Pimlical Android Help

Linking

Events can have multiple links to other items, including:
V-4.02.22 of Pimlical/Android introduced consistent management of the first four types of links. Previously, Contacts and Memos were handled in one way, and Local Files and URLs were handled with a different mechanism (see Historical note below). It is recommended that any user that intends to use the linking mechanism and especially those that sync their phone to the desktop set the preference UseCustomFieldForSetLink to its default value of 5 to take advantage of the new mechanism.

Events can also be linked to each other as a group using the Master/Subordinate mechanism, but this is different from the way in which the four items above are handled - see section below on how those links are handled.

Contact Links

Contact links link an event to a specific contact and is the default type of link. In the Edit Dialog, tap the Create Link button (will show Edit Link(s) if there's already a link present), and the default contact database display appears. You can navigate around the Contacts Activity, using Find or any other selection mechanism to locate the Contact you want to link to. Then tap the Select button to select that contact. When displaying a list of links, Contact links display the full name of the individual that was linked. Pimlical will automatically select the local contacts database for linking if the database exists, but if it does not exist, it will automatically use the Android Contacts Database.

Memo Links

Memo links link an event to a specific memo in the local Memo Database. In the Edit Dialog, long press the Create Link button (will show Edit Link(s) if there's already a link present), and select Memos and the default Memo Database display then appears. You can navigate around the Memos Activity, using Find or any other selection mechanism to locate the Memo you want to link to, then tap the Memo to select that Memo. When displaying a list of links, Memo links display the title of the Memo.

Local File Links

File links an event to a specific file in the local filing system on the device.In the Edit Dialog, long press the Create Link button (will show Edit Link(s) if there's already a link present), and select Local File the default File Navigator display appears. You can navigate around the local filing system (with the exception of the Scoped Storage areas for other Apps) and select a file. When displaying a list of links, the filename is displayed. This is very useful for linking to things like PDF documents, images, videos, etc.

Compatibility Across Platforms.

Starting with V-4.2.30, local files that are linked to events are automatically copied to the .../Pimlical/PimlicalLinks folder (in Scoped Storage area). If the folder does not exist, it will be created automatically. Again, this only happens if the preference UseCustomFieldForSetLink is set to its default value of 5. Starting with V-4.2.11 of Pimlical/Dekstop, linked files will always be copied to .../Pimlical/PimlicalLinks (the User Folder Path in Menu | Help | About). These two versions  then also automatically adjust the paths so that the linking is transparent across platforms - in other words, if the event is linked with P/A and the link looks something like:

 .../Android/data/com.pimlicosoftware.PimlicalA/files/Pimlical /PimlicalLinks/MyFile.pdf

then Pimlical/Desktop running under Windows would look for this file in something like:

C:\Users\cesde\AppData\Roaming\Pimlico\Pimlical\PimlicalLinks\MyFile.pdf

where cesde would be the Windows User Name, and vice-versa. Pimlical/Android still supports older style links set in the note or custom fields of the event, but such links are not compatible across platforms. For this to all work, the folder Pimlical/PimlicalLinks must be present on both platforms and maintain the same files. Starting with V-4.2.31 of P/A, and V-4.2.11 of Pimlical/Desktop, AutoSync will synchronize all the files in sub-folders of the .../Pimlical folder that are present in the comma-separated list in the new preference: SyncCustomPimlicalFolders. Prior to those two versions, the /Pimlical/PimlicalLinks folder would have to be manually synchronized.

Web (URL) Links

URL links an event to a specific URL (normally a web page on the internet but which could also be the tag: MailTo: followed by an email address). In the Edit Dialog, long press the Create Link button (will show Edit Link(s) if there's already a link present), and select URL and a Text Box appears in which you can type in the full URL. You would normally select a web page in your web browser, copy the full URL to the clipboard, switch to P/A and then just paste that URL into the text field. You can add an identifying tag ahead of the URL, separated from the URL with a comma. If you don't enter an identifying tag, Pimlical will employ best efforts to try and create a meaningful tag from the URL - usually the domain name.

This is especially important in the case of a long or inscrutable URL so you can see what it is pointing to. When displaying a list of links, the identifying tag is displayed. A typical URL link might look something like:

Pimlical Tech Support,https://www.PimlicoSoftware.com/techsupport.html
or
Email Charlie Watson,MailTo:charliewatson2215@yahoo.com

In the first example above, if the URL had been copied to the clipboard from the website and the Paste/Exit button was tapped, Pimlical would create an identifying tag of PimlicoSoftware.com.

Notes on Links.

