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selowitch · Mar 17, 2005, 10:30 PM

TB is a great e-mail application with fewer nuisances than Mail.app. I really like its speed and stability. One problem, however, is that it doesn't integrate with AddressBook.app — an important liability, to be sure.

I'm wondering if perhaps the new iCal/iTunes/Address Book sharing vibe of Tiger will lead to the ability to draw contacts into TB via LDAP (hopefully without needing OS X Server).

Any thoughts on this?

Mithras · Mar 18, 2005, 06:30 AM

This could be done now, if someone were up to it -- there's already an API for accessing all of the Addressbook data.
Ahh, look. AddressBook 4 LDAP looks like a little tool to do just that. Haven't tried it myself.

You'd have to set up the LDAP server yourself, of course, but openldap is already present in OS X.

selowitch · Mar 18, 2005, 07:47 AM

Originally posted by Mithras:
This could be done now, if someone were up to it -- there's already an API for accessing all of the Addressbook data.
Ahh, look. AddressBook 4 LDAP looks like a little tool to do just that. Haven't tried it myself.

You'd have to set up the LDAP server yourself, of course, but openldap is already present in OS X.

I have seen that app, too, but apparently I need to configure an LDAP server on my machine first. Can I do this without any paid tools? Without OS X Server? Might you have a link to some instructions?

Thanks.

Mithras · Mar 18, 2005, 08:21 AM

If you follow that link to Addressbook 4 LDAP, then to the "Online Help", there's a complete guide for setting up openldap on OS X (client).

Direct link
I'd been meaning to work on something like this for years; I'm glad someone did it. I'll be following the directions to set this up in a little while; let you know if I hit any roadblocks.

selowitch · Mar 18, 2005, 08:23 AM

Thanks very much. I would love to collaborate with you.

These projects often go much more smoothly for me when others smarter than myself are following along.

BTW, isn't TB cool? There's something about it that I just ... like a lot. Mail.app was driving me nuts, constantly taking accounts offline for no good reason, error messages popping up everywhere, slow performance, etc. The change to TB is most refreshing, IMO.