Re: Synchronizing Contact Lists Between Fire, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

On 7 Jul, 2005, at 20:05, Robert Haddock wrote:

> How to rationalize =93Fire=94 and various Messenger Lists:
>
> I am a heavy duty Fire user.  But when I travel I must use a PC to=20
> access
> Yahoo, MSN, etc. and my lists invariably get out of synch for whatever
> reason.   I have just discovered that I have added names into Fire,=20
> that did
> not make their way into my Yahoo list for whatever reason.  This has
> happened before and requires me several times a year to go through a
> many-hours long process to synchronize names.  I have just returned=20
> from a
> two-month trip to China, and am looking with horror at the prospect of
> synchronizing my contact lists yet again.
>
> After trying many approaches I have found a way to do that requires=20
> Excel
> and Mac Link Plus along with about half a day or evening of my time.
>
>
> 1.   Export Alias List from Fire
> 2.   Since it is not possible to open this list directly, purchase Mac=20=

> Link
> Plus.
> 3.   Drag the Alias file into Mac Link Plus
> 4.   Fix the Type and Creator

Install the developer tools, and you can use SetFile from the terminal.

> 5.   Click the View Button
> 6.   Select All
> 7.   Copy All
> 8.   Open new Excel Workbook
> 9.   Paste file into Excel Workbook
>
>
> 10 Replace <string> with null value
> 11 Replace </string? With null value
> 12 Replace <key> with null value
> 13 Replace ,</key> with null value

This bit you can do with sed. Or bbedit. BBEdit Lite, at least, should=20=

have decent find/replace. AppleWorks should also work.

> Now things get difficult:
>
> Each record takes two rows in Excel.  One row has the email.  The=20
> other row
> has the Alias (I use this field to keep the name, city and other=20
> information
> about my contacts)
>
> Manually move the second of each row to the right side of the first=20
> row.
>
> I have 1,200 rows in my Excel spreadsheet.  This requires 600 manual=20=

> cut and
> pastes.  (perhaps some Excel genius knows how write a script to do=20
> this, but
> after using Excel for 10 years I do not).
>
> When I am really good I can cut and paste 8 or 10 per minute. =20
> Sometimes I
> make mistakes and it takes me awhile to discover, then I have to back=20=

> up and
> re-do.
>
> This takes about 2 hours depending on how often I stop and stretch,=20
> etc.

In BBEdit, you'd find (.*)\r(.*), replace with \1\t\2 or so. Or just=20
replace </key>\r with \t.

> Now I have a complete list of names in Fire.
>
> Next =96 Separate the ICQ, Yahoo and MSN names into separate lists.

You can probably kludge this with a sort. Or use BBEdit to prefix lines=20=

which have an @ with "MSN", etc. But this step isn't necessary.

> Next I build lists of my ICQ, Yahoo and MSN contacts in Excel.
> I then compare row by row to see what differences exist.
> Then I make corrections in Fire, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN as needed.

Easy to 'find differences' with BBEdit, after sorting.

> Isn=92t it possible that there is a better way to do this?
>
> 1.            Fire allows me to add a contact, even when that contact=20=

> does
> not go into Yahoo.  Is it not possible to flag such a condition, so=20
> that
> when Fire starts up and tries to synchronize, it displays a flag in my=20=

> list
> that tells me something is wrong?

This is a bug that probably needs a little research. Yahoo support also=20=

tends to randomly drop messages, but that's another story.

> 2.            Is it possible for Fire to export files in a format that=20=

> can
> be opened by Excel with one row per contact?  This would save me many=20=

> hours.
> It would be wonderful to have columns for :   Service (Yahoo, etc.),=20=

> Group,
> Name, Alias, Date Added.  That way I could easily sort for Yahoo=20
> Names, MSN
> names, etc.  Date Added would allow me to examine more carefully the=20=

> recent
> names to make sure they are synchronized

The keys should have, at minimum, the name of the service. There seems=20=

to be no 'date added', though.

The main problem is you're using Excel to solve a problem that is=20
really text processing.

- Purr=



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