Hello all,

I recently upgraded OpenSUSE 11.2 to 11.3. Since then, I've noticed that KAddressBook looks different. For example, I've got less options to configure it (I can't set it to automatically display names in the list with the last name first, for example, I have to do it contact for contact). Its behavior also seems to have changed.

Before, I could start typing a name into the address field in KMail and KMail would suggest people from my address book underneath the addressee field. These were either people I'd recently written to or people from my address book. Now KMail still does that, but it only suggests names of people that were in my address book before I upgraded to 11.3 and it doesn't update their contact info if I change it. It doesn't notice if I add new people to my address book either. Also, my distribution lists don't work. If I tell it to send a message to one of my distribution lists, it sends it to [DistributionListName]@linux-w73r instead of to the people in my distribution list.

If I click on the "Select" button next to the addressee field, a window pops up in which I can select people. In this window, I can see my distribution lists and expand them to show who's in them. I can also find the newest versions of contacts I've changed or added in KAddressBook. But it's annoying to always have to open this window.

Oh, another thing: In KAddressBook, the option to make a new distribution list is grayed out. I also can't see my mailing lists from in KAddressBook.

Any ideas? Thanks a whole lot in advance!

Best,
Daniel

It sounds as though you don't have a Default addressbook set. Try the solution at http://userbase.kde.org/KAddressBook#Enabling_Resources

Distribution Lists, as such, are gone, but replaced by Groups. They function in the same way (assuming that your distribution has the latest fixes). In KAddressBook, use Add a new Group. This will only work properly, I think, after you have set your default addressbook (which should also cure your problem of not seeing new addresses, too). Basically, the Add new Group window does not show all the details of any address - you just start to type in a name and select from the autocompletions offered.

Be aware, too, that some versions have a habit of losing names from your distribution lists. The records are not lost, just the group's link to them.

Alright, I enabled Nepomuk - Nepomuk wasn't on - and left Strigi out. KDE Resources looked a bit different, but it does have my default address book. That's also the only address book that's shown.

I'm not entirely sure that my address book is really the one stored in KDE Resources. I'm not able to find out in KAddressBook where the address book is stored. In the address book properties it's listed as:

akonadi:?collection=6

Properties are read only with file monitoring enabled.

KDE Resources allows me to edit it only in a limited fashion. I only have general settings for the default address book (again, it's the only one and it's also set as standard). Here I've got the name (Default Address Book - this time WITHOUT a checkmark in the box for read-only). Format is vCard and it's located, according to KDE Resources, at
/home/erget/.kde4/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf

My only options are to change the format to binary, change the location, change read-only status and change the name. Otherwise it's OK or Cancel only.

Any other suggestions? KMail still isn't pulling up my entries in the autocompletions field and I still can't add groups. Thanks for the help!

Daniel

Oh, another bit of information that might be useful:

When I restart my computer now, I get a message from Nepomuk Data Storage: "Nepomuk was not able to find the configured database backend 'redland'. Existing data can thus not be accessed. The message looks cut off in the second line, I'm not sure if there's more to it.

I also added the akonadi-resource Personal. It also claims to use my address book as its resource. I've set it as standard.

It sounds as though you have more than one issue. Taking your last one first - I don't know the openSuse setup, but for backends I have
redland-1.0.10-4.fc13.i686
soprano-2.4.63-1.20100521.fc13.i686
virtuoso-opensource-6.1.1-1.fc13.i686

http://userbase.kde.org/Akonadi_and_AddressBook - I think you said you had read it, but it's worth reading again - the information came from the developers.

You were right to install the Akonadi resource Personal, which should show up in your addressbook now as Personal Contacts. In the configuration page you need to set that to point to ~/.local/share/contacts. Then open the new addressbook which will, presumably, be empty, and using the File menu to Import -> VCard and follow the prompts to tell it where your std.vcf file is - ~/.kde/share/applications/kabc/std.vcf, presumably. It will convert the vcf file into a collection of vcf records - one per contact instead of all in one long file, and put them in the new addressbook.

Let us know how it goes

Make sure the following two packages are installed:

Code: Select all

soprano-backend-virtuoso
soprano-backend-redland

Okay, I think we're a step closer to the solution.

Concerning installation:
I've got the following installed (there's nothing newer in my repositories so I left it like that for the time being):
redland 1.0.10-3.2
soprano 2.4.2-1.9
virtuoso 6.1.1-1.23
soprano-backend-virtuoso 2.4.2-1.9
soprano-backend-redland 2.4.2-1.9

So a couple differences in what's installed, but everything's there. I didn't have virtuoso before.

I tried to import my contacts from that path to my address book and KAddressBook wanted to know what address book to import to. Not knowing what I should say, I canceled. Then I added a new address book. Confronted with several options, I chose to add a VCard Directory so that future contacts would be stored in the directory like the developers recommended on the page. Then I imported my contacts from ~/.kde/share/applications/kabc/std.vcf. They weren't up to date - the test entry I had made the other day wasn't there, as well as the other contacts since my upgrade, but my upgrade wasn't that long ago so I can live with it. Do you know where they're floating around on my computer so I don't have a bunch of data trash clogging my hard drive?

