addressbook data files

[Chong Yu Meng]

On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 09:43 -0500, C M Reinehr wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 March 2007 17:54, Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Tue, 2007-03-27 at 08:43 -0400, Tim Wunder wrote:
> > > On Tuesday 27 March 2007 2:09:25 am Ric Moore wrote:
> > > > I'm using kaddressbook to maintain our non-profit database of contacts.
> > > > I need to port that info to a laptop running windows. I can export in
> > > > the following formats: (more laborious typing tonight)

> I may have misunderstood your request. Are you looking for an email app that 
> can import your addressbook entries or are you looking just for a simple 
> database app? 

I think I know what Ric is referring to. I think what he needs is a kind
of portable addressbook format:

Supposing I have a contacts list and I wanted to share it with people, I
would want to export the contacts list into a file that I can send to
people, who can then import it into their respective email or contact
management program. 

I had earlier helped him with the first part some months ago, but was
unable to follow-up with him subsequently because ... well, lots of
things came up (sorry, Ric! My bad !). 

Initially, I thought LDIF may be a good idea, but then there are some
problems with portability because the LDAP schema that is used by KMail,
Mozilla, Outlook and Evolution are ALL different, with Evolution the
worst, by far, in terms of compliance with the standard LDAP schemas.

I considered that the best option is probably to have a publicly
accessible LDAP server that contains some compromise in the variety of
schemas to provide the basic information (easier said than done,
unfortunately) to the most common client applications. But this would
raise issues of security and confidentiality, and who is allowed to
change the data, etc. 

If anyone on this list has faced this kind of problem before, please
share your experiences and recommendations! If this is for what I think
it is for, it is a worthwhile cause !

Regards,
pascal chong