Hello, Etags are indeed read-only and generated by the API. You can however use extendedProperties which are not visible in the Contacts Manager web UI (in GMail) and can be used by client applications to store custom data. Please be aware that those properties are available to every client applications accessing Contacts data through the API.
Best, Alain On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 9:11 AM, David Rodrigues <[email protected]>wrote: > Thanks for the reply. I *think* etags are read-only. (If I am wrong, can > someone let me know?) In other words, I can't create an etag with some > specific numbering convention (say, based on the date and time), then look > to see if it has changed. However, I am giving up on the idea of not saving > any stateful information between syncs. So I think I will use etags after > all. > > Thanks again! > > On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 2:07 AM, Kyaw Tun <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> Will etag help? >> Kyaw >> >> On Nov 17, 10:38 pm, David Rodrigues <[email protected]> wrote: >> > Hi. >> > >> > I'm writing a synchronization script that syncs users A, B, and C's >> > contacts with user D's contacts (all in GMail/contacts -- no 3rd party >> > contacts). I am attempting to accomplish this without having to retain >> any >> > information between syncs. >> > >> > When comparing contacts, my program decides what contact to update by >> > checking the "updated" property from two similar entry objects (say, >> "Joe >> > Smith" from user A and "Joe Smith" from user D). It then can determine >> > which contact was updated most recently and update the other >> accordingly. >> > The problem is that when appropriate contact gets updated, the next sync >> > will see a more recent "updated" property on that contact and then sync >> in >> > the other direction. Since this and subsequent syncs between these >> contacts >> > doesn't actually update anything (the contact's data is identical), >> Google >> > does not update the "updated" property on the associated contact. So now >> > every time the app runs, a wasted attempt at syncing two identical >> contacts >> > fires off. >> > >> > This method actually works, since nothing is changed on the false syncs, >> > but it is ugly and wastes network and computer resources (not to mention >> > time). Does anyone have an idea how I can work around this issue? Keep >> in >> > mind I don't want to save any data between syncs. I've tried using a >> "jot" >> > to mark the contacts being compared with identical "time stamps", then I >> > used this value in conjunction with the "updated" property to decide if >> and >> > which way to sync. The implementation has started getting (too) complex >> and >> > ugly, so I thought I'd ask here before continuing that path. >> > >> > Thanks for any help you can provide! >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "Google Contacts, Shared Contacts and User Profiles APIs" group. >> To post to this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/community/forum.html >> > > > > -- > * > * > *PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RECORDS WITH MY NEW PHONE NUMBER:* > *609-849-8499* > > David Rodrigues > David Rodrigues Consulting > 609-848-8299 > http://www.davidrodriguesconsulting.com <http://www.davidrodrigues.com> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Google Contacts, Shared Contacts and User Profiles APIs" group. > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/community/forum.html > -- Alain Vongsouvanh | Developer Programs Engineer -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Contacts, Shared Contacts and User Profiles APIs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/community/forum.html
