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List:       kmail-devel
Subject:    Re: Request for comments: New address book API
From:       Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-10-16 8:31:30
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On Tuesday 16 October 2001 05:02, Don Sanders wrote:
>
> I took a quick look at kabc.

Thanks.

> The main complaint I have heard that relates to libkab is
> that it does not support groups (aka distribution lists).
> Does kabc support groups or aliases? I notice categories,
> can (should) these be used to classify address book entries
> into groups?

The categories can be used for grouping addresses. I will add the function 
"Addressee::List AddressBook::findByCategory( const QString & )". Then you 
can easily get all entries belonging to a certain category. Each entry can 
have multiple categories. Does this fulfil the requirements of distribution 
lists or is there something else, which has to be added?

> I see adresse.h and address.h, etc is there a reason why
> (library header) files are not k prefixed?

The classes live in their own namespace and the headers will be installed in 
an own subdirectory, so their is no need for prefixes.

> Please don't remove the old api until all (cvs) applications
> that use it have been ported and the old api is redundant.

Yes. The old API is also needed for the conversion tool, which converts old 
address book data to the new format. 

> The were some problems interfacing KAdressbook with libkab.
> KAddressbook supports a fixed set of email addresses and
> snail addresses. This didn't gel well with libkab and that
> limitation remains in kabc (just an observation - no big
> deal).

Hmm, I don't understand, where the problem is. kabc supports an arbitrary 
number of email and snail addresses, each with an associated type. If 
KAddressbook only supports a fixed set of all possible types, this is no 
problem. You might not be able to edit addresses put into the address 
book by another program, but this is a limitation of the client, not of the 
API.

> There was some talk of support for an LDAP backend, just a
> note KAddressbook isn't a suitable gui for a large (by
> number of entries) LDAP server, it won't scale. For large
> LDAP server support an improved GUI will be required.

Agreed.

> > - Dialog for selecting address book entries, supports
> > mouse and keyboard selection, supports automatic name
> > completion.
>
> Sounds interesting (unfortunately didn't look at it yet) is
> it functional? Perhaps KMail could reuse it.

It is functional. You can test it with the test program testkabcdlg (Use 
"make check" to build it). Before using it you have to create some entries in 
the addressbook, either by importing the libkab address book (with kab2kabc) 
or manually with the GUI frontend in kdepim/kabc/frontend.

> Basically the kabc api looks ok to me.

That's nice to hear :-)

-- 
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@kde.org>
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