2013-08-22 11:51:54 +02:00
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Addressbooks are commonly kept on a CardDAV server, where the individual
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contacts are represented as single vCard (`.vcf`) files. Supporting those files
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as a source format could facilitate integration between ikiwiki and address
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books, and allow linking wiki entries to people. With the plugin presented here
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and the [[calypso|http://keithp.com/blogs/calypso/]] server, that is easily
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possible.
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2013-08-22 11:56:57 +02:00
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The idea was first presented on [[DebConf13|forum/debconf13 ikiwiki bof]] by
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2013-08-22 11:51:54 +02:00
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[[chrysn]].
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Software involved
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=================
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* CardDAV server
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ikiwiki generates its pages from the local file system. Using the
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[[calypso|http://keithp.com/blogs/calypso/]] CardDAV/CalDAV server makes that
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trivial, as it stores its contacts as plain files already (and under git
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version control!).
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The files can be pulled into ikiwiki in the form of an underlay.
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* Rendering VCF files
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A python plugin called `vcf` has been published in chrysn's plugin repository
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at `git://prometheus.amsuess.com/ikiwiki-plugins`. It supports contact images
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(as `data:` URLs) as well as all the attributes Evolution generates, creates
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external hyperlinks for those attributes that can be dereferenced (including
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telephone numbers), and renders vCard categories into ikiwiki tags.
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Python was chosen as a programming language due to the availability of the
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[[`vobject`|http://vobject.skyhouseconsulting.com/]] python module and the
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author's personal preference.
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* Linking to contacts
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File names of vCard files are usually not usable
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(`4FD53349-51280409-28AD50CB.vcf`). To make links like "`I've talked to
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\[[John Doe]] about this`" possible, the [[todo/alias directive]] has to be
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implemented in the same repository. (Work in progress.)
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Issues / Further development
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============================
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* The rendered output is currently a plain definition list, and could need some
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theming and/or grouping.
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The current implementation does not use templating, and instead generates
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HTML directly in Python (with the help of the
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[[MarkupSafe|https://pypi.python.org/pypi/MarkupSafe]] module). Due to the
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[[limitations of the foreign language API|plugins/write/external]], ikiwiki's
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regular templating can't be used anyway.
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* Addresses are rendered by `python-vcard` builtin address renderer (plus a
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hack to get unicode out of it), and are not always most beautiful; moreover,
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this kind of rendering is not themable.
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* The `paramlist` words in the vcards are plain dumped out after the respective
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fields. That's unsuitable for theming, and would need localization.
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* In general, the plugin is not internationalized.
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* All VCF pages currently receive a 'Contact' tag. That needs configurability
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and/or localization. In the same vein, prefix configuration for the category
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taggings would be useful too.
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* The alias plugin is not ready yet.
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* vCards can not be edited. To be precise: vCards can be edited, but they show
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vCard sources which are not suitable for user editing. Moreover, the changes
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would be committed into the wiki main from the underlay, and not travel back.
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Two approaches would make editing feasible, a relatively easy one and a
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hard-but-wow-if-it-works one:
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* Use a dedicated vCard editing online tool like CardDavMate, which accepts
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URLs for editing (unlike CardDavMate). Ideally we would even hijack the
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edit button on vCard pages to take the user to a proper editor.
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* Have a simple edit mask for vCard objects. (It'd be ok if it was incomplete
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with respect to fields, the vCard format is designed to make that
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possible). That's related to the
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2013-08-22 11:56:57 +02:00
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[[structured data|forum/an alternative approach to structured data]] issue.
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2013-08-22 11:51:54 +02:00
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In such a setup, the vCard list would not go to an underlay, but rather to
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a git checkout in a subdirectory or a submodule, from which the change
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could then be pushed back to Calypso. (AFAIK, different git roots are not
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supported in ikiwiki yet.)
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* Would such a renderer be useful for vCalendar too? (vCard and vCalendar only
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differ in what they can represent, not in how they do it.)
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Status
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======
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The setup is currently usable, but just barely so. Once the basic issues are
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solved (aliases, parameters for tags, enhanced appearence), I will suggest this
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plugin for inclusion in ikiwiki.
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-- [[chrysn]]
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