I have found a solution that works for me. You will first need a G-mail account. Download and install the Zindus add on for Thunderbird https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/6095. This will allow you to sync your Thunderbird contacts with your G-Mail contacts.

Next install Googlesync on your Blackberry phone. http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/sync.html

Googlesync will synchronise your Blackberry with your G-mail contacts. So far it seems to work well in both directions.

One caveat, you will need to have a data plan with your Blackberry service provider. If you only have an email and text package this will not work.

I was tired of synching, migrating, merging and so forth with contacts, and set up my own LDAP server using OpenLDAP for Windows. Then, I had to spend a couple of days creating an LDIF file out of my contacts (there are numerous utilities for doing this).

Once I got the initial contacts into LDAP, I realized I needed a way to maintain and administer them, and went looking for something. I tried Rolodap, Horde and several others and finally settled on phpLDAPAdmin, which I highly recommend. I have never had a problem with it, and it imports/exports beautifully.

So now I have a nice centralized contact database, accessible from anywhere since it's web based.

I started using the inetOrgPerson schema, but it's quite limited. I have now started using the mozillaOrgPerson schema which I felt would probably be around for a while and it accomodate many more fields.

I am really tired, though, of keying in this data (even though I type over 60 wpm). It would be very cool if I could have Thunderbird (email client) automatically dump a contact into my LDAP, or at least some utilitity that I can launch from within Thunderbird that would ask me where to put the entry and then drop it in there.

I have found nothing, and don't have the strong coding skills (or time) these days. I have looked at a thing called AddressXLDAP, but apparently it only runs on Mac OS.

I should also mention that everyone tells me that the Apple Contact Manager (Entourage? Evolution? Can't remember) is supposed to have some great email/LDAP synch capabilities.

But for now, with no Mac, this is where I sit.

Here is a web app that has a LDAP backend: http://apps.entic.net

Its still in beta though.

Once thunderbird has the editable LDAP support, it'll work even nicer!

Have you tried Plaxo? It synchronises contacts between programs. It supports Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlooks Express, OSX and AIM. I wish it would synchronise with more programs too (including Gmail) but that may come with time. I have used it for 4 years now and it is a brilliant tool plus it is free. It makes a backup of your contacts online too which has saved me on a few occassions when my phone/laptop ran out of battery.

I don't know how you would get it working with your Blackberry. Perhaps you could do a workaround and synchronise the Blackberry with Outlook Express (assuming you have such a sync tool already). You can use the Plaxo plugin for Outlook Express and also for Thunderbird. You would not need to use Outlook Express as your mail client - just to help sync your address book.

http://www.plaxo.com/

How do you import a LDIF file in a blackberry? (8700)

I can only help by lending weight to the demand for such a simple editing application. I've googled for half a days on two occasions six months apart and haven't found anything.

I need something for an SME who want a shared address book and don't want Exchange. A Thunderbird extension would seem ideal. Or at worst a web app which can import from a db like MySQL.

I find it incredible that there isn't such a thing out there, is everyone so smitten with Exchange?

you know, all you guys saying it's an easy 200-liner to do this..? you're not helping. if it's so easy, do it. some of the rest of us would have to learn the entire backstory: language, platform, technique :to do a substandard job that we wouldn't be willing to release. otoh, if *you expert* do it, you'll have solved a really irritating problem for a lot of people.

Now, Ryan, /that/ seems to be really helpful: "buy Exchange Enterprise". Apart from security, performance, configuration and several other issues including last, but not least, the price: don't you think this is a little, well, oversized?

Alan: it is a simple thing to write a small app that updates your LDAP tree; i think with a webbased UI it would be about 200 lines or so of some Perl or Python and some HTML for the templates. And if you want to, you can use KMail from KDE or Evolution to add entries.

I've had to research it in the past, and found out that the only real way to keep your address books synced between your blackberry and your home computer is to be running Exchange Server Enterprise. There's a plugin that allows your blackberry address book to sync up with the server, and then to propigate down to your desktop. I looked for a better solution for a day or so before giving up. Then again, that was a year ago.

Ryan Besch

It is easy with javax.naming.directory.* to make one yourself ;) A month ago I have done something like that for my company (it was simple webstartable swing app).

Cheers,
a.

Adam Kruszewski [spambox@kruszewski.name]

I can help you if you. Do you want a command line way of updating your address book or a web based method?

email me as I will not be checking this blog

Dave [dave_slug@mysat.ca]

Mieses!

Can Thunderbird read Turba's LDAP entires? I mean can I use Turba's addressbook from Thunderbird?

MP

Until Thunderbird can write to LDAP you might consider entering new contact data into a web-based LDAP contact manager such as Turba (Horde).

mieses

I am in the same kind of situation, i have a old palm, a motorola e398 phone, outlook at work, and used to have thunderbird at home, but i switched almost exclusively to gmail now.

how to sync? i can sync both the phone and the palm to the outlook easily enough at work. as for the thunderbird/gmail thing, i've got no idea and eventually i gave up my attempts to find a product or method to keep thunderbird properly in sync with these things.

scot mcphee

Perhaps you should write your own extension for thunderbird to update your LDAP address book...? As for the blackberry, perhaps a wml front end to ldap?

JRB

JRB

I had a similar problem! I have outlook 2003 on my laptop, PocketPC and a Windows SmartPhone - how do i keep them all up to date? I have a hosted Microsoft Exchange account for $9.95 per user per month. I can access via an Outlook client on my laptop or Outlook Web Access from any onther PC - and both my PDA and Phone use active sync direct to the server! Made my life a whole heap easier!!!

johnb [john@beynon.org.uk]

Yeah and? I know of that one, its downloaded here on my machine. So is JXExplorer and a plethroa of other LDAP editors. But its like using phpMyAdmin for maintaining your MySQL database. I don't want to know its LDAP; i want an address book! I want something like ACT!.

Alan

http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/~gawor/ldap/

Dave Ross