KAddressbook, Nepomuk, etc

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Tuesday 02 March 2010 02:53:14 pm Timothy Murphy wrote:
> I'd really like to have a "database" for storing
> information about contacts (as in an address book).
> My base is Fedora/KDE.

Yes, I would love such a thing too. Do you have one? :-)

Seriously speaking, it could be used not only for contacts, but in general.

> My requirements are:
> 
> 1. The application should be web-based,
> like CUPS, BackupPC, etc.

This is crucial. If I could access the database over a web interface, that 
would be quite sufficient. Actually, what you want is basically a good and 
functional web-oriented GUI frontend for, say, mysql backend...
 
> 2. There should be a simple interface with mobile phones.

What do you mean by this? When you are accessing the database remotely (via 
the web interface), how do you plan to connect to a mobile phone?

> 3. There should be a simple interface with KMail/KAddressBook.

This should be something like "import contacts from the web" kind of option in 
KAddressBook. It's probably doable. Or, there could be an "export into 
kaddressbook-type file" button in the web interface, which is probably even 
easier to implement. Or a comma-separated-values file, which virtually any 
addressbook app can import.
 
> 4. The program should be sufficiently flexible
> to allow new fields (eg images) to be added.

This is also crucial. I could really make use of a database with dynamic field 
configurations in tables. Or a sufficiently powerful web-interface which would 
instruct mysql backend to do all the hard work.
 
> 5. The program should allow general information
> eg about films or books to be stored.

Even better, I would wish to be able to store an arbitrary file into a database 
field. Or have the field contain a symlink to the file. So I don't want to have 
_information_ about films and books in the database, but rather the actual films 
and books themselves.
 
> 6. I'd like the program to interface with Windows Outlook
> and similar Windows programs.

Well, I don't need this one. And web-like access to data is platform-
independent, so at least that part could work everywhere.
 
> Currently OpenLDAP is the nearest I can get to this,
> but I find it very cumbersome,
> and there seems no simple GUI interface.

Well, as I said above, the *only* thing that is actually needed is a powerful 
web GUI, for *any* database backend. Mysql, postgresql, openldap, a plain text 
file, whatever does the work.
 
> As far as I can see, Nepomuk aims vaguely
> at something like this,
> but it seems too far from practical use to be of much value.
> 
> I'm wondering if anyone has found a solution to this,
> or indeed whether anyone shares my desire?

Oh, if you ever find such a thing, do send me an e-mail with a link! It would 
make my life sooo much easier... :-)

BTW, I would add the following requirements:

7. It should be able to handle multiple databases. I might have one for 
contacts, one for books, one for music, one for... , all in the same GUI. Or 
to be able to connect the GUI to this or that one dynamically.

8. It should be GPL, of course, and included in Fedora! :-)

Best, :-)
Marko