Name Issue
PetieG
middle name listed... The AB change never makes it to gmail. I add a
middle initial Robert T Russo in AB and the sync puts the gmail copy
on AB ... I'm sure this has everything to do w/ gmail not respecting
anything but two names in the name field... maybe you can confirm? I
bought this yesterday and so far not thrilled -- but then again I
believe most of the issues I'm seeing are due to gmail's missing
features from their API ...
thx,
-- Pete
Jeff Nichols
Actually, Gmail supports any text you want in the name field. The
problem comes with parsing and comparing structured names (AB) to
unstructured names (Gmail). Syncman only ever uses the first and last
names when constructing the name to use in Gmail. This decision was
made mainly because it was easier and less prone to errors. However,
now that Syncman is pretty proven and stable, I can revisit utilizing
the other name fields (middle, prefix, etc). I'll add that to my
roadmap.
Hope that explanation wasn't too technical, if you still have
questions I'd be happy to try again.
Also, I'd love to hear about the other issues you are having, even if
they are problems on the Gmail side.
Thanks for your feedback,
Jeff
--
Jeff Nichols
Wateree Software
http://wateree.net/
PetieG
Somehow the addresses got all messed up coming from gmail to AB (i'm
using your latest beta v1.3b1) -- I got a new machine and decided to
just sync from gmail down to my new MacBook -- well the addresses on
AB are all munched together now -- no city, state, and zip. After a
little investigating, it seems as though you are taking only the first
word of the City -- New York, San Jose, etc... are taken as 'New' or
'San' (single word cities come over fine) w/ the state then becoming
'Jose,' and the zip 'CA 95125' I'm probably right in saying that
google isn't really doing too well of a job w/ these distinct fields
causing you to shoot through hoops huh?
I for one, would love for this product to rock ... i would be more
than happy to work with you on it. I'm an IT tech (support) and can
probably afford to have a look/see every now and then to help with
your progress. Of course, from a technical end-user, not as a
programmer. :)
Let me know,
--
Peter Gilbert | I.T. Consultant
____________________________
PG Systems, LLC
m. 917 .699 .0443
e. pe...@pgsystems.net
http://www.pgsystems.net
On Mar 16, 2:10 pm, Jeff Nichols <j...@wateree.net> wrote:
> Hi Pete,
>
> Actually, Gmail supports any text you want in the name field. The
> problem comes with parsing and comparing structured names (AB) to
> unstructured names (Gmail). Syncman only ever uses the first and last
> names when constructing the name to use in Gmail. This decision was
> made mainly because it was easier and less prone to errors. However,
> now that Syncman is pretty proven and stable, I can revisit utilizing
> the other name fields (middle, prefix, etc). I'll add that to my
> roadmap.
>
> Hope that explanation wasn't too technical, if you still have
> questions I'd be happy to try again.
>
> Also, I'd love to hear about the other issues you are having, even if
> they are problems on the Gmail side.
>
> Thanks for your feedback,
> Jeff
>
> --
> Jeff Nichols
PetieG
and putting it into the City field in AB ... Damned you google!! :)
On Mar 16, 7:32 pm, PetieG <pe...@pgsystems.net> wrote:
> Please be as technical as you want. I appreciate your feedback.
> Somehow the addresses got all messed up coming from gmail to AB (i'm
> using your latest beta v1.3b1) -- I got a new machine and decided to
> just sync from gmail down to my new MacBook -- well the addresses on
> AB are all munched together now -- no city, state, and zip. After a
> little investigating, it seems as though you are taking only the first
> word of the City -- New York, San Jose, etc... are taken as 'New' or
> 'San' (single word cities come over fine) w/ the state then becoming
> 'Jose,' and the zip 'CA 95125' I'm probably right in saying that
> google isn't really doing too well of a job w/ these distinct fields
> causing you to shoot through hoops huh?
>
> I for one, would love for this product to rock ... i would be more
> than happy to work with you on it. I'm an IT tech (support) and can
> probably afford to have a look/see every now and then to help with
> your progress. Of course, from a technical end-user, not as a
> programmer. :)
>
> Let me know,
>
> --
>
> Peter Gilbert | I.T. Consultant
> ____________________________
> PG Systems, LLC
> m. 917 .699 .0443
Jeff Nichols
Yeah, your experience with addresses is the reason I waited so long in
the first place to add support for them. In short, addresses going
from AB to GM should turn out perfect while from GM to AB could have
strange results. I don't have time at the moment, but I'll give a
more thorough explanation tomorrow of what's actually happening.
Jeff
--
PetieG
time... have a good evening/day ... wherever you are! Thx ...
Jeff Nichols
A quick follow up, especially since I think having a better
understanding of what Syncman is doing will help everyone use Syncman
to its fullest potential.
So... The underlying problem is that AB uses structured addresses with
GM uses freeform addresses. Therefore, syncing addresses from AB to
GM is straightforward and will always yield good results. Syncing
addresses from GM to AB is something else entirely.
Parsing freeform addresses is a notoriously difficult problem and
unfortunately well outside of the scope of a small project like
Syncman. Therefore, when adding support for addresses, I made the
decision to not attempt this at all (rather than have something that
was broken for a large percentage of cases).
What I do with Syncman is to break down the freeform address into a
structured address in a way that when it is converted back into a
freeform address it is the same as the original. This strategy
enables synchronization to work all the time, with the consequence
that addresses added and/or modified on GM might not be 'parsed'
correctly in AB.
Wow, this is a long mail. Maybe I should get to the point. Addresses
should ideally be added or modified in Address Book. I'll try to
gradually add more intelligence to the address parsing, but it will be
step by step and definitely won't solve all issues immediately.
If you made it this far, I salute you. And if you're still interested
and have any more questions, I'd be glad to answer them... in 2 weeks
when I'm back from vacation. :-)
Jeff
Peter Gilbert
--
Peter Gilbert
PG Systems
917 .699 .0443
http://www.pgsystems.net
(ip)