the CDs on that label, and I’d have to enter the search every time. Because HandBase is a database, I can use a filter instead. The filter only shows the items I am interested in, which is more convenient.
Up to 8 filters can be combined, and each filter can be applied any field, so it’s a very powerful tool.



Record Form
HandBase automatically creates a record form for entering new data. The form editor program will let you create more forms in different layouts.



Views
At top right of the screenshots showing the database on the device is a drop down to choose view. HandBase automatically creates a default view. New views can be added in order to choose a different order so I can list my CDs by say Title if I want. Views include selected fields so some can be left out, the order of field display can be chosen, and views can also include filters. These combinations make views a powerful way of handling large amounts of data.

More Features
Handbase has a lot more features that I have not used:
- Alarms
- Encryption of the whole database or just some fields
- Auto save on close
- Categories for databases
- Create a new database
This quickie review only looked at importing an existing database, but HandBase can be used to set up a new database, and to enter data. Setting up a database can be quite a lot of work. HandBase make this easy by providing a gallery of databases created by users which can be downloaded. These can be used as a quick start and then tailored to your own needs. A search on “music” got 15 results so there are plenty on offer. Take a look here.
Creating a database on the device is only slightly less convenient than using the PC. However entering a lot of data will take much longer. Once installed HandBase can be used without a PC.

Interactions
While testing out HandBase I had a problem where it would not close properly using Close All with a Task Manager program, or would display an error message. This is probably because HandBase asks about saving changes when it is closed. I just have to learn not to leave HandBase in the middle of working on it, but to close it properly myself.

OS Compatibility
For this review I used HandBase mainly on WM5 and I also tested it briefly on WM2003SE. According to the website HandBase is also compatible with WM6, but I have not tested on WM6.

Value for money
The price of $39.95 is for the Professional Edition, which includes a form design program and sync with Access. There is also a standard edition at $24.99 without those items. Given how much programming power is included in Handbase, I think it is decent value.



Summary
Pros
Very flexible
Extensive Help
Fast filtering displays only relevant items
Import from csv files to convert existing databases
Designed to be easy for a database beginner
Slick sync with PC

Cons
Manual contains both Palm and Pocket PC making it harder to find things
Desktop needs an html Help file in addition to the manual
Error on import
Sometimes fights with Task Managers
Non-standard terminology

Conclusion
I’ve only scratched the surface of what HandBase can do, so this mark is based only on an evaluation of the parts of the product that I have used. That said, what I did try worked well, and there’s a lot of power available in the application. The main problem I had was finding my way around the Help which is vital for successful use. So if a spreadsheet isn’t enough for you, give HandBase a try, but be prepared to do some reading!

4WinMobile Rating : 82%