problem with kaddressbook

[Jack Ostroff]

I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I open  
the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally tracked  
it down that Balsa only shows those names with a  
EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host line.  Most of my entries have only an  
EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is only there for names that have two email  
addresses.

Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this a  
problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
originally exported from Outlook?

Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
lines?

Thanks for suggestions.

Jack
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[Peter Bloomfield]

Hi Jack!

On 09/03/2009 04:11:54 PM Thu, Jack wrote:

> I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
> file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I open  
> the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally tracked it  
> down that Balsa only shows those names with a EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host  
> line.  Most of my entries have only an EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is  
> only there for names that have two email addresses.
>
> Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this a  
> problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
> originally exported from Outlook?
>
> Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
> lines?

It looks like a bug in Balsa's vCard address book code.  It looks for:

EMAIL;.*:name@host

evidently based on the assumption that all EMAIL lines have ";TYPE=...:"  
qualifiers.  I can't find any authority that requires them, and  
RFC-242[56] [1] makes it clear that they are optional, with TYPE=INTERNET  
as the default, so perhaps Balsa should be more permissive--patch attached.

Best,

Peter

[1] <URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2426.html> "defines the profile of  
the MIME Content-Type [MIME-DIR] for directory information for a  
white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business card.",  
which doesn't define what an address book should contain, but may be as  
close to a definition as we'll find...

[vcard-patch]

---

diff --git a/libbalsa/address-book-vcard.c b/libbalsa/address-book-vcard.c
index 16ef81a..679c766 100644
--- a/libbalsa/address-book-vcard.c
+++ b/libbalsa/address-book-vcard.c
@@ -331,8 +331,8 @@ libbalsa_address_book_vcard_parse_address(FILE * stream,
  /*
  * fetch all e-mail fields
  */
- if (g_ascii_strncasecmp(string, "EMAIL;", 6) == 0) {
-    gchar *ptr = strchr(string+6, ':');
+ if (g_ascii_strncasecmp(string, "EMAIL", 5) == 0) {
+    gchar *ptr = strchr(string + 5, ':');
     if (ptr) {
  address_list =
     g_list_prepend(address_list, g_strdup(ptr + 1));

---

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[Jack Ostroff]

On 2009.09.04 18:29, Peter Bloomfield wrote:

> Hi Jack!
>
> On 09/03/2009 04:11:54 PM Thu, Jack wrote:
>> I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
>> file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I  
>> open the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally  
>> tracked it down that Balsa only shows those names with a  
>> EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host line.  Most of my entries have only an  
>> EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is only there for names that have two  
>> email addresses.
>>
>> Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this  
>> a problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
>> originally exported from Outlook?
>>
>> Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
>> lines?
>
> It looks like a bug in Balsa's vCard address book code.  It looks for:
>
> EMAIL;.*:name@host
>
> evidently based on the assumption that all EMAIL lines have  
> ";TYPE=...:" qualifiers.  I can't find any authority that requires  
> them, and RFC-242[56] [1] makes it clear that they are optional, with  
> TYPE=INTERNET as the default, so perhaps Balsa should be more  
> permissive--patch attached.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter
>
> [1] <URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2426.html> "defines the profile  
> of the MIME Content-Type [MIME-DIR] for directory information for a  
> white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business  
> card.", which doesn't define what an address book should contain, but  
> may be as close to a definition as we'll find...

Peter,

Thanks.  I agree that just dropping the semi-colon from the match  
should work.  It may take me a bit of time to figure out how to apply  
the patch within the gentoo build framework, but I know I'll get it  
eventually, and I'll let you know how it works.

Should this be formally filed as a bug anywhere?

Jack
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[Jack Ostroff]

On 2009.09.04 18:29, Peter Bloomfield wrote:

> Hi Jack!
>
> On 09/03/2009 04:11:54 PM Thu, Jack wrote:
>> I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
>> file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I  
>> open the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally  
>> tracked it down that Balsa only shows those names with a  
>> EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host line.  Most of my entries have only an  
>> EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is only there for names that have two  
>> email addresses.
>>
>> Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this  
>> a problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
>> originally exported from Outlook?
>>
>> Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
>> lines?
>
> It looks like a bug in Balsa's vCard address book code.  It looks for:
>
> EMAIL;.*:name@host
>
> evidently based on the assumption that all EMAIL lines have  
> ";TYPE=...:" qualifiers.  I can't find any authority that requires  
> them, and RFC-242[56] [1] makes it clear that they are optional, with  
> TYPE=INTERNET as the default, so perhaps Balsa should be more  
> permissive--patch attached.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter
>
> [1] <URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2426.html> "defines the profile  
> of the MIME Content-Type [MIME-DIR] for directory information for a  
> white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business  
> card.", which doesn't define what an address book should contain, but  
> may be as close to a definition as we'll find...

