paddpdb2bib [--encfrom=...] [--encto=...] [--first-last] [ <custom field mappings> ] AddressDB.pdb
Given a PDB file from one's Address Book on a pilot device (one that is parseable by Palm::Address), output a database in bibtex format that is suitable for processing via the directory LaTeX macro package.
Print usage instructions to STDERR.
Print the manual page to STDOUT.
Print the version information to STDOUT.
Name of the encoding from which to transcode the text fields in the PDB.
Name of the encoding to which to transcode the output bibtex fields text. Defaults to the same encoding as given by the encfrom option.
These 4 options provide a way to map the custom fields to URL, birthday, patronymic, and spouse name, respectively. An unmapped custom fields will be added to the note field, labeled the same way as they are custom named in the PDB.
Boolean option, if set, the names will be output in the First Last format. Otherwise (the default), they are output as Last, First. The option is there since some documents consider this the ``preferred named format''.
If the middle name field mapping is specified, the output becomes First Middle Last, and Last, First Middle respectively. Note that in pathological cases (e.g., if somebody has a first name and a patronymic, but not a last name in your database) this may affect the sorting order in a wrong way, because bibtex has no way to distinguish a bare First Middle from a legal First Last.
Finally, in the First ... Last format sometimes the first and last names are arbitrarily guessed by the bibtex the wrong way around, and thus the corresponding contact is sorted wrongly as well. Using the default Last, First ... format usually helps in such cases.
Follows a snapshot from the documentation of the directory LaTeX package, on which the fields emitted by this script are marked with a corresponding comment in the end, detailing from which Palm::Address fields they are extracted.
The decision whether to emit @person or @company is based on whether the ``name'' fields of the person is defined.
@person{key, % of the form contact:<palm record id>
name = "Full name(s), in standard BibTeX format", % name, firstName father
nickname = "Nickname(s)",
birthday = "Birthday date(s), in numeric 'day month' format", % from birthday
birthyear = "Birth year(s)", % from birthday
p.street = "Street of private residence", % address
p.city = "City of private residence", % city
p.zip = "ZIP code of private residence", % zipCode
p.state = "State of private residence", % state
p.country = "Country of private residence", % country
p.phone = "Private phone number", % "Home" phone[1-5] fields
p.cellular = "Private mobile phone number", % "Mobile" and "Pager" phone[1-5] fields
p.fax = "Private fax number", % "Fax" phone[1-5] fields
p.email = "Private e-mail address", % "E-mail" phone[1-5] fields
p.url = "Private home page", % url
p.account = "Private bank account",
r.street = "Street of alternative residence",
r.city = "City of alternative residence",
r.zip = "ZIP code of alternative residence",
r.state = "State of alternative residence",
r.country = "Country of alternative residence",
r.phone = "Alternative phone number", % "Other" phone[1-5] fields
r.cellular = "Alternative mobile phone number",
r.fax = "Alternative fax number",
r.email = "Alternative e-mail address",
r.url = "Alternative home page",
r.account = "Alternative bank account",
w.name = "Work organization name", % company
w.title = "Job title", % title
w.street = "Street of work organization",
w.city = "City of work organization",
w.zip = "ZIP code of work organization",
w.state = "State of work organization",
w.country = "Country of work organization",
w.phone = "Work phone number", % "Work" and "Main" phone[1-5] fields
w.cellular = "Work mobile phone number",
w.fax = "Work fax number",
w.email = "Work e-mail address",
w.url = "Work home page",
w.account = "Work bank account",
note = "Additional notes about the person", % unmapped+note
}
For a @company entry the phone fields are concatenated together from the
given [rpw].... alternatives.
@company{key, % of the form contact:<palm record id>
name = "Company name", % company
street = "Company street", % address
city = "Company city", % city
zip = "Company ZIP code", % zipCode
state = "Company state", % state
country = "Company country", % country
phone = "Company phone number",
cellular = "Company mobile phone number",
fax = "Company fax number",
email = "Company e-mail address",
url = "Company home page",
account = "Company bank account",
note = "Additional notes about the company", % unmapped+note
}
Download the prerequisite Perl modules for this script from CPAN, and then you'll be able to run the present script as well.
