Merge duplicate contacts

[silverhook]

In the old contacts you were able to consolidate or merge two contact entries into one.

Example how this could work:

• Alice is in the contact list twice
• select both contacts for Alice
• a “merge” button appears
• click on the “merge” button
• the two entries for Alice merge into one (if needed, user can be prompted regarding collisions)

This was particularly useful after importing contacts or syncing between several devices.

It would be great to have this option in the new contacts app as well.

As a bonus, a command to scan all your contacts for such duplicates and to consolidate them, would be awesome.

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There is a $20 open bounty on this issue. Add to the bounty at Bountysource.

[aviallon]

Bounty is now 70$...

[Exagone313]

As a temporary workaround, I have made a Python script to deduplicate entries in VCF export.

https://gitlab.com/Exagone313/dotfiles/-/blob/master/shell/pythonscript/vcf-dedup

[wadouk]

Thunderbird and CardBook plugin are good at this game

[baimard]

Is there an app in nextcloud for this ?

[YoSiJo]

FYI: The total bounty value now $85.00USD

[baimard]

I'm gone do this functionnality because i'm bored.

[binarykitchen]

Shit. Can we expand more on that?

@baimard and everyone else who liked his comment please for the sake of open source.

[kbftech]

I chimed-in. Bounty is now at 120USD.

[theRAGEhero]

This functionality would be very useful.

[ghost]

7 years later and still don't have a BASIC yet extremely important feature. Sigh.

[AbelLykens]

7 years later and still don't have a BASIC yet extremely important feature. Sigh.

No one is stopping you from writing the code. Or paying someone to write it.

[aviallon]

I don't speak for the Nextcloud project (I'm just a casual contributor every once in a while) but I encourage everyone here who thinks this functionality would be useful, or is extremely important, to contribute a pull request adding it.

I haven't got the time, but I gave some money.

[ChristophWurst]

I gave some money

https://help.nextcloud.com/t/dont-use-bountysource-anymore/84943

[illnesse]

How's this not a priority for nextcloud devs, are you serious?

[spcano01]

There doesn't seem to be a new official bounty affiliate, is this true? I'm happy to add $ for this vital feature.

[ChristophWurst]

There is none

[SODDINGIT]

f

Thunderbird and CardBook plugin are good at this game

I tried this but it seems that it does not have this feature either. Or perhaps I am missing it. I can merge individual accounts but I would have to do it for all 300 duplicates myself. That is not really helpful.

Why is NC missing this very important thing. It is the third time I had to re-do all my contacts with some offline tool.

[brennoflavio]

f

Thunderbird and CardBook plugin are good at this game

I tried this but it seems that it does not have this feature either. Or perhaps I am missing it. I can merge individual accounts but I would have to do it for all 300 duplicates myself. That is not really helpful.

Why is NC missing this very important thing. It is the third time I had to re-do all my contacts with some offline tool.

Which tool do you use?

[nicodh]

In case someone wants to contribute this feature it would be nice, if one of the experienced developers could provide a hint where to start?
Would it be better to provide a new app for that or add it as a feature to the existing contact app? Or is there a plugin API for the address book?

@ChristophWurst

[ChristophWurst]

Sure! I suggest to approach this in these steps

• Add multi select and bulk actions (as a start just add a bulk Delete action). You can use Mail as inspiration
  • 
  • https://github.com/nextcloud/mail/
• Add a Merge action
  • Ask the user which contact should be kept
  • For any property that allows multiple values, combine the original values but discard duplicates
  • For any properties with a single value ask the user which one of the two originals should be kept

It would be best to have this inside the app.

[PhilippSchlesinger]

I would appreciate the feature described above very much.
Let me suggest to think it in commong with contact deletion management (#296) to be able to undo unintended merges.

[Oreolek]

BountySource is bankrupt, so the bounty is gone now btw.

[HibGut]

"@silverhook opened on Dec 25, 2016"

2016!

Eight years ago. Is there any hope this will ever get addressed? Seems like devs rather build shiny new AI features, something so basic is not exciting enough?

[ChristophWurst]

Thank you for your message @HibGut. The feature request is tagged as 1. to develop, meaning that it's accepted. It's not possible for the Nextcloud GmbH engineers to implement every feature.
I you are a developer or know someone who could contribute this missing feature, I'd be happy to provide pointers, documentation and guidance to make the feature happen.

[HibGut]

The feature request is tagged as 1. to develop

"@skjnldsv added 1. to develop on Sep 15, 2017"

Seven years ago. Is that supposed to make us feel better? How many major releases has NC had since then? How many fancy new features have the Nextcloud GmbH engineers found the time to implement since then? But something as basic as multi-select (a prerequisite for merge and other bulk actions like move or delete) can't be done in a leading group-ware solution?

How long until "1. to develop" turns into "done"? Let's see ...

ETA: No date
Deadline: No date

Should I check in again in another seven years?

:-(

[ChristophWurst]

How long until "1. to develop" turns into "done"? Let's see ...

@HibGut apologies if my message was not clear. There is no guarantee for a delivery on any accepted feature request. A feature gets done when someone implements it. Roadmaps are debatable, of course, and everyone has different priorities.
I'm just trying to clarify expectations.

[Exagone313]

@HibGut Unless you have paid for support and development, don't expect open source software development to be granted to you. It comes without warranty. Your comments are harsh and not helpful.

[HibGut]

Unless you have paid support and development,

Nextcloud does have paid support and development. Yes, I understand very well how opensource projects work. But NC is not someone's little spare time project. The Nextcloud GmbH that @ChristophWurst referred to above does have significant revenue and a team full of paid full-time employees: https://nextcloud.com/team/

Your comments are harsh

My comments may be harsh. Eight years and counting to develop multi-select and merge is harsher.