Re: BBDB V3 export
2012/3/13 Ted Zlatanov With CouchDB, I can easily export individual records from JSON back to > the BBDB vector format. I'll do similar work for file and other > backends. I'll make it possible to use LDAP and SQLite but I wouldn't > use them, personally. LDAP requires a very specific infrastructure and > SQLite would have all the complexity of CouchDB with none of the network > accessibility :) > The backend formats were just examples. If one backend is implemented in a modular way with the existing BBDB 'front end api' as used today in Emacs, that will open it up for further extension and other backends on a 'need basis'. I, for one, would definitely find it useful. > The interesting part is serving the BBDB records out in other formats. > At least for CardDAV it will require more than simple XML records, > unfortunately. I can easily present the records in XML, JSON, CSV... > > To start, it would save me a lot of time if I had a function to convert > a BBDB record to alist and then import it back, or a description of the > BBDB schema (what each vector offset represents). Is that already > available? I would guess so... I generally don't know the BBDB insides, > though I will by the end of this project :) > The BBDB info page has the following description of the file format and vectors. I suspect this is what you are looking for. Right? http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/bbdb.html#SEC67 -Sriram -- Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:49:32 +0530 "Sriram ET." wrote: SE> On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 10:11 PM, Brett Presnell wrote: SE> Just FYI, back in October 2011 Ted Zlatanov wrote on >> this list: >> >> > I put together some code that uses CouchDB to store Gnus group >> > subscriptions and marks in gnus-sync.el. It works well; so well in >> > fact that I'm considering doing the same for BBDB records. Imagine >> > having your BBDB entirely stored on a central server instead of a >> > local file. Yes, kind of like LDAP, but not so hard to use and much >> > more accessible. >> > >> > In order to do this I will have to generalize and improve the >> > gnus-sync.el code that talks to CouchDB. But I wanted to first find out >> > if this interests anyone (and please feel free to tell me my idea >> > sucks), or if there's existing functionality that I would be >> > duplicating. I'm not aware of such. >> >> There was some further discussion about this and Ted seemed very willing >> to work further on it, but I'm not sure that it went anywhere. I'm >> pretty sure that he did say that it was easy to set up a CouchDB server >> and that it shouldn't be difficult to exchange CouchDB records with >> other formats. SE> I feel it is the right direction for BBDB to evolve. More generically, a SE> good direction appears to be to abstract away the actual store and have SE> multiple backend implementations similar to Gnus, i.e. have a bbdb-file, SE> bbdb-couch, bbdb-sqlite, perhaps a bbdb-ldap and so on. SE> Ted, did you do some work that's happens to be just lying around on your SE> hard disk? No, I've been working on other tasks. It's really not complicated, though, and gnus-sync.el already has much of the glue I would need. The biggest driver for me is whether others are interested in it. If Brett, Roland, Sriram, and other may use it, that makes it more likely I will commit time to it. So now that I know that, I'll prioritize. With CouchDB, I can easily export individual records from JSON back to the BBDB vector format. I'll do similar work for file and other backends. I'll make it possible to use LDAP and SQLite but I wouldn't use them, personally. LDAP requires a very specific infrastructure and SQLite would have all the complexity of CouchDB with none of the network accessibility :) The interesting part is serving the BBDB records out in other formats. At least for CardDAV it will require more than simple XML records, unfortunately. I can easily present the records in XML, JSON, CSV... To start, it would save me a lot of time if I had a function to convert a BBDB record to alist and then import it back, or a description of the BBDB schema (what each vector offset represents). Is that already available? I would guess so... I generally don't know the BBDB insides, though I will by the end of this project :) Thanks Ted -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 10:11 PM, Brett Presnell wrote: Just FYI, back in October 2011 Ted Zlatanov wrote on > this list: > > > I put together some code that uses CouchDB to store Gnus group > > subscriptions and marks in gnus-sync.el. It works well; so well in > > fact that I'm considering doing the same for BBDB records. Imagine > > having your BBDB entirely stored on a central server instead of a > > local file. Yes, kind of like LDAP, but not so hard to use and much > > more accessible. > > > > In order to do this I will have to generalize and improve the > > gnus-sync.el code that talks to CouchDB. But I wanted to first find out > > if this interests anyone (and please feel free to tell me my idea > > sucks), or if there's existing functionality that I would be > > duplicating. I'm not aware of such. > > There was some further discussion about this and Ted seemed very willing > to work further on it, but I'm not sure that it went anywhere. I'm > pretty sure that he did say that it was easy to set up a CouchDB server > and that it shouldn't be difficult to exchange CouchDB records with > other formats. I feel it is the right direction for BBDB to evolve. More generically, a good direction appears to be to abstract away the actual store and have multiple backend implementations similar to Gnus, i.e. have a bbdb-file, bbdb-couch, bbdb-sqlite, perhaps a bbdb-ldap and so on. Ted, did you do some work that's happens to be just lying around on your hard disk? Cheers -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
