Re: Contact management system (was Re: Fund raising infrastructure)

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

address@hidden <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>  > I did toy with the idea of pointing to a vCard with an XML-style database
>  > entry.  But, then I decided that it would make more sense to have our own
>  > XML DTD that described all the data we want to keep, and be able to export
>  > and import vCard from that.  Do you think that is a bad idea?  Do you see
>  > any downside?
>
>       The downside is the need to maintain a format + tools to convert
> them.

Either way, we need to do that.  Even if we use an XML-based contact file,
we'll need tools.

> The ideal situation is the following:
>
>       standard format + existing tools to use the format
>
>       Since we have:
>
>       vCard + emacs vcard.el + vm vCard support + phpgroupware
> AddressBook (import/export vCard).
>
>       it will make me happy + all web users. But I'm not the only
> one ;-) What's the status of vCard support in GNUS ? mutt ? Are there
> gnome based tools to handle vCard ?

GNOME is standardizing around vCard.  Evolution, for example, uses vCard.

>  Is there a vCard database system (no necessarily web based) to query +
> retrieve vCards ?

Not that I know of.

> Can we do mass mailings + manage list of guests with a software using
> vCard as a base ?

I don't know.


>       This is only the beginning of a long list of questions. If you
> replace vCard with our XML format it will add work (conversion) and the
> benefit is unclear to me.

I am starting to feel that way, too.

Anyway, we'll still need an XML format to include the data that doesn't go
in the vCard (such as the log of contact data that I described elsewhere
in the thread).


>  > Understandable.  So, do you think we should have separate DTDs for these
>  > different parts?

>       Yes, if we find no standard. I'm pretty sure there exists no
> standard for managing donations. Sure, there exists some would-be
> standards to deal with e-business data that can be used to manage
> donations. But they are so big (dealing with all possible aspects of a
> company accounting) that we don't want to use them unless they are
> established standards : the investment to understand them and actually
> use them is so high that it only worth the trouble if they are true
> standards.

That makes sense to me.

>  > I don't necessarily have a problem sticking with vCard for that part of
>  > the information, and point to vCards from some XML format.
>
>       Yes, I also think we should point to vCard from other XML data we
> have.

We are agreed, then. ;)


>       The most obvious downside is that vCard is not XML. And that's a
> big one. Appart from that I don't see any problem. vCard data may even
> be integrated in XML files without problem but won't be parsed, of
> course ;-)

I am curious if there is an advantage to that.  I was envisioning that
we'd have an XML file with all the non-vCard data in it, that points to a
vCard file.

>       As I said in my previous mail, I'll try to use vCard for myself
> and report problems/inconveniences I find. It would be nice to have an
> experimented vCard user around who could tell us more.

I don't know of one, unfortunately, but I look forward to your report.  ;)

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