Allow calendar for birthdays from Thunderbird address book

[Pander]

Please allow adding a local calendar named 'Birthdays from Thunderbird on My Computer '. This will display read only the birthdays from the Thunderbird address book(s). Optionally with a link for navigating to the address book for making changes.

Implementing this feature will allow users to display more 'mozilla' calendar data in sunbird or lightning.

[Mikeypotter (mikeypotter)]

Someone can take this on if they would like.

[Ajbu (ajbu)]

Addressbook has birthYear, birthMonth, birthDay fields in the database, just
not in the UI. It's possible to import records with those fields.
Calendar part to get a list of addresscards and scan for those fields should
be easy , but not very usefull until there is addressbook UI for this.

[Ajbu (ajbu)]

I just wrote a 'prototype' module for importing birthdays from the
addressbook. Would need some cleanup and probably menu-hooks.

At the moment I don't have plans to finish this, i'll attach it here so it
won't get lost. Feel free to pick it up and use this.

[Ajbu (ajbu)]

Created attachment 87935
calendarAddressBook.js functions to access Mozilla Addressbook

Some functions to access the AddressBook. Would need some cleanup.
Also needs check for duplicates.

*Feel free to pick it up and use this code*

[Alik-super (alik-super)]

Just checking to see if we have any progress on this. I wanna kill my outlook
for good and move to mozilla completely!..

[Brant (brant)]

Default QA Contact for Calendar has changed. If you wish to remain the QA
contact for this bug, feel free to change it back.

[Jan+bugzilla (jan+bugzilla)]

Another birthday/anniversary/calendard feature related to this is the display of
year and/or date.

Example: On Epoc OS (Psion), Agendas give the option to show the year, age or
both of a birthday/anniversary. Say Joe was born in 1974, the calendar entry for
his birthday could read "* Joe (1974, 29 years)"

I hope I'm making myself clear. I would *love* this feature to be added as well.

[Juergen-edner (juergen-edner)]

The birthday field has not yet implemented in the UI but seperate fields already
exist for day, month and year. I think an additional field should combine these
seperate fields to a "complete" date string.
Additionally it should correctly be imported by the OL import function and
correctly sync'ed by the Palm conduit.

[SteBo (stebo)]

This depends on Bug 13595 "Add birthday fields to address book", which has a
patch waiting for review.

[Jan+bugzilla (jan+bugzilla)]

Regarding #8, if you keep the fields separate you steer clear of any
international format variations; if you combine them you must deal with
formatting (element order, separator characters).

[JamesPeterson (james-peterson)]

Is this Project still under dev? This is a feathure that I believe would help attract the hesitant user to move over. I checked Bug 13595 and it looks like it has been idle for some time also.

[Ssitter (ssitter)]

There already exists extensions (e.g. MoreColsForAddressBook) that add the birthday field to the Thunderbird address book.

There is also an extension in development that displays the birthdays from the address book in Lightning: ThunderBirthDay, available for testing from <https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/5337>.

[Twildeboer (twildeboer)]

A good address book should have a birthday-field in standard (without add-on). There are some other bugs, about adding some other fields. I think the birthday-field should also be implemented in Thunderbird and also in Lightning/Sunbird without add-on. The birthday field should also be availible as complete date-field (not only birthyear), which can be displayed in the address book list.

The missing birthday-field (and other fields) prevent me to use Thunderbird for mailing and I think I am not the only one who wants a better address book.

[Ingomu (ingomu)]

Since a couple of days, ThunderBirthDay is open for public use. You can download it from https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/5337. Feedback on the website there is very welcome!

[Chris-j-bugzilla (chris-j-bugzilla)]

Thanks for this useful extensions. It should be bundled with Thunderbird, or at least with Lightning by default!

