Is there a direct way to do a onetime export of contacts/appointments from outlook (using vcard? vcal? whatever the standard is)
To my knowledge, not easily. Technically, GPE-Contacts can import vcards, but I haven't found it to be reliable enough to be useful. If you search the forums, someone wrote a java app to migrate contacts from Palm like so: Export Palm contacts to vcard, run java app to generate sql statements from vcard, run sql "script" using a desktop version of sqlite, copy resulting contacts database in ~/.gpe and voila. A similar technique can probably be used for your calendar, if you can generate vcal. But it'll be a pain unless you're the type that likes jotting off such short scripts.
When the java app complained about some missing something or other on my linux system, I just spent a couple hours on the bus copying the contacts from my palm.
realistically, that sounds like an awful lot of bother to go to.
Maybe this wouldn't be that big of a deal if I felt some confidence that the gpe-maemo pieces could sync better with evolution.
Is it same to assume that once your data is in evolution, compatibility problems are essentially minimal? Why do I talk about evolution? For backup purposes, I'd like a PC application that I could rely upon if my Nokia 770 were (for example) stolen? I'd entertain other backup methods (anyone?)
I have a feeling that someone has figured out how to do the Outlook to Evolution translation. (googling, I see this http://outport.sourceforge.net/ )
One other question about gpe. I see that gpe 2.7 has been released last week. http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/GPERoadmap
I realize that to install gpe, you have to install separate components, but will there ever come a time where the installer will just install a maemo-specific gpe program consisting of maemo-ported components?
Also, is Nokia paying for/supporting GPE development? They better be
realistically, that sounds like an awful lot of bother to go to.
It is. Having migrated by hand, I know it can be a huge bother. But to my knowledge, that's how much bother it takes to get data accessible on the 770 right now.
Originally Posted by
Is it same to assume that once your data is in evolution, compatibility problems are essentially minimal?
Until gpe-sync is working, getting data into evolution doesn't help get it onto the 770 without some other finagling. I'd like to think that gpe-sync will get up to speed soon, but I haven't heard any sort of schedule.
Originally Posted by
Why do I talk about evolution? For backup purposes, I'd like a PC application that I could rely upon if my Nokia 770 were (for example) stolen? I'd entertain other backup methods (anyone?)
I have the same concern, but right now I don't think there's a really good solution. I'd be overjoyed to be proven wrong.
Until a better method is available, I simply backup the .gpe directory in /home/user to another system. It's kind of a bad solution (especially in the case of losing your 770), and it may not be acceptable to you. I'm just not aware of anything better at the moment.
The deja pim package has a direct import from outlook function, but I couldn't get it to work reliably. Just to have a list for the 770 of my contacts I could refer to, I used a pdf printer to print a pdf file of my list. I can at least look up phone numbers, but multi-page pdfs are a little slow to work with.
It would less of a concern if I knew that somehow that GPE data could be exported eventually into a PC client application. I don't want to spend 3-4 months to input data only to find out that I have no way of exporting it into a PC application.
BTW, how is GPE information stored? Is it a SQL database?
I guess I should be asking this on the GPE mailing list?
BTW, how is GPE information stored? Is it a SQL database?
SQLite, so you can look at the data on almost any platform. It won't disappear, but there's no guarantee that there will be an easy to use converter to migrate you onto your next PIM, either.
Some other tools to get data into GPE or out of it are gpe-beam and gpe-bluetooth. Both have support for file transfer using OBEX and are able to import mimedir (VCal, VCard) data.
Gpe-contacts and gpe-calendar support importing mimedir files as well as sending these files via bluetooth and infrared.
Unison could be used to backup/restore data in your user's homedir. And it has merge facilities if you are really handy with scripting. Unison can be gotten from the debian arm archive or search the web for an ipk for Zaurus which is just a repackage of that binary.
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This doesn't really reassure me. I wonder if these same features are supported in maemo environment specifically.
