[jtleavens]

Having tried to use Now Contact and Up To Date Server in different settings, I give up. Too many times things have gone wrong resulting in massive numbers of duplication or entries disappearing.

So what options exist for a small workgroup that may work in or out of an office?

Okay, iCal has given us some options for sharing calendars within a distributed organization. We can now keep individual calendars and subscribe to each other's calendar. But what about addresses? I haven't seen any way to have an office-wide address book that is easily modifiable by all users.

I looked at an Mac LDAP server (ClickMail?) that I got to work with Entourage, but I couldn't see any way to add entries except through a mildly confusing interface in the server application. There was no way to add entries except from the server...

Is there something I'm missing, or is this just a hole that exists right now? Anyone have any solutions that work?

[cpac]

Sorry i can't suggest a fix for the built-in address book, but if you want to change your PIM/CRM from NUTD you should check out DayLite.

It's a good cocoa product with very responsive developers, a whole list of awesome features, and loads of potential.

[cpac]

[double post]

[jtleavens]

Just to clarify:

I would use any decent contact manager as long as there was a way to centralize the storage...

[cpac]

Originally posted by jtleavens:
Just to clarify:

I would use any decent contact manager as long as there was a way to centralize the storage...

Well DayLite's that and then some. Do a search on version tracker and you might find something simpler.

Also, not sure if iSync can be used this way, but it might be able to sync your office's various macs.

[dtriska]

There was a thread a while back about using the built-in LDAP server in OS X with a Java app for editing the database. I'm not sure where it would have ended up with the recent forum reshuffle, but it's out there somewhere.

Oh, God�I'm addicted�

[Sam Venning]

This is exactly the question I've been asking. Address Book is screaming out for features to enable sharing (centralised) database. LDAP (open source sharing built-in to most email clients) seems to be an obvious choice. I hope someone developes a tool to share Address Book data.

Originally posted by jtleavens:
Having tried to use Now Contact and Up To Date Server in different settings, I give up. Too many times things have gone wrong resulting in massive numbers of duplication or entries disappearing.

So what options exist for a small workgroup that may work in or out of an office?

Okay, iCal has given us some options for sharing calendars within a distributed organization. We can now keep individual calendars and subscribe to each other's calendar. But what about addresses? I haven't seen any way to have an office-wide address book that is easily modifiable by all users.

I looked at an Mac LDAP server (ClickMail?) that I got to work with Entourage, but I couldn't see any way to add entries except through a mildly confusing interface in the server application. There was no way to add entries except from the server...

Is there something I'm missing, or is this just a hole that exists right now? Anyone have any solutions that work?

[Westfoto]

Does anyone know what impovements there might be in 10.3 address book, with sharing in mind? I know that at this time it is all just a guess.

If you use DayLite, http://www.marketcircle.com/index.html do you need to have the main data on a server that everyone can access?

I have an old G3/233 that I could use as a server with this in mind if that is what it would take to set it up.

I am sure that there is a product out there with these functions, the question comes to finding the right one with the right features at the right cost.

Thanks,
West

[C.J. Moof]

You're not the only one who would like this. I'd like to set up a few LDAP sources for Address Book to look at, with a simple web interface for someone with the right credentials to update. First deployment would be for my Production staff, so they can have one source to look at for the contact information and details about the publishers we send to.

In my world, they'd normally access it through Address Book and mail.app using LDAP, but if something changes, they log in to an administrative webpage and edit the entry.

[Thinine]

Address Book and LDAP rock. My university uses LDAP for all addresses and when I add it to AB, all apps that use the AB database can do lookups. I can email anyone using their name while Mail looks up their email. But for sharing, you best bet is LDAP, combined with some sort of php web interface for adding addresses. Google php and LDAP and you'll probably find something.

[Westfoto]

Ya'll both talked about using LDAP. Could you give me some info on this as it sound interesting. Is this something that I could set up easy or is it something for a developer?

Thanks for the info.

West