Re: Thunderbird
At 5:21 pm -0700 21/9/04, wren argetlahm wrote: I've recently started messing around with Thunderbird. I like it a bunch but I'm wondering if there's any good way to port over my Address Book, with perl or otherwise. The Applescript script below creates a UTF-8 encoded .vcf file on your desktop containing all your contacts: set f to ( as Unicode text) (path to desktop) ¬ addresses.vcf as file specification try close access f end try open for access f with write permission tell application Address Book repeat with i from 1 to count people set _card to vcard of person i tell me to write _card to f as «class utf8» end repeat end tell close access f read f -- just for reassurance JD
Re: Thunderbird
At 10:19 pm +0100 27/9/04, John Delacour wrote: The Applescript script below creates a UTF-8 encoded .vcf file on your desktop containing all your contacts: Actually that needs to be modified. The script below will give you either a file with no blank lines or a file with a blank line only between cards. set _lineending to ASCII character 10 set f to ( as Unicode text) (path to desktop) ¬ addresses.vcf as file specification try close access f end try open for access f with write permission set eof f to 0 tell application Address Book repeat with i from 1 to count people set _card to vcard of person i (* blank line between cards *) --set _paras to paragraphs of _card (* ... or No blank lines *) set _paras to paragraphs 1 through -2 of _card repeat with _line in _paras tell me to write _line _lineending to f as «class utf8» end repeat end repeat end tell close access f read f
Re: Thunderbird
On 2004.9.24, at 11:55 AM, wren argetlahm wrote: --- Chris Devers wrote: --- Joel Rees wrote: I don't know about .vcf, but .csv is fairly easy to just look at with a text editor (formatting off, of course). Yeah, they're both just text and (pretty) easily readable. The problem comes in that I don't want to stop using AddressBook and so I'm looking for a maintainable solution, where I can just hit a couple buttons or run a script rather than needing to manually enter anything. That's part of the reason i've been looking at FB's import function and Mac::Glue. I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking that FB doesn't offer any sort of scripting API (ala Mac::Glue or commandline commands) that'd let me enter the data programmatically if the Import function doesn't work. I'd love to be disproven however. Incidentally, the .vcf file generated by AB looks akin to your example but with a space between every charecter and two newlines instead of one. Is that normal, or might that be part of the reason that Firebird is having difficulty reading it? I would guess that would be the entire reason. Use the file open menu item in Text Edit and try loading the .vcf file generated by Address Book as a Unicode UTF-16 file. (You may need to customize the encoding list.) If you just double click or drag-and-drop, it will use the default encoding, which is probably UTF-8.
Re: Thunderbird
On Thu, 23 Sep 2004, wren argetlahm wrote: Incidentally, the .vcf file generated by AB looks akin to your example but with a space between every charecter and two newlines instead of one. Is that normal, or might that be part of the reason that Firebird is having difficulty reading it? It looks like it's using DOS line endings: \r\n That may be required by the spec, I don't know... -- Chris Devers
Re: Thunderbird
On 2004.9.24, at 11:34 AM, Chris Devers wrote: On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Joel Rees wrote: I don't know about .vcf, but .csv is fairly easy to just look at with a text editor (formatting off, of course). VCF is (basically) an ascii format. You can encode binary data (e.g. photos) in it, but it's base64 encoded (just like email) so you can poke at it with a regular text editor. A typical entry might look something like this: BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Meyer;Russ;;; FN:Russ Meyer EMAIL;type=INTERNET;type=HOME;type=pref:[EMAIL PROTECTED] item1.EMAIL;type=INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] item1.X-ABLabel:_$!Other!$_ TEL;type=HOME;type=pref:800 555.1212 item2.ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;42 Any Lane \n;Hollywood;CA;12345;United States item2.X-ABADR:us X-AIM;type=HOME;type=pref:rmvix END:VCARD Now that you mention it, I guess I have looked at those with a text editor. Etc. It's a little confusing, Not so much confusing as just got a lot of stuff in it. Looks like colons for the element labels and semicolons for the element delimiters. And I think I see a buried newline escaped with a backslash. Hmm. Who made this format up, anyway? My goodness, these things have got RFCs behind them: http://www.imc.org/pdi/ Surprised they don't mention any movement to convert these to XML. but it's mostly a regular format that isn't too hard to read or otherwise work with. Well, ... (One of these days, we have to put ASCII behind us, but that's a topic for a rainy weekend or two.) ??? Every tool has a role; ascii has lots and lots and lots of useful ones. Also roles that it's totally wrong for, but that doesn't mean that it makes sense to get rid of it altogether... Yeah, but it's time to move on. (I'm busy in my spare time trying to invent an encoding scheme that includes a variety of meta-punctuation, including meta-field separators. Of course, by this point, I'm duplicating effort by the Unicode consortium, to a certain extent.) -- Joel Rees
Re: Thunderbird
I'd like to take more time for this, but waiting doesn't produce more time this week. So I'll just toss out an idea -- You might be interested in this page, entitled Import Address Book records into to Thunderbird : http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040905025741769 When I googled for thunderbird and address, trying to learn what thunderbird was, this was the first link that came up. Yeah, shortly after posting I did the google and found that page. Tried the script, it had some issues* but I tinkered with it until I got it to work. But even then, Firebird's import didn't seem to find anything in the file. I don't know about .vcf, but .csv is fairly easy to just look at with a text editor (formatting off, of course). The primary complications are for commas and new-lines buried in fields. Microsfot used quotes and made the whole thing a mess, but once you get your head around the mess it isn't that bad. (One of these days, we have to put ASCII behind us, but that's a topic for a rainy weekend or two.) (After you load the file there's a pop-up to link specific fields in the file to specific fields in the Thunderbird format. But neither .vcf not .csv seems to show up wih anything.) Since .csv *is* listed as a text-type it understands, I wonder if this might be a bug in the import abilities. I was hoping someone else here uses Firebird and may have dealt with the issue before. * SImpleText doesn't like the create new document stuff, so changed it to call TextEdit. And it craps out on some of the addresses for no reason i can discern, so I just commented that all out to produce null addresses. ~wren __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Re: Thunderbird
On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Joel Rees wrote: I don't know about .vcf, but .csv is fairly easy to just look at with a text editor (formatting off, of course). VCF is (basically) an ascii format. You can encode binary data (e.g. photos) in it, but it's base64 encoded (just like email) so you can poke at it with a regular text editor. A typical entry might look something like this: BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Meyer;Russ;;; FN:Russ Meyer EMAIL;type=INTERNET;type=HOME;type=pref:[EMAIL PROTECTED] item1.EMAIL;type=INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] item1.X-ABLabel:_$!Other!$_ TEL;type=HOME;type=pref:800 555.1212 item2.ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;42 Any Lane \n;Hollywood;CA;12345;United States item2.X-ABADR:us X-AIM;type=HOME;type=pref:rmvix END:VCARD Etc. It's a little confusing, but it's mostly a regular format that isn't too hard to read or otherwise work with. (One of these days, we have to put ASCII behind us, but that's a topic for a rainy weekend or two.) ??? Every tool has a role; ascii has lots and lots and lots of useful ones. Also roles that it's totally wrong for, but that doesn't mean that it makes sense to get rid of it altogether... -- Chris Devers
Re: Thunderbird
--- Chris Devers wrote: --- Joel Rees wrote: I don't know about .vcf, but .csv is fairly easy to just look at with a text editor (formatting off, of course). Yeah, they're both just text and (pretty) easily readable. The problem comes in that I don't want to stop using AddressBook and so I'm looking for a maintainable solution, where I can just hit a couple buttons or run a script rather than needing to manually enter anything. That's part of the reason i've been looking at FB's import function and Mac::Glue. I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking that FB doesn't offer any sort of scripting API (ala Mac::Glue or commandline commands) that'd let me enter the data programmatically if the Import function doesn't work. I'd love to be disproven however. Incidentally, the .vcf file generated by AB looks akin to your example but with a space between every charecter and two newlines instead of one. Is that normal, or might that be part of the reason that Firebird is having difficulty reading it? ~wren __ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Re: Thunderbird
