1673483 - Support importing SQLITE address book file

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, task)

Description

[thierryR]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Fedora; Linux x86_64; rv:82.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/82.0

Steps to reproduce:

I saved the contacts with lists

Actual results:

The contacts are saved without lists

Expected results:

Saved the contacts with lists attached

Comment 1

[Andre Klapper]

Unfortunately this report is not very useful because it does not describe the problem well. If you have time and can still reproduce the problem, please read https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines and add a more useful description to this report.

Comment 2

[thierryR]

Attachment: contacts.png

The list is in ping here. If backup and restore this adress book "alliance.rouillon" the list has disappeared. I hope to be more understandable. Thank's

Comment 3

[thierryR]

how to find my lists after restoration ?

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to thierryR from comment #2)

The list is in ping here. If backup and restore this adress book "alliance.rouillon" the list has disappeared. I hope to be more understandable. Thank's

Thunderbird does not have a backup or restore function. Do you mean export and import?

Comment 5

[Anje]

Have you posted a question in the Thunderbird Support forum ?
If yes, please post a link. The Support Forum is the first place to go when needing assistance. Bugzilla is not a help forum.

All contacts are stored in the 'Address Book' eg: [e-mail]
When you export and then import the Address Book, then those contacts are exported and then imported.
In this respect you do not have a problem.

Some contacts in that address book eg: [e-mail], can get selected to show in a 'Mailing List' eg: Alliance Criton
'Mailing Lists' are like a filter display to allow easy selection of a group of email address for use in an email. The contact shown in a 'Mailing List is actually in the Address Book.

A Mailing List in itself can be exported just like an address book, but if it is imported again, it will not be imported as a sub list, it is imported as an address book in it's own right.

However, the exported mailing list saved as a *.csv file can be opened using a suitable program and used like a reminder or aid, so if you needed to recreate a Mailing List, you can see who was originally in a specific 'Mailing List'.

If you backup/copy the entire profile and later need to use it, then all address books including information regarding mailing lists would be restored as that holds Address Book data in either MAB or SQLITE format (depending upon version).
I would advise that you create a backup for each installation/update version of Thunderbird.

Currently, if you export an address book, then it only exports the contacts in the address book.

'Total Contacts in address book name' as shown at the bottom of Address Book window appears to include any 'Mailing Lists' that are listed as if they were contacts, which could be construed as misleading in the count of contacts.

I believe the reporter is saying that they would expect the 'Mailing List' information to be retained, so would need to be able to choose to Export/Save in a MAB or SQLite format and also be able to import same type of file.
There used to be an addon - MoreFunctionsForAddressBook - which could import MAB files. This was never updated and therefore no longer a solution.

Could Thunderbird be developed to include a means of exporting/importing MAB/SQLITE files now that there is no addon available?

Comment 6

[thierryR]

excuse me for my bad english. I wanted to say "export and import".
@Anje: In thunderbird 78.4.0 I tested the export of the address book: [e-mail] . In the import there are no list.
If i export the abook-1.sqlite ... abook-7.sqlite +abook-1.sqlite-wal ... abook-7.sqlite-wal and import in the other computer, there is no adress displayed.

Comment 7

[Anje]

(In reply to thierryR from comment #6)

excuse me for my bad english. I wanted to say "export and import".
@Anje: In thunderbird 78.4.0 I tested the export of the address book: [e-mail] . In the import there are no list.

That is correct and normal.

If i export the abook-1.sqlite ... abook-7.sqlite +abook-1.sqlite-wal ... abook-7.sqlite-wal and import in the other computer, there is no adress displayed.

That is correct, because you can only do that with the Personal Address Book and the Collected Addresses address books because Thunderbird by default TB will know about the default address books; the information is already in the 'prefs.js' file.
Other information in prefs.js file is required - the 'prefs.js' file in other computer does not contain information about the address books you copied over - basically Thunderbird does not know about them. That's why I said you would need to copy the entire profile name folder - not just address book files.

Hence my request to developers to include ability to import MAB/SQLITE files.

Comment 8

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

On trunk there is import from .mab. (Mork)

Comment 9

[thierryR]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #8)

On trunk there is import from .mab. (Mork)

Look here: [URL=https://www.casimages.com/i/210201033139750134.png.html][IMG]https://nsa40.casimages.com/img/2021/02/01/210201033139750134.png[/IMG][/URL]
I dont see .mab

Comment 10

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Then you're using 78 I presume? It's a new feature added after 78.

Comment 11

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

You can try beta - get it from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/#channel

Comment 12

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

I'm reusing this bug to support importing sqlite address book file. This should be much easier now.

Comment 13

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

Attachment: Bug 1673483 - Support importing sqlite address book file. r=darktrojan,benc

By importing sqlite file, mail list can be restored.

Depends on D140506.

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/dd1acecc59f9
Support importing sqlite address book file. r=benc