[Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

It is available on extras-devel the very first version of a "contacts" application written in Qt using Qt Mobility. The package's name is "mycontacts"

It is very far from being complete but I decided to publish to gather suggestions/comments on it.

Some of the current features:
- Skinnable user interface using style sheets. (I still have to create some screenshots and instructions)
- Auto rotate, portrait and landscape modes.
- virtual keyboard on portrait mode (it is not a qwert layout... I couldn't fit enough buttons in a row). It is a simple alphabetical order. Any other ideas?
- call phone number, call phone number using skype(1), send sms(2), send e-mail
- icons for work, home instead of text descriptions
- phone numbers in fonts that you (or at least I) can actually read and with some formatting.
- Field descriptions replaced by icons.
- email view (list only contacts with emails and all the emails for each contact)
- thumbnail view (all the contacts you have avatars for). Probably the most useful feature so far.

Notes:
(1) the application right now does not actually start the skype call but shows the "phone" interface with the contact phone number selected and allows you to select how to place the call.
(2) The "standard" sms program only works on landscape mode. I would like to "replace" it with vertsms (or some other 3rd party application) for when you are on portrait mode.

IMPORTANT:
1. When you start the application for the first time it will take quite some time to load all the information. After the first time the thumbnail list will be cached and will only take long when switching to any of the other views for the first time. This is a critical area to be improved.
2. The dependency to libqtmcontacts does not seem to be working. I can't figure out why. You may need to install libqtmcontacts first using: apt-get install libqtm-contacts

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

What are the prospects on OTA syncing with a service ala google contacts? (they have an api available for that right?)

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Would it be possible to put the avatar immediately infront of the contacts rather than the right hand corner? And in the right hand corner unscrollable list of all the alphabets alphabetically from the top so just clicking on the alphabet suppose say "S" will list all the contacts starting with "S" coz opening and closing of keyboard is bit hectic and useful to do things in potrait mode.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

installed, but it didn't support multi-byte characters.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

This is a great app to have so thanks for taking the time. I just installed the app and I understand it's far from finished. Just wanted to mention a couple of things. It just loaded that contacts that I had on the phone. The thumbnails were mismatched and they appear choppy. Numbers that were also saved with a 1 in front of them don't really fit the area code format and move the area code out of the bracket. Having this format with the bracket for the area makes it difficult to save international numbers or numbers that came in with a 1 or +1 in front of them. Oh the font for the phone numbers is probably too big especially when compared to everything else on the phone, they seem out of sync and jump at you bc they are really large. But I guess it's all preference. Other than that, good job men. Glad to see people are taking initiative. Thumbs up!

Question, will it be possible to give individual contacts ringtones or make groups?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

The application does not actually "store" the contacts. It gets them from the "standard" address book.

Isn't there a application to sync with google contacts right now?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

This is more or less how the "standard phone application "\select contact on portrait mode works, isn't it?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

This is a bug with the current QtMobility release (1)

(1) http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTMOBILITY-237

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

yes you are right. So it would be easier to have similar if the Contacts also supports potrait and I would prefer avatar infront of the names and together.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

that's really nice!! dude have you already released the source?! i'm woking with qt mobility contacts and some example would be nice ;)

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Mismatched? Didn't happen to me... Can you discern any pattern? What accounts do you have on your address book (skype, facebook, ...)?

There is a bug with the current implementation of the QtMobility (1) where all the images get reduced to 64x64. I had to enlarge them back to 120x120 (standard size for the address book) in order to see how it would look like with real images.

Yes, right now is a "dumb" algorithm but I have to say that I already like it better than having all the numbers without any separation (like on the standard application). I have international phone numbers with +, some phone numbers with area code and some without on my cell. Some countries have 3 digit prefix (e.g. US), some have 4 (e.g. Brazil) and the international code is not standard (it can be 1,2,3,4 or even more digits long) so it is a little more complicated to format them that one would hope.

