Re: [dev] Cataloging of contacts

From: Kurt Van Dijck <dev.kurt_AT_vandijck-laurijssen.be>
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2016 10:28:48 +0100

> I want to keep track of some information about people, and I have an
> idea of what I want the user interface to be like. Perhaps is there
> already something close to what I want?
>
> I want to record the following information about each contact.
>
> * Name
> * Phone number
> * Email address
> * Postal address
>
> I want each contact to have its own file. I will put all of the
> contacts' files in a directory tree. I can look up contacts by filename
> or with a search. (grep will probably be fine.) The software would do
> the following.
>
> * Check that I have formatted the contacts' files properly.
> * Convert into formats for other programs (my email client, notably)
>
> If I don't get any other ideas, I will probably write something that
> uses vCard as the format. vCard is nice because search engines (like
> recoll) will likely recognize it. The main thing I'm wondering is
> whether there is a nicer format that vCard.
>

I wrote myself something (votool, from 'VObject tool', and vofind) that
does proper search on vCard, since vCard format may split values over
different lines, rendering grep useless :-(.
I choose using vCard over other formats for exchanging purposes.
No new address book file format, how elegant is may be, will not compete
vCard for interoperability.

If you want, I'll add a license file and publish on github (or any other
git server).

Kurt
Received on Thu Nov 10 2016 - 10:28:48 CET