Success.  It works as advertised.  For the two who showed up before, it  
(correctly?) shows both emails on the list.  (I prefer it shows both,  
although one interpretation could be to chose the one with the PREF,  
but I think that's overkill.)

Thanks.

Since this probably won't get rolled out until the next version, I'll  
probably submit a Gentoo bug report with your patch, unless there is  
any reason not to do so.

Jack
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[Peter Bloomfield]

On 09/04/2009 07:44:23 PM Fri, Jack wrote:

> On 2009.09.04 18:29, Peter Bloomfield wrote:
>> Hi Jack!
>>
>> On 09/03/2009 04:11:54 PM Thu, Jack wrote:
>>> I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
>>> file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I  
>>> open the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally  
>>> tracked it down that Balsa only shows those names with a  
>>> EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host line.  Most of my entries have only an  
>>> EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is only there for names that have two email  
>>> addresses.
>>>
>>> Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this a  
>>> problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
>>> originally exported from Outlook?
>>>
>>> Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
>>> lines?
>>
>> It looks like a bug in Balsa's vCard address book code.  It looks for:
>>
>> EMAIL;.*:name@host
>>
>> evidently based on the assumption that all EMAIL lines have  
>> ";TYPE=...:" qualifiers.  I can't find any authority that requires  
>> them, and RFC-242[56] [1] makes it clear that they are optional, with  
>> TYPE=INTERNET as the default, so perhaps Balsa should be more  
>> permissive--patch attached.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> [1] <URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2426.html> "defines the profile of  
>> the MIME Content-Type [MIME-DIR] for directory information for a  
>> white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business card.",  
>> which doesn't define what an address book should contain, but may be as  
>> close to a definition as we'll find...
>
> Peter,
>
> Thanks.  I agree that just dropping the semi-colon from the match should  
> work.  It may take me a bit of time to figure out how to apply the patch  
> within the gentoo build framework, but I know I'll get it eventually,  
> and I'll let you know how it works.
>
> Should this be formally filed as a bug anywhere?

I just pushed the patch to git master, so it will find its way into  
releases in due course.  Feel free to suggest the patch to anyone who  
needs it more urgently.

Peter
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[Peter Bloomfield]

Mid-air collision!

On 09/04/2009 08:32:16 PM Fri, Jack wrote:

> On 2009.09.04 18:29, Peter Bloomfield wrote:
>> Hi Jack!
>>
>> On 09/03/2009 04:11:54 PM Thu, Jack wrote:
>>> I've pointed Balsa to my kaddressbook std.vcf file.  When I open the  
>>> file through one of the KDE apps, I see dozens of entries.  When I  
>>> open the address book in Balsa, I only see three names.  I finally  
>>> tracked it down that Balsa only shows those names with a  
>>> EMAIL;TYPE=PREF:name@host line.  Most of my entries have only an  
>>> EMAIL:name@host.  The PREF is only there for names that have two email  
>>> addresses.
>>>
>>> Should Balsa show names with only a single EMAIL entry, or was this a  
>>> problem when kaddressbook imported the original vcards, which were  
>>> originally exported from Outlook?
>>>
>>> Is my best fix just to manually add ";TYPE=PREF" to the other EMAIL  
>>> lines?
>>
>> It looks like a bug in Balsa's vCard address book code.  It looks for:
>>
>> EMAIL;.*:name@host
>>
>> evidently based on the assumption that all EMAIL lines have  
>> ";TYPE=...:" qualifiers.  I can't find any authority that requires  
>> them, and RFC-242[56] [1] makes it clear that they are optional, with  
>> TYPE=INTERNET as the default, so perhaps Balsa should be more  
>> permissive--patch attached.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> [1] <URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2426.html> "defines the profile of  
>> the MIME Content-Type [MIME-DIR] for directory information for a  
>> white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business card.",  
>> which doesn't define what an address book should contain, but may be as  
>> close to a definition as we'll find...
>
> Success.  It works as advertised.  For the two who showed up before, it  
> (correctly?) shows both emails on the list.  (I prefer it shows both,  
> although one interpretation could be to chose the one with the PREF, but  
> I think that's overkill.)
>
> Thanks.
>
> Since this probably won't get rolled out until the next version, I'll  
> probably submit a Gentoo bug report with your patch, unless there is any  
> reason not to do so.

Glad it helped.  Yes, Balsa should really look at the type, and find a way  
to present the "TYPE=PREF" one as preferred, but that would take some  
*real* work :)

As I mentioned in the other reply, feel free to submit any bug that would  
speed up fixing the issue.

Thanks for reporting the problem!

Peter
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