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iDB Tutorial  (cont.)

Hyperlinked Fields

Once modifications are saved, iDB determines if any field may be associated with any iPhone application. If deemed possible, those fields are hyperlinked and turned-into push buttons.

Tapping on such hyperlink buttons will take the appropriate action, (e.g., calling that phone number), and it will "pause" iDB.

What is Pause'?'

iPhone does not allow 3rd party applications to run in the background. As such, it is not feasible to put a running application aside, do something else, then come back to the first application and continue with what you were doing at exactly where you had left. To use another application the first one must always exit. (Non-Apple applications only).

However, this is not always a desired behaviour. Suppose you were looking at a record, decided to call a phone number on it, and while on the phone you needed to access more information from the same record. Do you have to go back, launch iDB again, enter your password, go to the desired database, and find the same exact record you were using one more time? That is too much inconvenience, especially when you are on the phone.

To alleviate, iDB provides two different ways to exit. One is the standard way of pushing iPhone 'Home' button and terminating the application, and the other is 'Pause'.

When paused, iDB first saves the internal state before pause, and then exits. If user re-launces iDB within the "pause recovery window" (15 minutes by default), iDB does not ask any password, nor launches Console or any database list; rather, it takes you straight back to the exact state where you paused.

If a hyperlinked button is pushed and another application is called, iDB 'pauses'.

You can pause and exit iDB manually without calling other applications. One such pause button exists in record 'Details' screen, it also exist on the toolbar:
 

      

You can also pause out of a 'found' record (as result of a 'search'). 'Search and found records' are covered later in upcoming sections.

Pause Recovery

"Pausing" leaves iDB vulnerable. By definition, it temporarily stops a running application, and when recovered the exact state of the application is restored. It is a useful feature in a number of cases, however it must have some limitations.

iDB is a very safe data manager. You can set a strong password and keep all your data encrypted; so it is pretty resilient against hacking. Yet, if iDB is 'paused', and consequently if you lose your iPhone or iPod Touch device, someone can simply re-launch iDB, and and can go straight back to the state where it paused.

Therefore 'Pause Recovery' is allowed only within 15 minutes after iDB was paused. This is iDB's default settings. You may modify the pause recovery window in 'Configuration', and if desired, set it to '0' to completely disable.

Configuration allows you to set iDB pause recovery anywhere between 0 to 720 minutes.

More on 'Details'

Record 'Details' may have more than what catches your eye first.

Almost all database types have a 'notes' field. It is usually the last field of a record, and can be used for random text in free-form.

At times the amount of notes' text may take more than the available screen real-estate. When that case the 'notes' field implicitly becomes scrollable.
 

When in doubt, just slide the notes field with your finger to see if it has more data.
 

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