For anyone who has more than a simple "index card" requirement for data storage on their Series 60 device, there have been precious few options for simply creation of a database to store their data. The release of HanDBase from DDH Software could be the solution. With a desktop editor and Series 60 run time HanDBase offers a straightforward way to create relational databases on a Series 60 device.

HanDBase started back in 1997, when Palm devices were starting to have an impact in the US. At that time DDH Software, Inc.'s founder Dave Haupert wrote one of the first language translators for the platform. "Back then I was on the lookout for the 'big thing' for Palm," says David. "I soon realized there was a 5th button, an application that while fulfilling different purposes for each user was essentially the same, namely a database." The only database products for Palm available at the time offered a single flat files and David believed there was a demand for a product with relational capabilities. This vision resulted in the release of HanDBase in 1998.

HanDBase was such a success that David soon quit his day-job and formed DDH Software. Initially based solely in Florida, DDH Software is now a virtual company employing handheld and smartphone experts all over the world.

Success on the Palm platform resulted in HanDBase being ported to Pocket PC in 2001.

Symbian OS was the obvious platform for the next port of HanDBase. While UIQ might have seemed the most attractive choice David decided on Series 60. "While UIQ has momentum, Nokia's projection of what they were planning to do with their devices made us think; if we could get in on the ground floor with Nokia we would have a much better launching platform for the future," says David.

However David is not overlooking UIQ. "We already have a UIQ version in development and expect to release it by the end of the year."

The creation of HanDBase for Symbian OS was a relatively straight forward task for DDH Software, because of the architectural design of the underlying database engine. "When we ported to Pocket PC one of our goals was to make HanDBase as portable as possible, so we could look at other platforms in the future," says David. "So all the encryption libraries, calculations and the advanced field tests are created as classes within our engine. As a result most porting work is in the UI."

The work on the Series 60 port was undertaken by two DDH Software staff. "We had one developer who really knew our engine and a second, somebody we hired in Russia, who was experience with Series 60 to develop the UI. Together they did all the work to create the Series 60 version."

Another reason David believes the port was straight forward was due to fact that HanDBase started life on the Palm platform. Issues such as Symbian OS's lack of writeable statics cause few problems because Palm already limited the number of static variables the engine used.

The UI was more of a challenge, not due to purely technical issues but rather the different paradigms that needed to be adopted for Series 60 and its keypad based interface. "HanDBase has its own look and feel and we wanted to keep that as much as possible, so any user switching platforms instantly knows their way around," says David. "But at the same time we wanted to make it familiar to Series 60 users as well."

The desire to keep the HanDBase interface consistent, while laudable, might seem an unnecessary requirement. "A significant portion of HanDBase users swap platforms quite regularly," says David. "We are assuming that, as people emigrate towards Series 60, we will see the same swapping. So the more consistency in the interface the better."

One aspect of HanDBase is missing from the current Series 60 implementation, and this is the on-device Forms tool. The tool allows the development of forms for entering data. As Forms employs a drag-and-drop interface one of the reasons it has not been implemented yet on Series 60 is the simple fact that Series 60 lacks a touch screen. "We are working on implementing HanDBase on Windows Smartphone and UIQ, when they have been release we will judge where the demand for Forms is. At the moment my feeling is we will be implementing it on UIQ first."

While HanDBase has its roots in the personal application, it is also a tool which can be used in businesses or enterprises, although not yet with Series 60. The Palm and Pocket PC solutions come as a Professional version that includes support for ODBC synchronization using the cradle. "With Palm and Pocket PC cradle based synchronization was clearly the way to go," says David. "It may also make sense for UIQ, but with Series 60, as people get accustom to wireless data, we were seeing that synchronizing wirelessly is a better solution."

While DDH Software do not yet have a commercial wireless interface they have been practically assessing the options. For the last 18 month they have been running a set of projects with a number of medical schools using a wireless system for Palm and Pocket PC. The system allows the students to keep track of the patient data when they do their rounds. "The challenge has been working out the best was to do the synchronization," says David. "Whether data updates should happen live, or on a schedule. It's a great opportunity to figure it all out, then we will use the ideas on all our platform implementations."

While the lure of enterprise can often draw a company away from support for the individual user David is still focused on this group. "Our goal is to making HanDBase something that anybody can use and then let the user decide if it an enterprise application or not," says David. "Hopefully, this will mean that for the enterprise HanDBase is the quickest and easiest way to roll out mobile data."

More information on HanDBase can be found at www.handbase.com. The site also host a forum for sharing HanDBase databases. There are over 2,000 databases available that will work on the Series 60 implementation.

While SymbianOne expects to bring you a full product review for HanDBase in the near future you might like to take a look at the reviews on i-symbian and All About Symbian.