Re: contact management in emacs

[Russell Adams <RLAdams@AdamsInfoServ.Com>]

On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 12:08:04PM +0100, Alan Schmitt wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This may be slightly off-topic for the list, but as I’m considering
> org-contacts for my question, I hope it will be of interest here.
>
> I would like to migrate my contact management to emacs, as I’m already
> using it for email. My requirements are the following ones:
> - address completion in emacs email clients (I currently use notmuch)
> - support for multiple email addresses and custom fields
> - creation of org links to contacts
> - export to vcard format for synchronization to my mobile phone (using
> vdirsyncer)
> - keep the data under version control
>
> I have looked at two tools, which almost seem fit for the job.
> - ebdb does most of this, with the exception of vcard export (it seems
> to be worked on, https://github.com/girzel/ebdb/issues/60), and I’m not
> sure using version control on an sqlite file is a good idea.
> - org-contacts also seem to have all the required features, including
> vcard export (and if not sufficient there is
> https://github.com/novoid/org-contacts2vcard). I was worried it was
> unmaintained when looking at the copyright line, but I see in
> https://code.orgmode.org/bzg/org-mode/commits/master/contrib/lisp/org-contacts.el
> that there are recent commits to the file.
>
> Do you manage your contacts in emacs? And if so, what tools or workflow
> do you recommend?

The only reason I don't use BBDB is I want to use Org to allow me to
maintain notes about contacts (ie: CRM). Yes, I get that I could have
a CRM file and link in BBDB contacts, but that feels like adding
layers.

The stumbling point for me has been exporting to my mobile phone. I'm
fine with a one way sync from my BBDB/Org solution to the phone, but
I feel like I never found a good option.

Please share what you find works for you.



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Russell Adams                            RLAdams@AdamsInfoServ.com

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