[Vtigercrm-developers] Bug fix for Outlook plug in error "Invalid

[Tim Smith]

Hi Jeri,

Isn't it better to let the user decide how to handle middle names and how to
handle spaces in the last name?

This is especially important because some languages do not use spaces.  We
need to make sure vtiger stays language independent.

Even in English, you should allow users to enter data in vtiger and _know_
that it will stay that way and transfer as expected into Outlook.  If
Outlook is repository of record then a kludge in vtiger makes sense.  But if
vtiger is your repository of record then you don't want code second guessing
you.

There are all sorts of problems but lets take an example of storing "John
Doe III" in vtiger.  I would store "John" in first name and "Doe III" in
last name.  Now if I mail merge from Outlook, I get something completely
wrong.  What I wanted was first and last name... but in order to make the
mail merge work I have to merge the middle name too.  However, Mr. "George
Francis Fields" won't appreciate his middle name being used.

Here is another issue.  Lets say I leverage the ol soap service to
accomplish accessing contact records.  If I set the last name to "Jones III"
then I would expect to get the same value back with I request the contact's
data.

My 2 cents...

Tim

On 8/30/06, Jeri John <jeri at vtiger.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Tim,
>           Thanks for your feedbacks.
>
> This issue has been handled  in the following way.
>
> Vtiger doesn't have middle name which outlook has .
>
> During adding contacts to Outlook
>
> So We will split the last name into words(if more than one word exists).
> The last word is assigned to the lastname field and all other words are
> assigned to the middlename field
>
> During adding contacts and updating contacts in Vtiger
>
> If middle name is available in Outlook we will join middlename and
> lastname and assign to lastname field
> If middlename is empty and lastname is available we will assign the
> lastname to the lastname field
> If middle name and lastname is empty we will assign the firstname to the
> lastname field as lastname is mandatory in vtigerCRM.
>
> ---- On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 *Tim Smith <smith.timsmith at gmail.com>* wrote ----
>
>
> I just posted a bug fix for the Outlook plug in error "Invalid return
> value from vTiger CRM" on the forum.
> http://forums.vtiger.com/viewtopic.php?p=31365#31365
>
>
> Vtiger doesn't have a middle name field and the bug occurred in trying to
> parse the middle name out.  I would like to see the logic for determining
> what a middle name is extracted from vtigerolservice.php and moved to the
> outlook plug in.
>
> Reasons:
> 1. Users are prevented from putting spaces in last names.
> 2. Middle name problems are specific to Outlook.
> 3. If it is decided that we should have middle names then add a middle
> name field.
>
> This is my proposed change:
> 1. Remove the support for "middlename" from vtigerolservice.php
> 2. Add a setting in the Outlook preference for where to store the middle
> name.  There will be three selections.  "Do not store middle name", "Store
> middle name in the First Name field", "Store middle name in the Last Name
> field".
>
> Though unrelated, I would also like to:
>
>    1. Allow attaching emails to Leads and Opportunities.
>    2. Create an install using Setup2Go or Installer2Go (
>    http://www.dev4pc.com/) which is a free installation program.  This
>    would allow anyone to create an install script.
>    3. Launch a configuration UI at the end of the install process so
>    the user will be prompted for their username/password/url.  Let this be
>    defaulted through an ini file included in the install script.  Example:
>    username=%windowslogin%; password=; url=
>    http://www.mycompany.com/vtiger/
>    4. Check if the plug in is loaded before uninstalling.
>    5. Automatically connect to the vtiger server.  e.g. Don't require
>    logging in first.  If they click on the contacts folder and click Sync, then
>    attempt to login and tell them if there is a problem.
>
> If we can get a consensus then I will make the changes.
>
> Regards,
> Tim
>
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