Now KMail finds my new addresses. I made two new test entries, one with the name Test and one with an absolutely absurd name to ensure I wasn't somehow calling up my old test entry. They both worked. If I update KAddressBook, KMail figures it out. Great!

However, there are still these annoying issues:
1. Like I said, the import didn't include my new entries since the upgrade. Anyone know where they are?
2. I still don't have access to my old distribution lists, and I'm still not able to create a new group. Those are really useful functions that I need.
3. When I restart the computer, Nepomuk still says it's unable to configure redland. Is that possible connected, or should I open a thread somewhere else? Any suggestions on where? I'm kind of new to the forum scene. As an experiment, I turned Nepomuk off and KMail still finds my new addresses. At the moment I've left it off.

Otherwise things are great, but like I said, still not optimal, especially because of the missing groups. Any tips?

The differences in the backend packages are the choice of your distro. Don't worry about them.

However, there are still these annoying issues:
1. Like I said, the import didn't include my new entries since the upgrade. Anyone know where they are?

No way we can guess - wherever what was set as the default addressbook pointed to. If it pointed to a non-existent directory or one that you have now overwritten, they are gone. If something sparks a memory of what you saw when looking for solutions you may find them, though, and be able to import them.

2. I still don't have access to my old distribution lists, and I'm still not able to create a new group. Those are really useful functions that I need.

As I said, the 4.5 preview suggests to me that searching on tags will soon be available again. Creating a new group shouldn't be a problem, though (stick to the Personal Contacts addressbook, and don't forget to read UserBase about backing up your contacts). Describe exactly how you try to add contacts and what happens, then we'll see if we can help. By the way, one user didn't realise, so I'll repeat it here, that you can only add existing contacts to a group. New contacts need their addresscard created first.

3. When I restart the computer, Nepomuk still says it's unable to configure redland. Is that possible connected, or should I open a thread somewhere else? Any suggestions on where? I'm kind of new to the forum scene. As an experiment, I turned Nepomuk off and KMail still finds my new addresses. At the moment I've left it off.

Otherwise things are great, but like I said, still not optimal, especially because of the missing groups. Any tips?

You should not need to configure redland at all. Maybe it's an error message left over because you didn't have all the necessary packages at the beginning. Please turn Nepomuk back on. That could well be the reason that you can't create a group, because it is implicated in the relationship with Akonadi. If details such as group membership can't be passed to the database you lose functionality.

Alright, well like I said, it's not tragic to lose those contacts - they were quite fresh and if I need to I can check my old email correspondence to find them again.

As far as groups are concerned, it truly is strange. I open up KAddressBook and see the main window. At the top left corner, below the menus "File," "Edit," "Settings" and "Help" there are two buttons and a search field. The button on the far left is "New Contact." If I click on it I can create a new contact. Next to it the button is called "New Group." It's grayed out though. I just tried clicking on it just in case it's a display bug, but I still can't create a new group. Search field seems to work fine.

I've got Nepomuk back on now and am still getting the error message, but it doesn't seem to negatively affect my system's functionality.

Try a right-click in the area where the names are listed - you should be able to get a new group from there - and although I haven't tried it, it says that Ctrl+G should also work

Sorry, forgot to mention: I also tried right clicking on names to add them to a group. Doesn't work. Neither does Ctrl+G.

It seems to me that Kaddressbook in KDE4.4 is just someone's idea of a joke.
Even when I managed to work out that I could get my contacts from the previous version in by importing ~/.kde4/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf into it (yet bizarrely that's the very file it's writing to if I add another new contact), there's no way to import my distribution lists or indeed to create any (as a previous poster has said, "new group" is greyed out with no way of making it work).

If,as it appears, it's necessary to faff about in order to actually get it working then at least I'd expect some easily available documentation as to what's needed. But what appears when trying Help->Kaddressbook handbook? An un-touched template with no information in it whatsoever.

There may be some logic behind replacing a perfectly functional program with one that doesn't work, but it's beyond me. Oh for the happy days of KDE3 when everything worked...

Try http://userbase.kde.org/KAddressBook_4.4, http://userbase.kde.org/Akonadi_and_AddressBook and the pages linked from there. There are concepts that you are clearly unaware of.

annew wrote: There are concepts that you are clearly unaware of.

I was certainly unaware of the concept that it's a good idea to replace functioning software with new versions that aren't yet ready for use because it doesn't have all the functionality of the original. Though it seems to have been the underlying principle of KDE development since 4.0.

25 years ago I'd happily tinker around with messy details on my computers just for the fun of it. Today my computers are tools for getting other work done; if I wanted to have to spend days getting all I need working again after every new software release, I'd use Windows.

If you want to run the latest versions you are assisting in testing and development. If you don't want to do that, use one of the stable versions that are some way behind. Insulting people who freely give time is counter-productive, demotivating. Do you enjoy being spoken to in that way?