To handle all four link types in a consistent manner, the preference: UseCustomFieldForSetLink should be set to its default value of 5 (setting it to 0-4 implements the older behavior where File/Web links are just placed in a text field).  

In addition to setting a link via the Edit Dialog, all five types of links can also be set with Popup Commands on an event in an Event Selection List: 

The link field for the first four types of links is normally hidden in the internal Link field in the database. The contents of this field are displayed with the popup command: Internal Record Details (if you don't see this popup command, use Show All button). You can also use that popup command to copy text from the link field. To delete an existing link, or modify the Tag field for that link, go into the Edit Dialog, tap on the Edit Link(s) button or bring up an Event Selection List and use the new popup command: Set Link. A list of all the links for that event will then be displayed - tap on the link to select the link you wish to modify/remove. At that point the Tag for that link is displayed in an editable field - after changing the tag, tap OK to update the link tag, or tap the Remove button to completely remove the tag. If there is a typo or you just want to change the link without removing and recreating it, you can use the poup command: Edit Link Field (but use caution as introducing any syntax error in the link will of course invalidate the link). The link for the fifth type of link is stored in the internal TemplateUID field in the database (see below).

Linking Events using the Master/Subordinate Linking mechanism (New in V-4.2.24, Subscription Only)

Pimlical has a separate mechanism for linking events to each other, whereby one event is designated a Master event and the other events are designated as Subordinate events. These events are linked to each other with a hidden TemplateUID field. This is very similar to how Master and Subordinate Templates are handled, except there is no requirement to use templates to establish these links.

To link items, first display all the items that you want to link together in an Event Selection List using the Multi-Select feature and mark all the events as Selected (remember that you can long-press the Multi-Select button to set that mode and automatically select all the items in the selection list). You can include a single Master event in the list (which would have been tagged with the Action Tag: Master Template), then long-press any item in the list and issue the Link to Master popup command. Those items are then all linked to the Master Event. If there is no Master Event in the list of selected Events, Pimlical will display a list of all the Master Events in the database and you can select a Master event to which all the events will be linked as subordinate events.

You can also link a subordinate event to a master event directly in the Edit Dialog with a new field near the bottom of that dialog with the label Event and the [S] icon. If the event has no present Master/Subordinate link, the button legend will display: Link to A Master Event. Tapping that button will bring up a list of all the Master Events in the database at which point tapping one of those events will set a link to that Master Event.

The ONLY functionality that exists here with the Master/Subordinate linking feature is:

(a)    That you can quickly and easily locate all the linked events from any single event (Master or Subordinate), and
(b)    You can toggle the display of Subordinate events on and off easily (especially if you put that command on the Command Bar – see below).

With tasks, it means you can have a display of say five things that you need to do. Now if each task has 10-20 subordinate tasks, the list would be huge, you would have to scroll through it, and you would lose focus on the big picture. By toggling the display of subordinates off, you are now presented with just the five Master tasks. You can then either toggle the display of subordinates to review all the subordinate tasks, or long-press one of the five master tasks and use find Linked Items to see just that Master along with its subordinate tasks.

It's also convenient when using the main calendar display – you can include ALL your Master Tasks, without having to clutter up the calendar with all the subordinate tasks. Again, if you want to review the subordinate tasks, just select the Master in an event selection list and use popup command: Find All Linked Events to see them all.

When using the feature to locate all the linked events, one can then long-press the Multi-Select button (which selects ALL the items in the linked grouping) and do useful things like delete all of them, or use the Shift Times Forwards/Backwards popup command to move the entire group to a different day or time.

The linking mechanism can be used on events or tasks in either the local or Android Calendars (the linking mechanism is preserved in tags in the Note field for Android Calendars, so it can be restored when the Android Calendar is read), and the events in the “linked group” can be any kind of event (Appt, Float, Task).

An event can only be in ONE link grouping – when you link an item, any prior subordinate link is replaced with the new link. Prior to linking items with Link to Master, you can of course see if the item was previously linked, because if it was, it would have an [S] icon displayed. When you use Link to Master, that does not remove any existing subordinate events from that Master (i.e. if you subsequently select the Master and some OTHER event and use Link to Master it would be added into the link group). To remove the linkage from an event or group of events, select all the events and tap the Master or subordinate link icon and you will see the number of subordinates present along with an UNLINK button, that if tapped, will remove all the links from the selected items.

To put the toggle on the command bar, just go into Menu | Preferences | Commands/Functions and change one of the CommandBarViewButton# preferences to use: Ts – Toggle Display of Subordinates and you will then see the [S] icon with a red X through it – that toggles the display of subordinate events on and off.


 Last Revised:27Mar2025