1. There is no feedback on how many changes are being made.
I have to go through the log to find them.
There is some minimal info that flashes in the statusbar for 1/.2 an eye blink.
Feedback, at least when syncs are manual would be nice.
(I dont use auto sync).
What would you like to see? Maybe a brief summary of the changes, ie:
Synchronization finished at 12:34:56. 1 contact(s) added to TB. 2 contact(s) updated.
or
Synchronization finished at 12:34:56. No changes were made.
The only problem is that with 0.3 synchronizing multiple accounts or address books is far easier and detailed status information would not fit in the status bar.
2. Certain fields which can be imported into Google from Tb by exporting / importing a .csv, ie
. work, home web page
. Custom 1-4
and which I have specified in "Sync Extended Properties"
are not visible in Google
Also, any subsequent changes to these fields in Tb do not propagate,
and they do not appear in the Google export .csv
(though they do if they were imported from a .csv)
If they can be imported by a .csv, why can't they be handled by gContactSync?
Is it that importing a .csv uses an as yet unpublished api?
Web pages, birthdays, photos, and a few more fields are synchronized in version 0.3, which is hopefully coming soon. gContactSync 0.2 used version 1.0 of Google's API which was created before these new fields were added. 0.3 uses version 2 of their API.
Google's API allows "extended properties" which are only meant to be used in synchronization clients; nothing in the extended properties are visible through Google's/Gmail's contacts interface or when exporting contacts. Similarly, certain fields, such as the custom fields in Google's interface are not exposed via their API. Also, the new gContactSync fields are not exported through Thunderbird. 0.3 backs up the entire address book file on a regular basis because of this.
3. Really a bug:
Given that I can get certain fields into Google from Tb by importing a .csv,
gContactSync should allow me to keep this info.
As mentioned above, 0.2 uses the old API before many of the newer fields (web pages, birthday, etc.) were added or exposed via Google's API. 0.3 should synchronize just about every field in either TB or Google with the exception of the custom fields in each location.
3. Really a bug:
...
The problem is that gContactSync requires me to delete all my Google contacts before I sync
(otherwise I get all duplicates).
So using gContactSync there is no way to get or keep my custom or web page info in Google.
Zindus handles this with a first "slow sync".
I strongly recommend using a new/empty address book for synchronization, and very strongly advise against synchronizing the same address book (EDIT: with Google) simultaneously with two or more sync apps (it doesn't sound like you are doing this). (EDIT: For example, synchronizing the same AB with gContactSync AND (Zindus or Google Contacts)). There are other add-ons for merging contacts and Google now has a convenient way to merge multiple contacts. Using a new address book allows you to keep all the data that only Google supports.
Right now on the first sync gContactSync assumes that all contacts on either side (Google or TB) are new and were not previously synchronized. I could try matching contacts based on their e-mail addresses during the first sync, but I'm not quite convinced it is worth the extra overhead (yet, if more people ask I'll reconsider).
Thanks for the feedback! Let me know if you have more.
Josh
