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List:       kde-pim
Subject:    Re: [Kde-pim] KAddressbook Suggestions (& some bugs)
From:       Mike Pilone <mpilone () slac ! com>
Date:       2002-06-03 13:43:28
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Andreas,

A lot of work has been happening on KAddressBook in the 3.1 branch of KDE. 
This branch is roughly scheduled for release in September. You can, 
however, check out kaddressbook from the CVS and run it along side KDE 
3.0.1 if you really want the new features.

> - I think that the list gets very uncomfortable to browse/view if you
> have entered a lot of addresses. There's missing some hierarchy. I think
> this could be done if you use a tree-listview (treeview) with some fields
> in the list, e.g. "company" and "category". So you can open/close
> addresses belonging to a company or having set a category.

Categories are now implemented and filtering based on category also works. 
This allows you to only see contacts in preselected categories.

> - "assistant's name" and "manager's name" should be links to the KAB
> entry.

Not sure what you mean here, but assistant's name and manager's name are now 
valid fields in the edit contact dialog box.

> - Some hierarchy on the entries would be useful. You could tell e.g.
> which manager has whom under authority (which might be of course has
> other persons under his/her authority). Could also be used for families.

This is not directly implemented, but clever use of categories could make it 
very possible.

> - It would be a nice feature if one could edit the shown fields directly
> in the listview.

There has been discussion on this, but I do not forsee it happening before 
the 3.1 release. There is now a 'quick edit' option that displays the edit 
dialog in real time as contacts are selected.

> - Hitting DEL should bring up a warning dialogbox.

Possible before 3.1.

> - Choosing the shown fields, should not re-arrange their positions, so
> you should be able to arrange the fields' positions in the "choose
> fields" dialog.

The field order can now be set in the select fields dialog.

> - Context menu for address lines: Edit, Delete, Add to distribution list
> (Sub-menu with existing distribution lists), Send E-Mail (sub-menu if
> more than one email address), Visit Homepage. Above that it should be
> configurable, so that e.g. a telephone application could include an entry
> to call that person, or another app could include a send a letter...

This has been discussed and once the core addressbook stablizes, these 
'plugin' type features will be added. Right now multiple resources/ldap 
support is high priority.

> - Toggling the current view mode: e.g. by category, by company, by vcard
> (configurable)

This is now possible, with 4 different view types implemented and an 
unlimited number of each view instance.

> - Maybe each address line should have a tooltip, that displays all
> available fields of that contact or only the user selectable fields. I
> think this could be useful if you set up your list to only show e.g.
> name, email, category but want to have a quick overview of some other
> fields, like e.g. nickname, telephon, homepage...

The list view (table view) does have a tooltip option, however I believe the 
fields in the tool tip are hardset. The new cardview allows for 
configurable fields on a single card.

> - "Incremental search": Pressing a key jumps to the address line starting
> with that letter - ok. Pressing another key jumps to the line starting
> with that letter - hmm. I think it would be better if one can simply type
> and search as if the cursor would be in the "inc. search" editfield,
> searching the column currently being sorted (shortcut for changing
> current column needed!). One could press RETURN to select the found line
> or ESC to clear the entry buffer and go back to the previously selected
> line. The statusline could inform you of the currently type search
> string, which should be cleared/escaped after a couple of seconds where
> nothing has been typed.

Some of this has been implemented. The inc search is now much smarter and 
allows you to choose which field is search (based on the visible fields). I 
think the only thing not done is the esc clear key combination.

> - I think we need a better find feature (if you can call "inc. search" a
> find feature ;-)  One should be able to search for more than one field.
> Maybe there should be an editfield above every column of the listview.
> These editfields should perform ANDed searches.

A better search dialog would be nice.

> * Contact Editor
> - Displaying addresses edited with the help of the address editor should
> be localized: in my german KDE the zip code is below the city, that's not
> what addresses look like here in Germany.

The text of the dialogs are now localized, however the layout of the dialog 
is not. I do not forsee this changing before 3.1.

> - It's not possible to enter the address in the textfield and then open
> the address editor - it's simply empty. Even not if I enter an address
> with the address editor, copy the textfield content and paste it in
> another contacts textfield. I think this has to be improved, especially
> if I enter foreign addresses which have another layout - KAB should
> recognize them correctly.

Currently entering addresses in a large single text field has been disabled 
because it was so inaccurate. You must use the address edit dialog to 
properly enter an address.

> - "Category" field should be available (preferable in the first tab
> page). It should be setable/editable like in KOrganizer.

This is done.

> - The editor dialog should save the state of all the comboboxes when it
> its left to reset it the next time it is called (for every entry).

The edit dialog is smarter, setting the combo boxes to fields that have 
data. The problem with saving all the states is that you could have 6 combo 
boxes * 500 contacts. That creates a rather large config file.

> - There should be a default for "file as", so that I can file all my
> contacts by "surname, firstname" without setting it every time.

The new 'formatted name' field replaces 'file as' and defaults to surname, 
firstname.

> - The name editor should offer international/foreign titles. In my german
> kde I have the values "Herr", "Frau"..., but I sometimes enter english
> contacts with titles "Mr." or "Mrs.". Maybe this list should be editable
> by the user.

The defaults are hardcoded and should be i18n-ed, but adding new fields is 
possible with an editable combo box.

> - Leaving the "Street" textfield in the address editor should be possible
> with the TAB key.

This is a limitation of the text edit. You can do it using shift-tab and 
working backwards. There may be a way to change this.

> - Telephone numbers should be converted to some kind of standardized
> format (don't now where it's defined at the moment, ISO or DIN)

There have been other requests for this and hopefully it will happen before 
3.1 (at least a std editor for them).

> * Other stuff
> - Some printing would be nice. E.g. configurable lists, vcards.

This is currently underway.

> - More exporting formats (e.g. HTML), modes like printing above.

Hopefully some more of these will be added, however they are very time 
consuming so they may not make it before 3.1.

> * Bugs
> - Sometimes arranging the columns of the listview and resizing them has
> strange behaviour: e.g. if I resize column 3, column 2 gets resized
> instead. Sorry, can't reproduce it. Now and then that's the case, will
> give you more info when I have it...

This is fixed.

> - After saving the address book, column 1 resizes to a certain width. If
> I don't change the width and save again, it's not resized, but if I
> change the width, it resizes again that certain width.

Fixed.

> - After saving the address book the "file as" field resets to the default
> (Title, Firstname, Middlename...). Very annoying...

Fixed.

Thanks for all your comments. I suggest that you use the bug tracker and add 
any item that I didn't address as a wish item. Emails like this are helpful 
but they are hard to track and some of the features will get lost. As 
always, if you want to implement some of these things yourself, feel free 
to send patches.

Thanks,
-mike

-- 
Mike Pilone <mpilone@slac.com>        http://www.slac.com/mpilone/personal/
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