VCard & Generic Fields

[Groover David]

I have a Blackberry and I am seeing how I can sync my db with my  
Blackberry. There is a free commercial app called pocketmac that  
already syncs from apples address book to the blackberry so I an  
starting with the vcards, dragging selected contacts to the address  
book. I have the same questions though as you seem to have on my end.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your comments here Elon. I  
have been at exactly the same point as you describe. After trying the  
wizard, now what? It didn't conclude or resolve in any way that I  
could tell.

And a very important question I still have is, what does the term  
"generic field" actually refer to? I tried taking the example from  
the Pan Contact DB and inserting the parts into my own DB. But I got  
an error that I had not set up generic fields yet, so something in  
the procedure is not seeing the needed generic fields. Yet this is  
not a part of the initialization procedure that I can tell.

What I wonder about generic is, does that mean matching field names  
to standard (ie Generic) fields in Apple apps like Mail and Apple's  
Address Book? Or, as the error suggests, is this a special field that  
has to be initialized in some way in the wizard? I too would love to  
see this clarified and I also amd very appreciative at how much is  
already there. So thanks Jim, Dave and others.

David Groover

On Jan 16, 2008, at 9:27 PM, Elon Close wrote:

> The below comments are simply that, comments on my introductory use  
> of Panorama and the Wizard to import vCard data. That the ability  
> exists is really nice. It enables me to print Apple Mail address  
> information formatted in a way that is, for me, readable. I have in  
> the past selected groups, exported them, opened the text file and  
> with a lot of work re-formatted the information. So Panorama’s  
> vCard ability is refreshing. But I do believe it is a work in  
> progress. The below suggestions and comments could appear in the  
> Handbook which is easier to update than source code and easily  
> downloadable. I am sure there are many more pressing items on the  
> to do list then these minor items.
>
> Generic Fields window
> Panorama>Menu>Wizard>Preferences opens the Generic Fields window.
> The Handbook instructions on how to use it are ok. But the
> Method #2. ••••• You can drag database fields into this box, •••
> does not seem to be the case, notice the plural on fields.
>
> I drag First into the box. Then type in +” “+ with the insertion  
> point after the second +, I drag in the field Last. The original  
> First+” “+ is replaced by Last. For me it is necessary to type in  
> the information, no dragging of fields, after the first field  
> dragged in.
>
> Also, and this is really minor but can be confusing, there is no OK  
> or any note to that effect that the associations are set just by  
> closing the Generic Fields window.
>
> VCard Wizard window
> The Handbook says on P 242
> “You’ll find this wizard in the Utilities submenu of the Wizard menu.”
>
> For me using 5.5 it is in the Panora>menu>wizard>Inport-Export of  
> the Wizard menu.
>
> This Window can display information that can be misleading.
>
> Example: Launch a new DB. Open the VCard Wizard window and the  
> message is displayed that there are no Generic Fields, which is  
> correct. Close the VCard window, open the Generic Fields Wizard  
> window and connect up the fields as per the instructions. Close  
> this window, save the corrected DB, open the VCard window and it  
> still says no Generic Fields. This is rather misleading. The  
> Generic Fields are there, just empty waiting to have data put into  
> them by importing vCard information, like from the Address book.
>
> It may be there and I missed it, but to updatethe VCard window,  
> like when going to the next record, it is necessary to make the  
> VCard window the active window. Panorama is so good about tracking  
> open, but not active windows, that this requirement is not at first  
> noticed.
>
> There may be good reasons for this behavior, but a note in the  
> Handbook to this effect would be a little more than just nice.  
> Especially since there is no OK or any note to the effect that  
> simply closing the Generic Field Wizard window sets the  
> connections. One can open/close set/reset the DB fields for a long  
> time thinking that there are no Generic Fields, when actually there  
> are Generic Fields, but with no data in them.
>
> The example in the Handbook is the Apple Mail program. This is  
> nice, since that is what I was interested in. However, a comment in  
> that example noting that to export the Notes from Mail it is  
> necessary to check the box Address Book>Preferences>vCard> Export  
> Notes in vCard. I agree that RTFAppleManual is applicable, but when  
> this non-checked item is coupled with the fact that maybe the info  
> is there but not imported, it takes a bit of time and patience to  
> sort it all out. I thought that Panorama was not picking up the  
> Apple information, until I selected a Mail Group, did a Save As and  
> opened that text file in a word processing program to see that Mail  
> had not exported that information.
>
> And finally: The VCard does not seem to display all the  
> information, or at least has not for me. But if one examines the DB  
> Fields the information is imported. Now this may be some confusion  
> on my part, but looking in the DB fields is really the first place  
> to go to determine if the vCard information has been imported  
> correctly.
>
> It is very nice to have the vCard ability and the comments above  
> are really minor. But when setting up this ability for the first  
> time what they point out can lead to a fair amount of confusion and  
> a fair amount of time spent to unravel that confusion.
>
> Regards,
> Elon Close
> erclose at dakotacom.net
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