Schema behind data field mappings? (Time & Chaos -> DejaOffice Contacts)

[kirbo719]

Hello,

I'm a long-time user of Time & Chaos. Over the years I've invested a lot of time and effort getting my data the way I wanted it. Recently I got an Android smart phone, licensed CompanionLink, and downloaded DejaOffice to the handset.

In some of my Time & Chaos records, I've altered field labels. For example, the standard phone number fields, in order, are:
Business
Home
Cellular
mailto:
Pager

I've used one Time & Chaos record to track a married, working couple. I've altered labels to:
Steve work
Beth work
Home
Steve cell
Beth cell
Steve mailto:
Beth mailto:
etc, etc, etc


I'm at the stage where I'm troubleshooting data syncing, and cleaning up my Time & Chaos data so the data appear in DejaOffice's Contacts.

I've learned that when I've customized a label in Time & Chaos, (changed the label from "Cellular" to "Beth cell") neither label nor data appear in the DejaOffice Contact's version of that record. So, I think I need to go through my data and change any customized labels back to stock.

Before I do that, I thought I'd see if there's a paper describing how fields get mapped from the various PIMs to same/similar data fields in DejaOffice Contacts. Does CompanionLink/DejaOffice parse labels? Or does it assume that the second delimited field is always "Home" phone number?

Am I even asking the correct questions?

Really, I guess you could say that what I want to know is this: what should I do in my contacts database to prep data so each field will import predictably into DejaOffice's Contacts?

Smart phones are here to stay, and many of us have lots of time invested in our contacts databases on our desktop computers. We need to know Best Practices for making our data portable. (Come to think of it, I went through the same issues a decade ago with my Handspring Visor.)

Thanks!

Bob

[DJOCTO]

Kirbo, there's not a paper showing the mapping.

In addition; T&C is a bit of an anomoly. It is more free-form than most other databases that have set fields. For this reason, we tend to apply rules that match other PIMs and PDAs with regard to fields. So the best results come from making fields that are standard, and match what other databases and devices handle. The worst results come from making fields that are non-standard across the database, or that are particular to a record.

I hope this information helps.

Wayland Bruns, CTO
CompanionLink Software, Inc.

[kirbo719]

Hello Wayland,

>>> "The worst results come from making fields that are non-standard"<<<

Yes! I've certainly learned THAT lesson in Time & Chaos. I posted similar message in T&C forum, and learned that to make my data portable, the labels really ought to be left alone.

So, I've gone through and standardized data field labels. In cases of married couples, I've divorced them in terms of databasing them. Each individual gets their own record now.

-0-

Now, trying to determine how to import into DejaOffice a second (or even numerous) "mailto:" fields from T&C. Typically, in cases where a contact record has more than one "mailto:" only the first gets imported to DO from T&C.