Philipp Haselwarter writes: > > Personally this is the feature I miss most in BBDB. Searching my phone > contacts to type in information manually into BBDB is just annoying. > > What kind of work would be required (in bbdb itself, on the protocol > level, glue code) to make syncing with a CardDAV server happen? Just FYI, back in October 2011 Ted Zlatanov wrote on this list: > I put together some code that uses CouchDB to store Gnus group > subscriptions and marks in gnus-sync.el. It works well; so well in > fact that I'm considering doing the same for BBDB records. Imagine > having your BBDB entirely stored on a central server instead of a > local file. Yes, kind of like LDAP, but not so hard to use and much > more accessible. > > In order to do this I will have to generalize and improve the > gnus-sync.el code that talks to CouchDB. But I wanted to first find out > if this interests anyone (and please feel free to tell me my idea > sucks), or if there's existing functionality that I would be > duplicating. I'm not aware of such. There was some further discussion about this and Ted seemed very willing to work further on it, but I'm not sure that it went anywhere. I'm pretty sure that he did say that it was easy to set up a CouchDB server and that it shouldn't be difficult to exchange CouchDB records with other formats. -- Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
On Tue, Mar 06 2012 23:42 (@1331073757), Roland Winkler wrote: > On Tue Mar 6 2012 Sam Steingold wrote: >> The correct term is not `export'. >> The correct term is `sync'. >> Once you have thousands records in your phone contacts and bbdb, >> exporting/importing is a waste of time: you will need to sync/merge the >> records by hand and it is unfeasible. >> >> Somehow gmail manages to sync its contacts with android. >> We need the same kind of functionality: a modification of a record in >> bbdb should trigger an update in gmail (which will then sync with >> iphone/android on its own) and vv. >> >> This is no easy task (and I am not volunteering) - maybe we could get it >> into google summer of code? > > For me, such a project would have rather low priority, too. Personally this is the feature I miss most in BBDB. Searching my phone contacts to type in information manually into BBDB is just annoying. What kind of work would be required (in bbdb itself, on the protocol level, glue code) to make syncing with a CardDAV server happen? > But it seems to me that for the above the hidden BBDB field > "timestamp" would be a possible starting point, see the command > bbdb-timestamp-newer. > > Roland > ---8<---[snipped 11 lines]---8<--- -- Philipp Haselwarter -- Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
Hi Sam, Sam Steingold writes: > The correct term is not `export'. The correct term is `sync'. Yes, what one really wants is sync. However, it's a non-trivial problem. > Once you > have thousands records in your phone contacts and bbdb, exporting/importing > is a waste of time: you will need to sync/merge the records by hand and it > is unfeasible. Yea, the only way to do this is a master/slave approach. This is what I am currently doing with BBDB V2. BBDB is the master, can't add contact any where by BBDB. It's a minor pain, but the only pragmatic solution, since I don't have time either. Mark -- Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
On Tue Mar 6 2012 Sam Steingold wrote: > The correct term is not `export'. > The correct term is `sync'. > Once you have thousands records in your phone contacts and bbdb, > exporting/importing is a waste of time: you will need to sync/merge the > records by hand and it is unfeasible. > > Somehow gmail manages to sync its contacts with android. > We need the same kind of functionality: a modification of a record in > bbdb should trigger an update in gmail (which will then sync with > iphone/android on its own) and vv. > > This is no easy task (and I am not volunteering) - maybe we could get it > into google summer of code? For me, such a project would have rather low priority, too. But it seems to me that for the above the hidden BBDB field "timestamp" would be a possible starting point, see the command bbdb-timestamp-newer. Roland -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
The correct term is not `export'. The correct term is `sync'. Once you have thousands records in your phone contacts and bbdb, exporting/importing is a waste of time: you will need to sync/merge the records by hand and it is unfeasible. Somehow gmail manages to sync its contacts with android. We need the same kind of functionality: a modification of a record in bbdb should trigger an update in gmail (which will then sync with iphone/android on its own) and vv. This is no easy task (and I am not volunteering) - maybe we could get it into google summer of code? -- Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on Ubuntu 11.10 (oneiric) X 11.0.11004000 http://www.childpsy.net/ http://thereligionofpeace.com http://memri.org http://camera.org http://ffii.org http://palestinefacts.org If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation? -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Re: BBDB V3 export
On Tue, Mar 06 2012, ma...@kermodei.com wrote: > Is anyone working on or through about export support for BBDB > V3? My particular need is for Google export, however I suspect > iPhone users may also need this. > > For V2, I use the unofficial bbdb-to-outlook package to create a > CSV for import into Google. Seems something actually geared > towards Google would be a nice improvement. > > I need to write something to address this problem to move to V3. > Would be coordinate work on something general enough for > inclusion in BBDB in there is interest. > > Cheers, > Mark I was toying with the idea of a general template-based export system for BBDB: write a one-record template as a string, register it under a certain key, select your records, select your template, and it produces a text file. I wasn't confident enough of BBDB internals to go ahead, but maybe it's time? If this is the sort of thing you had in mind I'd be able to contribute/test. E -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ bbdb-info@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bbdb-info BBDB Home Page: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