Yes, again I agree. I did not take much time fine tuning it because it all can be done on the cellphone by change css files. One of the things I tried was using the "Droid" fonts and it looks really good. One should be able to customize all the colors, font, images by just changing css files.

Thank you! That is the kind of feed back I am looking for.

I do want at least to support grouping. I have just about 300 contacts on my phone and already take me a long time to find some. I don't know if the current implementation of the backend supports creating custom fields - I will have to check, but if does, I don't see why we can't have both.... In order to use the ring tones that is more exploration that needs to be done.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

What do you mean if the contacts support portrait? The application should support portrait mode (with or without autorotation). Didn't it work for you? On the portrait mode you even have a virtual keyboard.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I did not release the code because it is quite "work in progress" and very "unstable"....

Please feel free to contact me directly if you need anything and I will try to help. I also try to keep up with the maemo-developers list and help when I can... It is a great "place"!

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I have not yet tested your program but what do you mean that in official contacts it takes long time find? It has type to search functionality.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

When I don't know with what name I filed someone or just don't want to have to use the keyboard.

I call 90% of the time maybe 10 people. Probably will never call some of the contacts and some other just once in a lifetime. I wanted a very simple/quick way to call some few people... on my previous phone I would just hold the 3 on my numeric keyboard and call my wife on her cell. That is what I am aiming for... and not just find the right contact but also use the right (more obvious) way of contacting it. This version does little to address this issues but that is one of my goals.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Just an idea.
On my palm centro i have installed a software called Initiate with SmartSearch functionality for all kind of software, contacts, music, notes etc.

From the description:
Yout type "JSM". This will list John Smith, Jason Moore and James Storm.

This is really very handy!

Regards, davall

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

SyncEvolution works with Google Contacts. I've been using it for a while now.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I appreciate what you are doing but I still have to ask :)
You can make contact shortcuts to your desktop.IIRC there is enough room in one desktop for 10 contacts. But I do understand that speed dial from numbers on traditional mobile phone is faster but that´s bit different device.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Yes, you can and I do like/use them. My original goal was/is actually to write a home applet to replace the contacts shortcuts. This application is a sub product of the exercise.

I am still working on the home applet but as now it takes one entire desktop and has 15 avatars (and maybe even a "small mode" with smaller icons), allow grouping (more than one page of 15 shortcuts) but most important I want to contact a person, in most of the cases, without actually getting to the "contact page".

The user will be able to select the default method of contact for each shortcut (call home, send sms, ... ) and the application should help deciding if should (can) call using the gsm modem or skype depending on some rules (you are connected to skype or not, you are on 3g mode or not, it is a local or international phone number) ... so with one click (or maybe a double tap) you will be able to call someone.

Also I think the "contact" page on the "standard" contacts application can use some improvement. I don't like the "call" and "call with skype" as separate sections, I think the "detail header" (Phone, e-mail, ...) is not as important as the actual number, I like little larger fonts, I would like to see the phone number better formatted so I can easily identify the number, ...

It is all a matter of personal preferences but I think that is what having options is all about. On the same note I also like the idea that one can change the skin on my application - maybe with some screen shots and instructions it will make more sense... it is quite fun/flexible.

By the way thank you for asking... that is the only way to make sure that one does not reinvent the wheel without any benefit :)

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Is there a way to set the default outgoing caller account to something other than Cell? I use Skype for all of my outgoing calls. Calls through my carrier cost $0.30/minute and I have to remember to change the call type to skype every time I make a call.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

how about a shortcut that has a picture of a person and a sms envelope in one corner and handset in the other, clicking the handset would make a call, clicking sms envelope would take you to write sms, and clicking a picture would do what it does now?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Crashes just after the loading contacts splashscreen for me. Shame because it looks a really good app

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Unfortunately not right now. I haven't figure out how to use D-Bus to tell the phone application to select skype. I have asked around but haven't received any answers. Anybody?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

That is the plan, or at least a different plan of mine... It will be a home applet.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I am sorry to hear... if you want you can start the application on the console by typing "mycontacts" and see if we get any hints of why... I assume you are running pr.1.2, right?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Yep, running 1.2

Get QGtxStyle was unable to detect the GTX+ theme

Then errors about stylesheet file does not exist

Finally segmentation fault

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I have never seen the QGtxStyle error so I assume it may be the cause or related to it.

