Using external addressbooks as a data source

users
#1

Installed 3.3 on Ubuntu 10.04 using the Libreoffice repository.
Going into File-Wizards-Address Data Source the ONLY thing that is selectable is "Other external Data Source" - there's NO option to select an email addressbook. The data sources pane shows Evolution - I don't use Evolution, I use Thunderbird.

Surely this is a CRITICAL function that's either completely missing or broken?
How do I connect to the TBird addressbook?

#2

What version of Thunderbird?

The option is also missing on my openSUSE11.1 system, which has
Thunderbird 3.0.11
But in my Win7 with Thunderbird 3.1.7 it is working.

#3

Hi :slight_smile:

I have a funny feeling that is more to do with the differences in LO & OOo on
Windows platforms rather than the difference between releases of Thunderbird.
Just a guess and i could easily be wrong

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

Installed 3.3 on Ubuntu 10.04 using the Libreoffice repository.
Going into File-Wizards-Address Data Source the ONLY thing that is
selectable is "Other external Data Source" - there's NO option to
select an email addressbook. The data sources pane shows Evolution - I
don't use Evolution, I use Thunderbird.

Surely this is a CRITICAL function that's either completely missing or
broken?
How do I connect to the TBird addressbook?

What version of Thunderbird?

3.1.7

The option is also missing on my openSUSE11.1 system, which has
Thunderbird 3.0.11
But in my Win7 with Thunderbird 3.1.7 it is working.

Yep - I seem to recall I've noticed that before - it's a Distro build problem.

#5

I have a feeling you are right. I seem to recall this before - that the Windows version has this functionality - the Distro builds do not. I wonder if the non-distro builds available from LO direct DO have this functionality? Anyone?

#6

Hi Gordon,

Installed 3.3 on Ubuntu 10.04 using the Libreoffice repository.
Going into File-Wizards-Address Data Source the ONLY thing that is
selectable is "Other external Data Source" - there's NO option to select
an email addressbook. The data sources pane shows Evolution - I don't
use Evolution, I use Thunderbird.

FWIW, you can't do this on Mac either, but you can, on the other hand,
connect to the Mac Address Book.

BTW, this is also unavailable on the Mac version of OOo.

I seem to recall that the OOo base team dropped support for TB because
it meant compiling in source code from Mozilla when building the
LibreOffice packages, and that in itself was a totally unnecessary
nightmare, and in additionally, it was read-only anyway when it did sort
of, kind of, work. Why it is still available on Windows I don't really know.

Alex

#7

The problem is, many people don't USE Evolution. I don't, I don't actually like it, plus it doesn't use my on-line calendars easily.

#8

Thundebird has a good export functionality!

#9

The unsubscribe link is not working. I got mail delivery failed.

#10

You need to send a blank email to user+unsubscribe@libreoffice.org.
Have you done this?

Regards,

Luiz Oliveira
BrOffice.org - Brasil

#11

The "real" versions from LO, installed from the standard debs, allow all data source options, including TBird - at least on 64 bit Ubuntu 10.10. Another reason to install from debs, rather than from re-builds with bugs via the repositories. :wink:

Peter HB

#12

Thanks for that - I thought they did. I'm running just over my average
daily bandwidth usage (I'm on a capped bandwidth broadband package) so
when I've got some slack back I'll try that.
Just one question - having installed LO from the ppa, how do I uninstall
it? It doesn't appear in the Ubuntu Software Centre, and I can't seem to
get the apt-get syntax right for uninstalling...

#13

It is. Here is the original Ubuntu bug that I filed back in 2007:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+bug/93546

Thunderbird works in standard OOo & LibreOffice (linux 3.3.0 versions),
however in OOo (and LO) there are still issues with using SeaMonkey
address books, see:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=107809

Ubuntu LO 3.3.0 (Natty Alpha 11.04 - OOO330m19 Build6) is still missing
the address books listed in 93546.

LO 3.3.0 (standard .deb installed on Ubuntu 10.10) has the same issues
as 107809 - I reckon that they used the same code as OOo 3.3.0. But an
LO dev is aware of the issue & hopefully working on it.

#14

The problem I have with all this is, that in the end, once you wean
people off MS Office and IE, then there's not really a lot of purpose in
keeping Windows. The fact that the versions supplied with distros are
broken in this respect would, to me, be a serious barrier in doing
that...

#15

I never used Evolution or KMail.
I use Thunderbird which for my needs is much better
than any other Windows [non MS] and Linux email clients.

So what format does the address book need to be in to
be used by LO? Is is only used with mail-merge documents?

#16

I would guess you have to export as a CSV file then import into a Base
file. LO should then be able to use that Base file as a data source...
The problem is of course that when you modify the TBird address book,
that modification is NOT automatically reflected in the Base file...

#17

[cut]

Thanks for that - I thought they did. I'm running just over my
average daily bandwidth usage (I'm on a capped bandwidth broadband
package) so when I've got some slack back I'll try that. Just one
question - having installed LO from the ppa, how do I uninstall it?
It doesn't appear in the Ubuntu Software Centre, and I can't seem to
get the apt-get syntax right for uninstalling...

My policy would be to use Synaptic and un-install completely everything with an LO ID and then use the debs (dpkg -iR ./DEBS from the installation directory).

Regards

Peter HB

#18

Hi :slight_smile:

it is possible to use a different machine, perhaps one at a CyberCafe or
internet cafe to download stuff.

Synaptic makes it easier by allowing you to setup a script that can then be used
on a Linux, Windows or Mac (or possibly even BSD) machine to do the
downloading. In Synaptic choose the stuff you want to download. Instead of
clicking "Apply" go to it's menus and click on

File - "Save Markings"

and save to usb-stick, rewritable cd or even just attach it to an email and
email yourself. The script is quite tiny. A word of caution tho! When you
double-click or run the script on a machine it downloads all the packages to the
folder the script is in so DONT put the script on the machine's desktop! A nice
temp folder on the desktop is much better :wink:

Also somewhere in synaptic it allows you to avoid clearing out your package
download cache so that reinstalling is easier as suggested by Peter. I think
the default is to keep packages for 30days or something but this may have been
changed in the interests of slimming.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#19

Seems to be working (partially) in LO 3.3.3 final. See:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32948

Please test (linux only) & add to the report if you can. This is IMO
quite serious & it isn't working at all in 3.4.x.