Firefox contact sync

A question: is anyone interested in Firefox contact sync?

As an experiment, the testing release of the addon now includes a built-in SQLite addressbook that syncs with Google and Zimbra.

This is three experiments rolled up into one:

  • contacts for Firefox, synced with Google etc

We figured that having working code would be a good way of finding out whether anyone has a use for syncing contacts that are local to Firefox.

Would porting the Zindus addon to Firefox be a good idea?  Why would it be useful?

  • non-Thunderbird sync

We were interested to explore decoupling the addon from the Thunderbird addressbook.

  • a better addressbook for Thunderbird

The built-in contact database looks less like the current Thunderbird addressbook and more like the Google and Windows Live addressbooks with contacts, groups and an explicit membership relation between contacts and groups.

This promises:

  • a more coherent and extensible model for grouping contacts
  • contact properties as JSON for extensibility (lists, relations and tags)
  • mailing lists replaced by auto-complete on groups

This is a thought experiment only.  Here’s the official Thunderbird AddressBook Roadmap.

How to install and use

  • download the testing release of the addon, unzip it, edit install.rdf, uncomment the firefox stanza, zip it up, and install it into Firefox
  • visit Tools/Zindus, enter your account details and select “Sync Now”.
  • the contacts.sqllite database lives in the zindus/data subdirectory of your profile folder.
  • There’s no UI to view or edit the contacts but you can use the SQLite Manager addon to read and write the database.

So…

If you’d like syncable Firefox contacts, now’s the time to speak up!

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30 Nov 2009 at 10:05 pm | Posted in Development.
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8 Responses to “Firefox contact sync”

  1. Allan Says:
    December 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    What would contacts in firefox be used for? Is it for autofilling of forms? Is there currently an addressbook in Firefox?

  2. leni Says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am

    @allan, firefox doesn’t have a built-in addressbook, though there was a contacts manager addon that the author appears to have abandoned.

    autofilling forms would be one use of local-to-firefox contacts, sure - but I wonder: how often do you need enter your friends email addresses into a web form?

  3. Sualeh Fatehi Says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 am

    I would use this only for contacts.sqllite. I love that idea! In fact, I could imagine using a Zindus addressbook application that goes against contacts.sqllite and Google Contacts, nevermind TB.

  4. Mark Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 am

    Please look at this thread on Google Groups:
    http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=3e8960c360ba7380&hl=en#all

    There is a LOT of interest to sync contacts directly between Google Gmail and Google GApps accounts, as well as with Google Voice.
    Certainly for those people who use Thunderbird (and I am one) the Tbird contacts sync is important, but there are many more users working with Gmail Contacts, and GApps Contacts directly.

    Please note that Google has now introduced Duplicate contact removal, so that could benefit (but also complicate?) direct sync.

    Thanks for going in this direction, I for one am very interested!

  5. Wim Kreuger Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 9:00 am

    Would I like a firefox contact sync?
    I have searching for something that works on and off for a couple of years now.
    So make me a happy man!

  6. Mark Says:
    February 19th, 2010 at 5:11 am

    While I think this is a very powerful concept, you need some imagery or diagrams at the top of this post to explain what the hell it’s all about.
    A lot of us are coming at this from the I-have-contacts (…in Tbird, Google, etc.) and then realize the potential for what it means to sync contacts WITHOUT any app running other than Firefox.

    However, some people are coming to this page cold turkey and have no ideas what this is about. I think the analogy is … maybe … Prism for Firefox. A lot of folks have no ideas what distraction-free-browsing is til you explain it visually.

  7. Sven Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    In my 60+ company we are using TB for mail and Firefox for browsing. We have our own mail server, no Google mail (have you ever managed to delete a mail for good at Google? good-bye privacy). To answer the poll, I am not interested in Firefox contact list synching.

  8. skwasha Says:
    March 9th, 2010 at 7:05 am

    has anyone actually installed the testing release into FF successfully? Is there something that would prevent it from installing in 3.6 (assuming you update the rdf appropriately)?

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