RE: Evolution Contacts <--> PalmOS Contacts DB mapping

[Matt Davey <mcdavey mrao cam ac uk>]

David,

The addressbook conduit does indeed do more than a direct mapping.  At
present there are several bugs.  My proposed amended logic goes
something like the following (this is not yet updated for the new
Contact fields, but the approach will easily generalise):

Most fields are straightforward: they have a direct mapping, like 'first
name'.  For Addresses, the user can select a preferred address type
(work, home, other) and if that one is non-blank it will be used.

The 5 'phone' fields: home/work/other/email/pager/fax/etc on the palm
are trickier, as they don't map unambiguously and are the cause of most
of the current problems.  I suggest the following:

     1. There is a 'priority' list ordering the available Evolution
        fields that can map to these 5 slots.  At present the user has
        no control over this ordering but that could be exposed if we
        wanted.
     2. If a new entry is on the desktop, the first 5 non-blank entries
        are written to the palm, in that order.
     3. If a new entry is on the palm, the 5 slots will be written to
        the desktop, if possible: only the first two 'home' or 'work'
        entries can currently be written to the desktop, any extras will
        be ignored.  This isn't too bad, as the data isn't lost from the
        palm, and is analogous to a desktop entry that can't be stored
        on the palm, but we could extend evolution to support up to 4
        work/home/other entries as per the evolution GUI.
     4. If an entry is modified on the desktop, we first load up the
        palm entry, and then we overwrite each slot with the
        corresponding entry on the desktop.  After this, if there are
        any 'blank' slots we can write in the next un-synced field from
        the priority list.
     5. If an entry is modified on the palm, we first load up the
        desktop entry, then we write in each of the 5 palm slots to the
        desktop record, if possible.  In this case, if there are three
        'work' slots and the 2nd one is blank, then the desktop record
        will end up with the two non-blank 'work' entries.

I am still playing around with test cases to see if there are any flaws
(for example, any cases _at all_ that could lead to loss of data, or
duplication of fields).  So far it seems to fix some specific problems
at present (e.g. if you blank a field on the desktop it doesn't
currently blank the corresponding field on the palm when you next sync)
without introducing any that I'm aware of.

Comments welcome.

Matt

On Wed, 2008-08-27 at 13:03 -0700, David Wade Hagar wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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> It seems to me that the conduit should do a little more than direct
> mapping...  I mean, Business 2, 3, etc...  Are not mapped, but you can have
> multiple "Work" entries possible on a Palm.  Shouldn't Gnome-Pilot load
> everything into memory from the palm in its raw format, then process the
> fields, deciding where to put them.
> 
> - ---
> David W. Hagar
> 
> Computer Solvency Blog - http://compusolvency.blogspot.com/
> Tweet Me! - http://twitter.com/titanshadow
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: gnome-pilot-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:gnome-pilot-list-
> > bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Nathan Owens
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 4:56 PM
> > To: The PalmOS(tm) integration package
> > Subject: RE: Evolution Contacts <--> PalmOS Contacts DB mapping
> > 
> > Here's a CSV version of it (comma-separated value). Import it into your
> > favorite spreadsheet program.
> > 
> > http://pianoman.myvnc.com/evolution/contacts_db_mapping.csv
> > 
> > Nathan
> > 
> > 
> > --- On Tue, 8/26/08, R. Drew Davis <drewclist rdd name> wrote:
> > 
> > > From: R. Drew Davis <drewclist rdd name>
> > > Subject: RE: Evolution Contacts <--> PalmOS Contacts DB mapping
> > > To: "The PalmOS(tm) integration package" <gnome-pilot-list gnome org>
> > > Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 1:21 PM
> > > On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 09:51 -0700, David Wade Hagar wrote:
> > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > > > Hash: SHA1
> > > >
> > > > How do I read that file?
> > > >
> > > > - ---
> > > > David W. Hagar
> > >
> > > It's an Open Office Spreadsheet.   If you don't
> > > have Open Office on your
> > > PC, visit download.openoffice.org to grab a free copy.
> > > It's available
> > > for a wide variety of platforms, including Windows and
> > > Linux.
> > >
> > > Drew
> > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: gnome-pilot-list-bounces gnome org
> > > [mailto:gnome-pilot-list-
> > > > > bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Nathan Owens
> > > > > Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 5:30 AM
> > > > > To: gnome-pilot-list gnome org
> > > > > Subject: Evolution Contacts <--> PalmOS
> > > Contacts DB mapping
> > > > >
> > > > > Here's the mapping that I've done between
> > > the Evolution Contacts elements
> > > > > and the PalmOS Contacts elements.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > http://pianoman.myvnc.com/evolution/contacts_db_mapping.ods
> > > > >
> > > > > Please feel free to suggest comments. This was
> > > just a rough draft at how
> > > > > the two different databases could be mapped.
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gnome-pilot-list mailing list
> > > gnome-pilot-list gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-pilot-list
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnome-pilot-list mailing list
> > gnome-pilot-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-pilot-list
> 
> 
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Matt Davey	  If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
mcdavey mrao cam ac uk 	     -- Derek Bok