Please find my comments here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/discussions/comments.php?DiscussionID=4536

[Philipp-bugzilla (philipp-bugzilla)]

Ingo, thanks for giving me credit :)

* General style:
  Your tabs are strange. Consider expanding tabs to 4 spaces. If you like I can
  give you the full calendar style review. See [1] for how we do it. By no means
  required though.
* The first part
  All it does, is create a
  get name() { var calMgr = ...; return calMgr.getCalendarPref(this, "name"); }
  set name(v) { var calMgr = ...; calMgr.setCalendarPref(this, "name", v); return v; }

  for the current object and also the same for suppressAlarms.
* add/delete/modifyItem calls:
  I think its fine to throw CAL_IS_READONLY as you probably already read in
  bug 395956. If you return the original item, then it will be added to the views
  which is not really what you want.
* addItem/adoptItem
  Notifying with onAddItem is correct, there is no onAdoptItem
* getItem:
  Don't worry too much about it, its not used anywhere currently. I don't
  even know if my getItem works correctly. If we do decide to use it, we will
  probably shift to using calIItemBase's hashId, which is globally unique.
* Other code
  convertAbCardToEvent:
    - You are setting recurrenceStartDate, which is by definition readonly. This
      should be automatically calculated using the recurrence rule.
    - You should set lastModifiedTime using setProperty("LAST-MODIFIED"), also
      since it is readonly. Additionally, you must set that date as late as
      possible, since setting anything else (i.e privacy) will modify the date
  Helper functions:
    - You could load calUtils via chrome://calendar/content/calUtils.js
      directly, then you don't have to include all those calendar specific
      helpers. See bug 391506 for how I did it.

Future features:
* calListenerBag (bug 389397) makes it easier to call notifiers, available with
  lightning 0.7
* extension dependencies: You can use <em:requires> to require lightning and
  the other extension. This is also currently possible since you don't support
  sunbird. See [2] and the linked detailed description. This keep people from
  wondering why it doesn't work without ltn installed ;)
* I'd agree that its probably better to replace the event dialog with the
  addressbook properties card. When that card is saved, you can notify with
  the onModifyItem listener. This doesn't have to happen in a modifyItem call.
* For creating new events, you could make the addItem call open the new
  addressbook card and asynchronously call the onOperationComplete listener
  when the user saves the card.

[1] http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Style_Guide
[2] http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Creating_an_Extension#Extension_Dependencies

[Ingomu (ingomu)]

Thanks a lot for reviewing my code!! I'll work through the list probably this week-end. I'll post here again, if I have questions or when I'm done :-)

[Bugzilla-babylonsounds (bugzilla-babylonsounds)]

Setting wanted0.8- as this cannot be fixed on the Calendar side, but only on the mail/addressbook side.

[Mvl (mvl)]

re-requesting. This can be fixed by using an overlay in lightning. afaik, the backend code to store the birthday in the addressbook is possible.

[Bugzilla-babylonsounds (bugzilla-babylonsounds)]

Fixing this with an overlay in Lightning is the wrong choice IMO. This is a core addressbook functionality and should therefore be fixed in the Core.

[Ingomu (ingomu)]

Just to make sure everyone knows this: there already is a functionality for birthday and anniversary storage in the addressbook of thunderbird (see http://www.xulplanet.com/references/xpcomref/ifaces/nsIAbCard.html). ThunderBirthDay already uses this as source. Still, the fact, that it isn't connected to the GUI remains a problem.

[Pander (pander)]

Please allow adding a local calendar named 'Birthdays from Thunderbird on My Computer '. This will display read only the birthdays from the Thunderbird address book(s). Optionally with a link for navigating to the address book for making changes.

Implementing this feature will allow users to display more 'mozilla' calendar data in sunbird or lightning.

[Bugzilla-babylonsounds (bugzilla-babylonsounds)]

This bug is not important enough to warrant wanted0.8 status.

[Twildeboer (twildeboer)]

May be the bug is not important enough to block, but it's a wish to get it soon fixed. Is it possible to change the "product"? It should better be Thunderbird or addressbook, or?

[Ssitter (ssitter)]

This feature is already available by using the extension from Comment #14. I'd say the Thunderbird part is covered by the bugs listed in the Depends On section.

Please only request flags and leave the final decision up to the release drivers.