--- Ken Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You might be interested in this page, entitled Import Address Book records into to Thunderbird : http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040905025741769 When I googled for thunderbird and address, trying to learn what thunderbird was, this was the first link that came up. Yeah, shortly after posting I did the google and found that page. Tried the script, it had some issues* but I tinkered with it until I got it to work. But even then, Firebird's import didn't seem to find anything in the file. (After you load the file there's a pop-up to link specific fields in the file to specific fields in the Thunderbird format. But neither .vcf not .csv seems to show up wih anything.) Since .csv *is* listed as a text-type it understands, I wonder if this might be a bug in the import abilities. I was hoping someone else here uses Firebird and may have dealt with the issue before. * SImpleText doesn't like the create new document stuff, so changed it to call TextEdit. And it craps out on some of the addresses for no reason i can discern, so I just commented that all out to produce null addresses. ~wren __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Thunderbird
I've recently started messing around with Thunderbird. I like it a bunch but I'm wondering if there's any good way to port over my Address Book, with perl or otherwise. I've tried exporting from AB (as .vcf, the only option) then importing in Thunderbird (.vcf isn't one of the formats listed that it can import, but it doesn't tell me I can't do it). A new address book list icon thing shows up, but so far as I can tell the information isn't actually imported. My second attempt was going to be through Mac::Glue, but Thunderbird doesn't appear to support AE (which makes sense). Any other suggestions? ~wren __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Re: Thunderbird
You might be interested in this page, entitled Import Address Book records into to Thunderbird : http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040905025741769 When I googled for thunderbird and address, trying to learn what thunderbird was, this was the first link that came up. -Ken On Sep 21, 2004, at 7:21 PM, wren argetlahm wrote: I've recently started messing around with Thunderbird. I like it a bunch but I'm wondering if there's any good way to port over my Address Book, with perl or otherwise. I've tried exporting from AB (as .vcf, the only option) then importing in Thunderbird (.vcf isn't one of the formats listed that it can import, but it doesn't tell me I can't do it). A new address book list icon thing shows up, but so far as I can tell the information isn't actually imported. My second attempt was going to be through Mac::Glue, but Thunderbird doesn't appear to support AE (which makes sense). Any other suggestions?
Re: Thunderbird
I am using Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date and it is getting tired. Does anyone have a recommendation for something Mac-ish that would work better? Even something that costs a few hundred. Joe. On Sep 21, 2004, at 10:50 PM, Ken Williams wrote: You might be interested in this page, entitled Import Address Book records into to Thunderbird : http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040905025741769 When I googled for thunderbird and address, trying to learn what thunderbird was, this was the first link that came up. -Ken On Sep 21, 2004, at 7:21 PM, wren argetlahm wrote: I've recently started messing around with Thunderbird. I like it a bunch but I'm wondering if there's any good way to port over my Address Book, with perl or otherwise. I've tried exporting from AB (as .vcf, the only option) then importing in Thunderbird (.vcf isn't one of the formats listed that it can import, but it doesn't tell me I can't do it). A new address book list icon thing shows up, but so far as I can tell the information isn't actually imported. My second attempt was going to be through Mac::Glue, but Thunderbird doesn't appear to support AE (which makes sense). Any other suggestions?
Re: Thunderbird
On Sep 21, 2004, at 9:28 PM, Joseph Alotta wrote: I am using Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date and it is getting tired. Does anyone have a recommendation for something Mac-ish that would work better? Even something that costs a few hundred. iCal? David
