--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Symbian3/SDK/Source/GUID-CBC57511-7F28-596A-9763-5674EB41BCAC.dita	Wed Mar 31 11:11:55 2010 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<!-- Copyright (c) 2007-2010 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies) All rights reserved. -->
+<!-- This component and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the License 
+"Eclipse Public License v1.0" which accompanies this distribution, 
+and is available at the URL "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html". -->
+<!-- Initial Contributors:
+    Nokia Corporation - initial contribution.
+Contributors: 
+-->
+<!DOCTYPE concept
+  PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
+<concept id="GUID-CBC57511-7F28-596A-9763-5674EB41BCAC" xml:lang="en"><title>Central
+Repository Overview</title><shortdesc>The Central Repository stores data such as application settings,
+component settings, configuration parameters and data used for localisation
+and customisation. </shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
+<section id="GUID-04EC9C9F-C4CE-434F-ACEC-E001A68240AB"><title>Purpose</title> <p>The central repository was introduced to
+avoid the use of multiple .ini files specific to each application. Typical
+uses are persisting application data such as default file names, locale settings
+and user preferences from one session to another: data of this kind can also
+be used by device creaters to customise a device. Examples include phone book
+data, bookmarks, event logging and default keyboard layout. </p> </section>
+<section id="GUID-83C9CE66-A7FE-4D66-A84B-9CDF7AAE8B7E"><title>Required background</title> <p>The central repository is used
+in the implementation of many libraries. Application developers using these
+libraries generally do not need to access the central repository API directly.
+Developers maintaining and extending such libraries need to know how to use
+the API to read and modify repository data and set up change notification.
+Developers creating new extensions to Symbian, such as device drivers need
+to know when it is appropriate to use the central repository to persist settings.
+They will also need to understand the mechanism of key spaces and initialisation
+files used to implement the central repository and how to create repository
+files, as explained in <xref href="GUID-36539894-580E-5774-AA79-7F640E8C59E1.dita">Central
+Repository Initialisation Files Guide</xref>. Product integrators and device
+creators need to know where in ROM central repository data can reside, to
+know the installation mechanism and to understand the impact on data security. </p> </section>
+<section id="GUID-4D55838D-2400-4766-B418-F94CFAD70E37"><title>Key concepts and terms</title> <dl>
+<dlentry>
+<dt>Repository</dt>
+<dd><p>A data structure holding data to be persisted for a component or application,
+equivalent to a file. Also called a keyspace. </p> </dd>
+</dlentry>
+<dlentry>
+<dt>Setting</dt>
+<dd><p>An item of data in a repository, equivalent to a line in a file. Also
+called a key. </p> </dd>
+</dlentry>
+<dlentry>
+<dt>Initialisation file</dt>
+<dd><p>The text file from which a repository is created. </p> </dd>
+</dlentry>
+<dlentry>
+<dt>Keyspaces</dt>
+<dd><p>Another term for a repository. </p> </dd>
+</dlentry>
+<dlentry>
+<dt> Access policies</dt>
+<dd><p>Read or write permissions on a setting or group of settings. </p> </dd>
+</dlentry>
+</dl> </section>
+<section id="GUID-4088D4CB-21C6-4C45-B86D-CDFC7DE3D924"><title>Architecture</title> <p>Many applications and modules come
+with a data structure called a repository or keyspace which is used to persist
+application data. The Central Repository is the component which stores and
+manages repositories. Repositories are created and initialised individually
+along with their associated application on installation, or as a group when
+a device is built by device creators. The purpose of the Central Repository
+API is to enable application developers and device creators to modify repository
+data and to provide notification of changes to a repository. </p> <p>Conceptually,
+the Central Repository is comparable to a folder, an individual repository
+to a file and a setting to a line in a file. In fact repositories are implemented
+as binary files held at various locations in memory and are accessed through
+C++ classes which encapsulate them with a single API. Repositories are created
+with the applications to which they refer at device build time or at installation
+by the Application Installer on runtime. The Central Repository API is only
+used to access repositories, not to create them. </p> </section>
+<section id="GUID-94EC00B4-9190-4A56-BCC2-CB109A17FD35"><title>APIs</title> <p>The Central Repository API provides the <xref href="GUID-DEA618DF-D462-3B3E-A1E1-F21295AAFE78.dita"><apiname>CRepository</apiname></xref> class
+to provide access to repositories. </p> <table id="GUID-2241998F-DE1E-5098-8639-93FFA58834B5">
+<tgroup cols="2"><colspec colname="col0"/><colspec colname="col1"/>
+<thead>
+<row>
+<entry>API</entry>
+<entry>Description</entry>
+</row>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<row>
+<entry><p> <xref href="GUID-DEA618DF-D462-3B3E-A1E1-F21295AAFE78.dita"><apiname>CRepository</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>
+<entry><p>Provides the functionality to access the repository created with
+an application. </p> </entry>
+</row>
+<row>
+<entry><p> <xref href="GUID-127F54F2-99E7-3FAB-9669-90B0B1985285.dita"><apiname>CCenRepNotifyHandler</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>
+<entry><p>Creates notification of changes to a repository. </p> </entry>
+</row>
+<row>
+<entry><p> <xref href="GUID-7BB13E80-C3B8-3E4F-B3ED-120258011558.dita"><apiname>MCenRepNotifyHandlerCallback</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>
+<entry><p>A callback interface to be implemented to respond to change notification. </p> </entry>
+</row>
+</tbody>
+</tgroup>
+</table> </section>
+<section id="GUID-D9B11AA3-1E03-4D70-9569-C696E7FC5D3D"><title>Typical uses</title> <p>The Central Repository is typically
+used by applications such as messaging services to retrieve logins, localisation
+data and information needed for interprocess communication. </p> </section>
+</conbody><related-links>
+<link href="GUID-1C683226-C142-5C7B-BD20-060058352B08.dita"><linktext>Central Repository
+Guide</linktext></link>
+<link href="GUID-E3BE62B2-9625-5F79-84A4-0248A3F36225.dita"><linktext>Central Repository
+Access Guide</linktext></link>
+</related-links></concept>
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