[Twildeboer (twildeboer)]

I think this feature is a generally function of addressbook and calendar and should not be an add-on! see also comments #13 and #15.

As I understand you, this bug is only waiting until the depending bugs are solved and then this bug will also be solved?

Sorry for setting a flag. How do I request the flag "wanted-calendar0.9"? Just writing it here as comment or setting the "?" ?

[Gary-rumblingedge (gary-rumblingedge)]

Nominating/Requesting the flag is done by setting '?'.

Nominating wanted‑calendar0.9?.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

As far as i know you can do this with it now just the option isnt there to make it a radio button and most likely wont add this to it. personally i would rather upstream add it if anyone does since they add all the radio buttons in Mozilla apps.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Please file it upstream and leave the link here or add it to the bug report using the projects link under assigned to

[Pander (pander)]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=437745

[Ssitter (ssitter)]

*** Bug 437745 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Ingo Müller (ubuntu-launchpad-ingomueller)]

There is an addon doing exactly what you want, downloadable from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/5337. If you have any feature request please contact me (the author) by sending an email to mozilla@<mydomain> replacing <mydomain> with ingomueller.net. Thanks!

[Pander (pander)]

Above bugzilla link is duplicate of https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151994 Please inquire via this URL about development status but the addon described above already provides this functionality.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Pander wrote:
> Above bugzilla link is duplicate of
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151994 Please inquire via
> this URL about development status but the addon described above already
> provides this functionality.
>
>
Thanks i added it as upstream task

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Bugzilla-standard8 (bugzilla-standard8)]

*** Bug 456080 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Ingomu (ingomu)]

Ok, Mark, so I'm aksing my questions here (see bug 456080 for details):

1) Do you agree that I shouldn't store additional fields for events in the address book (like last date of lasts acknowledgment of alarm)?
2) Does anyone know a possibility to uniquely and permanently identify an
address book card?
3) Is there any way to include an ID field to the nsIAbCard interace?

[Maxxmozilla (maxxmozilla)]

Bug 13595 is fixed, Nominating wanted‑calendar1.0?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

This has been nominated for 0.9 and 1.0 as of right now it has not been added to 0.9, once added i will fix it for Jaunty. I'm not going to back port 0.9 to any other version of Ubuntu for a while, not enough testing so far. When i get a chance i will build for hardy and intrepid for testing on my PPA however the locales are not done for 0.9 yet so i will wait for them.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

This might land in 1.0b1 Sunbird will not have a release after 1.0b1. lightning will continue to be built.
I have not decided when and if i will provide Sunbird 1.0b1 i need to run tests on it to see how stable it is.

[Philipp-bugzilla (philipp-bugzilla)]

*** Bug 498122 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Mozilla-adrario (mozilla-adrario)]

What is the status on this?
Now that the Birthday field is in TB 3.0, we would just have to display this.

Ingo, are you still working on this?

[Ingomu (ingomu)]

I am working on this in the sense that I ported ThunderBirthDay to Thunderbird 3. Compatible versions (0.3.*) can be found on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addons/versions/5337. For the moment, it is still "only" an extension, and there are no plans of integrating it into Lightning (yet). In principle, I am open to this idea, but it will for sure not happen for Lightning 1.0.

[Ssitter (ssitter)]

*** Bug 580903 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Michael Duelli (m-duelli)]

I think having this functionality as an add-on works quite well and keeps out cross-dependencies between lightning and addressbook.

However, I would propose to show a hint on recommended add-ons which is shown whenever installing/updating lightning (at least).

[Mozilla-bugs-2011-08 (mozilla-bugs-2011-08)]

> I think having this functionality as an add-on works quite well and keeps
> out cross-dependencies between lightning and addressbook.

I disagree. This is basic functionality available in any addressbook. Lightning is already an addon, it will confuse users that they have to install N (where N>1) addons to get the basic functionalities.

If Lightning does not integrate with the addressbook, then what is the point of the users using an integrated solution?

[Pander (pander)]

ThunderBirthDay add-on works very well. If it should be included into Lightning is up to the Lightning and ThunderBirthDay developers.