Possible to do one way sync from gmail contacts to thunderbird?

[evero]

Hello, and thanks for your work on this extension!
I know this question maybe defeats some of the purpose of this extension, but for now I'm trying to find a sollution for only syncing (or more correct: reading) contacts one way (using gmail contacts as "master").
The reason for this is to keep the information in gmail contacts fully intact, and not changed in any way. In other words beeing totally sure nothing gets changed in the gmail contacts as a consequence of syncing etc.
Is this possible to do with some settings in the gContactSync extension??
Would have been great!
regards

[Josh Geenen]

Hello

There actually is not a way to do that right now, but I can (and almost certainly will) add that in 0.2.0b2.  You can check on my progress here, but I'll try to update this thread when it is finished.  I plan on releasing that version within a few weeks.

If you would like I should be able to give you instructions on how to do it with 0.2.0b1 or later.  Anything earlier would be more difficult.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[evero]

That great news! Looking forward to the 0.2.0b2 release, and hopefully this feature if you find the time to implement it  I will keep an eye on this thread for updates. Thanks again.

[Josh Geenen]

Hello again

I have been able to create a read-only mode as requested.  It won't come with much of a performance gain and will probably stay that way for 0.2.

How does the wording of the new checkbox sound to you?  I'd like to make it a bit easier to understand.  The attachment is a screenshot of the preferences dialog with the new checkbox.

Enable read-only mode (Thunderbird receives, but doesn't send, updates)

[evero]

That's fantastic!
I think the description is explaning. I don't know if the term "one-way sync" is in use. Something like "Enable one-way sync from Google. This option only reflects the content from Google contacts" (but actually my english ain't good, so probably it's best the way it is!)
Thanks again!

[Josh Geenen]

Hey,

0.2.0b2 is out with an option to only fetch updates from Gmail.  You can read about the new version here and download it here.

Josh

[evero]

That's great! I tried the new version (0.2.0b2r1). One question: When I activate the fetch-only mode I'm not able view the gmail contact groups (as contact lists in thunderbird). Or more correctly, if I activate the "Synchronize groups with contact lists", something goes wrong in the sync process (seemes to stop in the middle of the sync). I'm not sure if this functionality is possible in the fetch only mode? Otherwise it seemes to work perfectly!

[Josh Geenen]

I'll take a look at it next week, you may want to try removing the account (gContactSync -> Preferences -> Accounts, select the account and click Remove Login) and adding it again with a new directory (type a name of an address book that doesn't exist) while enabling synchronizing groups/mailing lists and fetch-only mode.

If it still doesn't work, could you send me a log?  There are instructions if you put the cursor over a label, like Log.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep working on it for 0.2.0rc1!

Josh

[evero]

Sorry my late reply. It seemes to be related to thunderbird 2. In thunderbird 3 the contact lists are shown. Maybe it's something with my setup in thunderbird 2 aswell. I can try to find a log file later if your'e not able to reproduce in TB2 (but maybe it's not worth looking much into it, TB3 is the future anyway

[Josh Geenen]

I cannot seem to reproduce it in Thunderbird 2 or 3.

If you can reproduce it (removing the account in the Preferences then adding it as a separate directory) with Verbose logging enabled in the preferences, could you send me a log?  Please use the error report form instead of the forum for giving me the log.

[jake]

I will join the chorus of people who are very pleased to see a new add-on which actually provides almost the same functions as GMail itself.  Well done and thank you.

The only gripe I seem to have is that the options for which direction to sync are not entirely clear.  It seems that you can set both of the options:
"Always update Gmail..." (I assume this makes tbird the master), and
"Enable fetch only mode..." (I assume this makes Gmail the master).

How can both be the master at once (or have I got it completely wrong)?

I use Tbird on two computers (one at work and one at home) which may (depending on my understanding) make things tricky with syncronising contacts. Say both are have the option set to "Always update Gmail..." (as per default).
Say I add a new contact using Tbird on my home computer at night, and then go to work the next day hoping to access that contact.  When I log in, will the sync with the work computer wipe out that contact (since Tbird is set to be the master and it doesn't originally have the contact)?

I think this sort of confusion could be saved by:
1) Having the preferences state explicitly using radio buttons: "set Gmail to be master"/"set Tbird to be master", or
2) Having TWO sync buttons in the toolbar allowing manual synchronisation in one or other direction (say "fetch" and "send"), or
3) Allowing sync to update whichever list is the LEAST recent contact list.

Maybe this is already taken care of but, if so, I need to find out before I make a mess of my contact lists.

Otherwise this is pretty damn good.

Thanks again.

Jake.

[Josh Geenen]

Please see this post for a reply to the previous message.