Own Contact Details / Editor pages for DWC?

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AlCan
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 10:00 pm
Location: New Zealand

Own Contact Details / Editor pages for DWC?

Post by AlCan »

Hi Camel,

Still loving DWC, but finding the Android 2.2 contacts system generally somewhat frustrating.

This request follows on from our previous conversation at:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2466

which got a bit off-topic, hence the new thread.

I asked before about whether you could intercept actions from the stock Contact Info page(s) and understand that that would be nothing less than a nightmare.

But am I right in thinking it would be possible to achieve the same thing much more easily by creating your own new, separate Contact detail Viewer and Editor pages specifically for DWC? (Similar to Contact Editor (Pro)).

Apart from my previous wish, that the DWC theme extend further (to the point of choosing phone number, e-mail address, etc at the Contact Info screen), I now have a new, (more useful?) reason for requesting such a feature.

The more I use my 'Droid, and the more numbers I plug in, the more I realise that the key to making it work is to make sure the data is consistent.

Since there is no hierarchical structure to the flat 'Droid Contacts system (which would allow you to have Organisations at the top level, and members, staff or contractors at lower levels, and to move or attach the members/staff to the relevant organisation(s), then be able to navigate up, down or sideways as appropriate), we are stuck with having to link contacts indirectly, using existing fields such as Organisation, Title, etc. As DWC does so brilliantly!

However, for this system to work, the user has to make sure that every "linking" entry - be it Organisation, Title or whatever - is spelled exactly the same in each linked entry. Otherwise, it doesn't link. Which brings me to my request.

Suppose, for example, we have the Organisation "John Bush Ltd", with 10 different staff members I need to list. But at the moment, I only have a few entered.

When I enter the next 6 or 8 contacts, it would be really helpful if, when you enter the Organisation and Title data, DW Contacts used a "Predictive" (lookup) system to offer the details of existing entries as you type, based on the matching first letters. Then, after a couple of letters, you should be able to select the right (and correctly spelled) organisation name from the drop-down list that appears. E.g. I type "Jo" into Organisation and DWC offers me Joe's Print Shop, Joggers Inn, John Bush Ltd, Johnson & Co, etc, and I simply select and click to enter the correct Organisation name. Would save a lot of work...!

I know I can duplicate an existing John Bush Ltd contact, which will already have the Org. name spelled correctly, but that still leaves me with getting the Job Title correct. For example, I work with manufacturing companies. They have lots of different Engineers & Managers - Design Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Maintenance Engineers, Engineering Managers, Engineering Design Managers, Maintenance Managers, Maintenance Schedulers, etc, etc. Because these titles are all quite long (and because of the limited display space in the Search result listings), I tend to abbreviate them, which creates a whole new set of problems - like, how did I abbreviate Maintenance Scheduler - Maint. Sched. or Maint.Sched or M.Scheduler or ...??? I can never remember those specifics - which of course is why we have phones with contact records... and why we have DWC!

It would also be great when, say, an employee moves to a different (already known) company, or when a Company is taken over, or otherwise changes its name.

So, would it be possible to add such a feature to your plan for DWC??? I.e a "predictive" data lookup on certain common fields when Inputting or Editing contacts?

Please :D


Regards,
Al
Currently (i.e Now, not necessarily the date of this post)
using DW Contacts & Dialer version 2.5.3.0-pro
On Motorola Defy with Android 2.2.2 (Work Phone)
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Own Contact Details / Editor pages for DWC?

Post by camel »

hi,

your wanted function is inplace ...(see description below)

but the selection of a organization in contact editor is not possible - this is a limitation of android.

this you also can't do in outlook or whatever ...
DWC is here easier, because you can have 100 contacts on a organization "ABC", then the organization name will be changed to "ABC LTD".
so, wish you fun to change all 100 contacts in outlook 1 by one ...
in DWC you can change the organization name for all 100 in 1 shot.
(dwc will modify all 100 contacts for you)

anyhow ...this is a limitation of android (not only in android, also in all other existiong contact databases: outlook, EAS, google, etc..)

this means, there is no extra table, where all organizations are stored, they are always only stored on the user itself.
so, this means: to create a contact, and select from a fdrop box an organization is limited on androids contact database.
of course -- all is possible to implement in DWC - it is a question of time & costs ... if someone would sponsor this, then we will add.
otherwise - android, outlook should change the contacts database structure, then we will add.
to hack the stupid things from others ....doesn't make sense
anyhow - such function is inplace in DWC - or simlular ...

also, there is an function: "add contacts to organization"
this means:
1.) create a contact (don't add info for organization - be cause it will overwritten later)
2.) go to tab "organization" -> long click on wanted organization -> select from menu -> "add contact to organization", then you can select all wanted contacts, and press "SAVE"

or alternative you can:
as you described - easiest way: duplicate an existing contact from this company and then modify the new one.

cu camel
AlCan
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 10:00 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Own Contact Details / Editor pages for DWC?

Post by AlCan »

Hey Camel!

COOL, COOL, COOOOOL!!!!

My admiration for you and DWC just went up Another notch!

These two tricks will pretty much do just what I want.

It even works (i,e. Long tap) on Title listing, so I can exactly do both things, with just a few more steps.

Is there anything you haven't already thought of?

Ahh, Yes - a User's Manual... Then I'd have no excuse for not finding all these Cool, hidden, long tap menus!

But "User" is such a disagreeable word.

Maybe I'll just have to start writing one myself... I'll call it the DWC Lovers Manual!

Many happy thank you's!

Al
Currently (i.e Now, not necessarily the date of this post)
using DW Contacts & Dialer version 2.5.3.0-pro
On Motorola Defy with Android 2.2.2 (Work Phone)
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Own Contact Details / Editor pages for DWC?

Post by camel »

AlCan wrote:Hey Camel!

COOL, COOL, COOOOOL!!!!

My admiration for you and DWC just went up Another notch!

These two tricks will pretty much do just what I want.

It even works (i,e. Long tap) on Title listing, so I can exactly do both things, with just a few more steps.

Is there anything you haven't already thought of?

Ahh, Yes - a User's Manual... Then I'd have no excuse for not finding all these Cool, hidden, long tap menus!

But "User" is such a disagreeable word.

Maybe I'll just have to start writing one myself... I'll call it the DWC Lovers Manual!

Many happy thank you's!

Al
well, if you want to help to making a user manual, you will have 100% support from my side.
of course, i have a manual, which all function (that means, all menus and functions, which are possible to call
but my problem is, that if a devel or test enginner is writing this, i have not the real user distance (users point of view) to make a good user manual.
i know, that DWC have too much functions, and i'm sure, that 95% of all user are not knowing how powerful DWC is.
well, as told ... if there are some users, whicha re wanting to help to write such doc ... i'm ready for it :)
cu camel
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