Install directory from CTAN, unless you already have it installed as a part of your TeX distribution.
Fetch the AddressDB.pdb from your pilot, for example, by using pilot-xfer(1). Create a file all.tex as the master document to format your address book, e.g.:
\documentclass[a4paper,twocolumn]{article} % vim:fileencoding=cp1251
\usepackage[T2A]{fontenc}
\usepackage[cp1251]{inputenc}
\usepackage[obeyspaces]{url} % so "Foo Bar <foo@bar.org>" appears with the spacing inside!
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage[longdates]{directory}
\raggedbottom\raggedright
\renewcommand{\dirand}{$\heartsuit$}
\pagestyle{empty}
\directorystyle{address}
\begin{document}
\nodir{*}
\directory{all}
\today
\end{document}
Then convert the PDB to the bibtex database, and format the document:
$ paddpdb2bib --encfrom=cp1251 \
--url=custom1 --birthday=custom2 --father=custom3 --spouse=custom4 \
AddressDB.pdb > all.bib
$ texi2dvi all.tex
$ bibtex all.aux
$ texi2dvi all.tex
$Log: paddpdb2bib,v $
Revision 1.7 2007/02/05 17:20:31 vassilii
pod docs only:
1) eliminate from BUGS the one about email typesetting,
and add to the EXAMPLE a corresponding incantation for package {url}
2) SEE ALSO - hyperlinking
Revision 1.6 2007/01/15 16:52:26 vassilii
In the Last, First format don't start with the comma
if there is no Last name. The new scheme is the best default
w.r.t. the sorting of non-latin contacts. Switched the default,
the cmdline, and the pod docs accordingly. Finally, no sorting
glitches in my versatile phonebook!
Revision 1.5 2007/01/12 18:35:48 vassilii
BUG fixed in the birthday sorting order - now 0-padding the numbers to 2 digits
the output now includes a descriptive header in a comment format
documented --version option
Revision 1.4 2007/01/12 13:10:28 vassilii
added --version cmdline option
restored the spouse to work in the First Last ordering as well
Revision 1.3 2007/01/12 03:33:29 vassilii
RCS kwds in the pod
only the "guest" ambiguous phones are now labeled
(like (Pager) in the mobile fields)
workaround posted for the directory \dircheck bug
pod updates
With non-Latin encodings, bibtex(1) is pretty freaky. You might
need to procure a custom patched bibtex version that works with
your national encoding.
For some reason, the directory package, coupled with LaTeX and Bibtex on my system fails to properly sort the produced entries when I use the koi8-r encoding (sorting them in the YU A B C D order, i.e., according to the Latin alphabet), so for a decent sorting of Russian one has to use the cp1251 code page.
The \dircheck macro only calls \Dirheader for the first Russian letter
present in the sorted output, and never works for the subsequent ones.
This is a bug in the directory package, and a patch against its
version 1.20 has been submitted upstream. You can download the
same patch separately from http://www.tarunz.org/~vassilii/pub/dircheck.diff.
Some escaping debugging might be in order, as well as general code beautification.
More intelligent guessing of ambiguous mapping between the PDB and bibtex fields might be in order, maybe based on category and which fields are present.
Adding to the note field could also be made configurable on a per-field basis, as well as overflowing extra phones of the same type to the note.
The birthday dates are passed using HTTP::Date internal heuristics. Some more generic ways could be used, such as using the on-palm format for dates, or unleashing various DateTime::Format beasts. (bork! bork!)
Maybe per-category export?
CTAN entry for the directory package, Palm::Address(3), bibtex(1), texi2dvi(1), HTTP::Date(3)
Vassilii Khachaturov <vassilii@tarunz.org>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.