LDAP Address Book Auto population?

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Cowprince
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Joined: November 8th, 2005, 3:29 pm

LDAP Address Book Auto population?

Post by Cowprince »

I've recently created several contact OU's in Active Directory that I would like to use with Thunderbird over an LDAP connection.

Everything seems to work fine, however I'm not sure if this is just a Thunderbird quirk and something I should be posting to the wishlist or if there is something or some setting I've overlooked.

Auto-complete when composing a message works fine.
And when I search my address book for a contact it works fine.

However until I actually search for a contact none appear. It just doesn't seem to want ot auto-populate with the addresses.

Any help would be great!
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

. . . or should I just dump money into outlook?
Cowprince
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Joined: November 8th, 2005, 3:29 pm

Post by Cowprince »

Does anyone have any idea on this situation or where it needs to be posted?
StefanW
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Post by StefanW »

Automatic population is a trick from microsoft where outlook pulls a script from AD which tells it to autopopulate as far as I am informed.
This doesn't work with outlook and openldap as adressbook either.
We help us with a trick... enter a dot or space as search criteria, depending on your data, since normal names normally have a space
between given name and surname and emails always have a dot in them, works for us, just need to educate the users.

Stefan
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

When you say the search criteria. You mean opening the address book, and then using the search field in the upper right-hand corner correct?

I've found that since we are using this as an email list, you can just type @ and it will bring up all contacts. I think this is what you are saying. Let me know if I'm wrong.

I guess really what I have is more of a convenience issue rather than something that wasn't working. I was wondering if there was a way to force the contacts to show without using the search option. Maybe pull the script outlook uses, but using thunderbird instead.

I'm not saying that educating users is a bad thing... but well, never mind :)
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Jeroen p
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Post by Jeroen p »

If you install my Contacts Sidebar extension you are able to autopopulate LDAP address books in the sidebar. In the Contacts Sidebar preferences you can define your search query for LDAP address books.

See http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs
Extensions for Thunderbird: <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs">Contacts Sidebar</a>, <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_ts">Timestamp</a> and <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_aes">Allow Empty Subject</a>
StefanW
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Post by StefanW »

@guest: Yes I meant this way, though we use an option of thunderbird to show the contacts besides the window you use to enter new mail.
In the german thunderbird it is called "Kontakte-Sidebar" which would translate to contacts sidebar. You can activate it in the views for
creating a new mail.
@Jeroen p: Is this your Contacts Sidebar extension? If I check under extensions in thunderbird, there is nothing listed...
If yes, great work, one of the causes we use thunderbird :-)
BTW, we use openldap as server side addressbook and thunderbird is better in queries than outlook for that, outlook can't autopopulate
that either.
StefanW
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Post by StefanW »

just checked the extension, doesn't autopopulate for me :-(
Cowprince
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Joined: November 8th, 2005, 3:29 pm

Post by Cowprince »

Thanks for all your help guys.

The contacts sidebar works great. I'd like to see this be a feature within the address book at some point. Even if it's just the default search variable option.

Set to look up email addresses and just have @ be the default is enough for me. I guess it's now time to push for this feature by trying to speak to the powers that be.
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Jeroen p
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Post by Jeroen p »

Cowprince wrote:The contacts sidebar works great.

Great you have it working.
StefanW wrote:@Jeroen p: Is this your Contacts Sidebar extension? If I check under extensions in thunderbird, there is nothing listed...

Yes, Contacts Sidebar is my little Thunderbird project.
In what list are you looking for the Contacts Sidebar? It is available from addons.mozilla.org and from my web site (see sig)
StefanW wrote:just checked the extension, doesn't autopopulate for me :-(

Unfortunately the "*" query does not always return the entire list. It looks like this depends on what LDAP server you use. Does the sidebar auto populate when you use a different default search string in the Contacts Sidebar preferences?
Extensions for Thunderbird: <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs">Contacts Sidebar</a>, <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_ts">Timestamp</a> and <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_aes">Allow Empty Subject</a>
forrie
Posts: 303
Joined: February 12th, 2004, 11:19 am

Post by forrie »

I'm about to explore the realm of LDAP.

What I'm curious about, as it has to do with Thunderbird, is the creation of private addressbooks for users, and Thunderbird populating it directly with collected addresses (and editing).

From what I can tell, I think it's set up for one-way queries.

Anyone solve this scenario - perhaps this extension mentioned may do the trick.
harry hughes
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contacts sidebar

Post by harry hughes »

Jeroen p wrote:If you install my Contacts Sidebar extension you are able to autopopulate LDAP address books in the sidebar. In the Contacts Sidebar preferences you can define your search query for LDAP address books.

See http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs


Really good. Why is contacts sidebar not part of Thunderbird. It seems essential.
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Freee!!
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Re: contacts sidebar

Post by Freee!! »

harry hughes wrote:Really good. Why is contacts sidebar not part of Thunderbird. It seems essential.

Probably because it isn't essential to everybody and we would all like to prevent Thunderbird from becoming bloatware with all kinds of superfluous possibilities used by only a small minority.
StefanW
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Post by StefanW »

@Jeroen p:

>>Yes, Contacts Sidebar is my little Thunderbird project.
>>In what list are you looking for the Contacts Sidebar? It is available from addons.mozilla.org and from my web site (see sig)

I meant the extensions in my local thunderbird installation, I have a contacts sidebar without any installed extensions, it seems to
be integrated (Thunderbird 1.0.2 german)

>>Unfortunately the "*" query does not always return the entire list. It looks like this depends on what LDAP server you use. Does the >>sidebar auto populate when you use a different default search string in the Contacts Sidebar preferences?

I tried a dot and a space to no avail. Those are the characters we use in the contacts search to display all entries.
But I only got this menu after installing your extension, since I had no plugin listed under exensions before, but the look of the
contacts sidebar didn't change, I guess it could be included in the german version of thunderbird and just not have the functionality.
BTW we use an openldap directory.
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Jeroen p
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Post by Jeroen p »

StefanW wrote:I meant the extensions in my local thunderbird installation, I have a contacts sidebar without any installed extensions, it seems to
be integrated (Thunderbird 1.0.2 german)

I understand the confusion. You are talking about the sidebar in the compose window. We are talking about the Contacts Sidebar that is visible in Thunderbird's main window. For this you need my extension.

Could you please try again and this time with the Contatcs SIdebar installed and make sure you try the search in the sidebar main window.

Thanks.
Extensions for Thunderbird: <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_cs">Contacts Sidebar</a>, <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_ts">Timestamp</a> and <a href="http://jpeters.no-ip.com/extensions/?page=tb_aes">Allow Empty Subject</a>
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