You can ignore the "stylesheet file does not exist" messages. I did not package any external stylesheet files but the program uses the internal ones as a fallback.

Do you have any other applications installed that depend on qt? Are they working?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Ive got Tweego, think that is QT? Sorry, not really sure what is/isn't QT

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Yes, it is. Unfortunately I don't have any safe suggestions on what to do next.

Let's see if anybody reports any similar issues... I will look around too.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Discovered "MyContacts" when I was mooching about in downloads.
Looking good, so far. Tried to get a couple of screenshots of portrait mode, but it kept going to landscape when I opened the keypad. :rolleyes:

Now, if someone could make an app that you could assign one of the side buttons to take screenshots. (But that's another thread).

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

You can always change the screen orientation to portrait on the menu so you will be able to take screenshots...

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Scandinavian letters are not shown up.

And also, how do I search the contacts? If I start to type it only regognises the first letter and jumps to the first name that starts with that letter. If I type more it just continues jumping to the letter just typed.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

There is a bug on qt mobility handling non-asc characters so until it is fixed there is nothing I can do about it.

When you click the key on the virtual keyboard it will search for the next match that starts with it, clicking the second will search for the first match of the two letters and so on... the timing is very critical: if you click the second one before the application has a chance to search for the first it will just search for the the second.... if it takes you too long between clicks the application will start over... it is actually exactly how the list works with the physical keyboard on landscape mode.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

@fcrochik,

Thank you very much for this app!
It will be super to use it as substitute to normal Contacts menu.

I have a suggestions about improvement:
1. It will be possible to include a menu "settings", in which we can change the start window from "thumbnails" to "Contacts", so when you open the app - it will show all contacts ( for example) and no thumbnails;
2. Possibility to add to "thumbnails" additional contacts;
3. When you start type a number with keyboard - to show is this number already saved into Contacts - as Android, WinMo, Iphone OS has.

Thank you again for your efforts.
If you need help with testing - just e-mail me.
Regards. ;-)

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

I sure can... The issue, as it is and I am sure you have noticed, is that getting the list of contacts takes a long time. For the thumbnails I created a "cache" so the application can display them right away. I am hopeful that a new release of qt mobility will speed things up or I may be forced to replace it.

Right now the easiest way is to just edit the contact on the standard contacts application and assign an image to the contact (it can be any image - like one of the 3d avatars). Next time you hit the reload button on "myContacts" it will add the new contact to the thumbnails view. I want to avoid editing the contacts on the "mycontacts" application for now.

That is an interesting idea that I didn't think about. I will see what I can do about it. Please keep them coming ! :)

Please make sure to subscribe to this thread, I will post about any new releases and I DO need you to keep testing :)

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Yes, I faced this.:)


Thank you - this i a good idea.

I`ll do my best. :)
Best regards!


Please make sure to subscribe to this thread, I will post about any new releases and I DO need you to keep testing :)[/QUOTE]

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

This might sound a stupid idea and you seem to be already full of requests for your app, but why not seize the opportunity and try to implement a way of assigning custom ringtones to contacts and contact groups? Your application would be the ideal application to have grouping and a custom field called 'ringtone', and it would be just a matter of setting up a daemon for changing the ringtone on-the-fly like the python script in this thread.

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Can anyone put up screenshots?

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

You read my mind! I am working on that right now...

I want to try to play the sound instead of changing it on the fly... Do you know if anybody has tried it? You could just assign a "mute" sound to the profile and let my application handle the sound by itself... sounds to me like a better option but I haven't tried it

Re: [Announce] MyContacts - a long shot on trying to improve the standard contacts/phone application
 

Tried the app, it turned out that all pictures it shows are attributed to wrong contacts when clicked..