240585 - can't import adress book correctly from csv file containing comma or tab or return in string value.

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Address Book & Contacts, defect)

Description

[Taky CHORFA]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030708
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030708

I have some notes on each contacts of my adress book in outlook 2000
The First problem is that Mozilla don't import the Notes automatically
So I exported my adress book in csv format (with comma)
But when importing the csv it is not readed correctly by mozilla because of 
comma, tab and return to line contained in the "Notes" Field.
I'm was able to read correctly the same csv file with python 2.3 (module csv)
and MS Excel

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.create more than 1 contact in outlook 2000 with comma and tab and return the
description field
2.export a csv file
3.try to import it in mozilla

Actual Results:  
doesn't work

Expected Results:  
read correctly the csv file

My group want to migrate from outlook to mozilla, so without this bug fixed, it
will be hard to convince people to leave outlook...

Comment 1

[Taky CHORFA]

Sorry the good value for User-Agent and Build Identifier are :

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; fr-FR; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; fr-FR; rv:1.6)
Gecko/20040113

Comment 2

[James Rome]

This has been an issue for a LONG time and is in a duplicate of
117846 I believe.

Comment 3

[Meaker]

(In reply to comment #2)
> This has been an issue for a LONG time and is in a duplicate of
> 117846 I believe.

This is still a bug. I tried to import a csv, then, thinking the commas were a
problem, a TAB delimited file of about 50 address records. Lots if weird bugs
occurred, including one where the data is all imported, but in some sort of
corrupted way, so that viewing the contents of the address book show entries
with no first and last names for records which, when you look at the detailed
view,. do actually have first and last name fields data.

Comment 4

[dominik lenné]

(In reply to comment #3)
The first try to import a csv went well in so far I could see the correct column
headers of the csv (which is really a ssv, a semicolon separated values file)
and associate them to thunderbird data field names. Alas, there where a lot
left, which were then filled up by the conversion routine with names and
emailadresses of other people, instead of nothing, which would have been correct
for line with only 5 or so fields. 
So I deleted this adress book.
The next try was even worse, and the following ones tended to be like the
second: the column headers of the csv weren't resolved , but all perceived as
one giant, semicolons-containing "datum", i.e. "first name".  
So I had no chance.

Comment 5

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Adding qawanted keyword. We need to confirm that this is still the same in the 
latest trunk (I made some changes to import a while ago, but I think they won't 
have fixed this), a testcase for this (example csv, exported from outlook).

If anyone can confirm & add a testcase that would be very useful.

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 7

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Comment 8

[dominik lenné]

Could import OE Address Book correctly as well as OE exported CSV _after 
replacing all semicolons by commata_.

Problems occur only with semicolon separated values like those created by OE 
when one tries to use them as they are. 

Possible feature in later versions: allow for choice of separation character in 
data sets.

version 1.5 Beta 1 (20050908)