Re: ANN: org-vcard. Export/import vCards. Backwards-compatible with org-contacts.el.

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> writes:

> Gour writes:
>
>> what do you think about BBDB-v3? Many people like it, but I must admit
>> I haven't take closer look at it?
>
> i haven't tried using BBDB-v3, only BBDB-v2, several years ago. i found
> the latter, hm, 'clunky'. (Similar to how, until the advent of mu4e, i
> found no Emacs-based MUA with maildir support which i found as usable as
> Mutt.) And iirc, part of the problem might have been lack of (full)
> support for Australian phone numbers and/or postcodes, which at the time
> i really didn't want to wrestle with.
>
> In any case, org-contacts.el has nowwhetted my appetite for an Org-based
> contacts solution - given the slogan "Your life in plain text", contacts
> management certainly seems to me to fall within Org's remit. :-)
>
>> However, I wonder whether it's flexible enough to define one's own
>> properties of format of one's contact data and what about syncing?
>
> i've just had a quick scan through the BBDB-v3 source, and
> superficially, it looks like the properties are hard-coded.

If by properties you mean arbitrary key-value data, BBDB does indeed
support that -- properties are known as "fields", and "xfields" are
user-designated fields. Labels and values can be arbitrarily designated
by the user, and with a bit of coding you can format them in unusual
ways, or have them "do things".

> Regarding syncing, the BBDB page on SourceForge suggests that existing
> support for this might be rather limited - i only see mention of
> PalmPilot syncing. i would certainly be interested to know if anyone's
> created CardDAV support for BBDB - given that Google Contacts can be
> accessed via CardDAV, and given (what i imagine to be) the large number
> of people syncing their Android phone's contacts with Google Contacts,
> such support might well be in demand!
>
>> I wish you all the best hoping org-mode users will find decent solution
>> for handling contacts soon.
>
> Thank you! i'm hoping my ongoing work with org-vcard might eventually
> contribute towards this. :-)
>
>
> Alexis.