Contact categories gone after database rebuild

[mwarner]

I had to rebuild my database (Entourage 2004, 11.2.3, running on a
MacBook Pro), and noticed that all of my categories for my contacts in
my exchange account are gone. Can anyone tell me if this is normal
behavior, or if there is any work-around to prevent this from happening
again. I don't want to go back to my database back up since I will
loose other mail related items that have gone to my hard drive over the
past 48 h since my last backup.

Mark

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I had to rebuild my database (Entourage 2004, 11.2.3, running on a
MacBook Pro), and noticed that all of my categories for my contacts in
my exchange account are gone.

Yep, this is a (very annoying) known limitation. The categories don;t
sync to Exchange. When you rebuild the database, all the attributions
are lost.

Can anyone tell me if this is normal
behavior, or if there is any work-around to prevent this from happening
again. I don't want to go back to my database back up since I will
loose other mail related items that have gone to my hard drive over the
past 48 h since my last backup.

There are multiple options. One of them is to use an unused field in
your contacts to store the category information. An APpleScript will
save all the categories and another one will re-affect them if they are
lost after a rebuild.
Check this page out:
http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=73

Corentin

 

[Jeff Zienowicz]

There are multiple options. One of them is to use an unused field in
your contacts to store the category information. An APpleScript will
save all the categories and another one will re-affect them if they are
lost after a rebuild.
Check this page out:
http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=73

Although unfortunately, this workaround won't work if the Address Book
you're referring to is an Exchange public folder. I'm still looking for a
good workaround for users who share contacts via public folders.

Jeff

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Although unfortunately, this workaround won't work if the Address Book
you're referring to is an Exchange public folder. I'm still looking for a
good workaround for users who share contacts via public folders.

Indeed. Public folders are a problem. The script is desinged for the
default address book, though I'm sure it can be adapted one way or
another for public folders.
I wonder whether public address books can be set as default... I don;t
have access to one so I can't test that.

Corentin

 

[Jeff Zienowicz]

Indeed. Public folders are a problem. The script is desinged for the
default address book, though I'm sure it can be adapted one way or
another for public folders.

I had thought the same thing -- it didn't seem like it would be so
difficult. However, I've tried everything I could think of (although I
don't generally do much AppleScripting), and none of the suggestions from
this group have worked either.

I wonder whether public address books can be set as default... I don;t
have access to one so I can't test that.

I haven't run across a way to do this. If that were possible though, your
scripts would do the trick.

Jeff

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Although unfortunately, this workaround won't work if the Address Book
you're referring to is an Exchange public folder. I'm still looking for a
good workaround for users who share contacts via public folders.

I can't test this myself, since there are no public folder address books or
calendars in my test Exchange account, but if you select one in the (Mail)
Folder List and "Add to Favorites", it should now appear in the Address Book
area (or Calendar area). By rights, it should now be available to
AppleScript as one of the Exchange calendars of the account. Give it a
distinctive name (such as "Public") so you can refer to it as

address book "Public" of Exchange account 1

You can check for it by getting

every address book of Exchange account 1

or - hopefully -

first address book of Exchange account 1 whose kind is Exchange public
folder

Get its properties to inspect.

If this doesn't work, it's a bug.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Jeff Zienowicz]

I can't test this myself, since there are no public folder address books or
calendars in my test Exchange account, but if you select one in the (Mail)
Folder List and "Add to Favorites", it should now appear in the Address Book
area (or Calendar area). By rights, it should now be available to
AppleScript as one of the Exchange calendars of the account. Give it a
distinctive name (such as "Public") so you can refer to it as

In my setup, it's called "Contacts," and it's in the Favorites. I've made
the substitution to your code below.

address book "Contacts" of Exchange account 1

returns the ID of my user's private Exchange address book

You can check for it by getting

every address book of Exchange account 1

returns the same as above -- just the user's address book

or - hopefully -

first address book of Exchange account 1 whose kind is Exchange public
folder

returns this error: "Can't get address book 1 of Exchange account 1 whose
kind = Exchange public folder."

Get its properties to inspect.

In the first two examples, the Count matches the private address book -- I'm
certain it's not returning the one I'm looking for. Since the third example
throws an error, there are no properties to inspect.

If this doesn't work, it's a bug.

Guess so. I suppose I ought to just let go of this one, but I keep hoping
that there's some magic AppleScript syntax none of us has thought of trying.

Thanks for all the help,
Jeff

 

[Matthew Scholz]

A workaround that has worked for me is to move all the contacts to my local
address book. Rebuild the DB, then move them all back to the exchange
server.


NOTE: I'm currently experiencing a problem with this process running
Entourage 2004 v11.2.3 with Exchange server 2003 SP2 (all patches applied
except the buggy latest OWA one). The problem is that not all of the
contacts are going back onto the exchange server, Entourage thinks they are,
and the categories are preserved, but OWA is missing some of the contacts.

This process has worked fine in the past, just be sure to verify the
contacts are all safely back on your exchange server before deleting the
local copies (!)


- Matt

 

[Bill Bryson]

I recently attended an Outlook workshop based on the principles taught in
the book "Take Back Your Life". In this class, it was being recommended that
mail messages, calendar events, etc all be centrally linked and/or stored in
the taskpad. Unfortunately, trying to apply these principles in Entourage,
I once again stumbled upon the many deficiencies almost seemingly built into
Entourage. Most irritating of all is the storage of categories in the local
cache of Entourage ONLY such that if the cache becomes corrupted, is emptied
by the user or if a new identity needed to be created - all the effort of
setting up and using a categories is shot. Poof! To add to the
frustration, their is no means to backup the categories using the Export
feature. I know the whole identity could be backed up but why does
Microsoft provide such an incomplete export function such that categories,
address book groups and even projects can't be saved in a single exported
archive file?

I've seen applescripts that play the trick of storing categories in "field
8" in the address book but this does not help with email and tasks that have
been categorized by the user. Projects have potential but I am very
hesitant to recommend the use of categories just to have them wiped out if
there comes a need to empty the cache for other purposes and/or the user
must start over with a fresh identity.

MBU needs to get on the ball and provide some safeguards for users that take
the time to use categories. At minimum, why can't the cache(s) be stored in
the exported archive file?

Entourage fails to allow:

Drag and drop of email messages to the task pad. The email message is
stored in the task NOT the original email folder.

No single display of the task pad, calendar and mail folders on one screen.
Yes, a project could be set up but that seems overkill for simple tasks that
I want a one stop access to related email messages, etc.

The local ONLY storage of categories in a TEMPORARY location (cache) makes
for a shaky foundation as a great deal of work could be lost with the flush
of a cache. Short of frequent backup of the entire Identity folder, there
is no means to backup data with category information preserved. This is
very unacceptable considering the amount of time it takes to go about using
the category feature to begin with.

Bill