Osmo Contact Problem > Workaround

[mikeslr]

Introduction:

There has been a problem recently with regard to the creation of Osmo so that it would have a Contacts module. See, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 446#p58446 and this thread, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 436#p57436.

Its Notes, Tasks (ToDo) and Calendar Modules work well. So I decided to look for an alternative. I couldn't find any other application which handles the three functional modules as effortlessly. I rarely need to access the Contacts Module. But having the information about contacts in one file is handy when I do. So I looked for a work-around.

The structure of Contacts is basically a flat-file database: a table or spreadsheet consisting of columns (categories) and rows (data regarding individuals).

The Workaround:
Well, that's annoying. The instructions from here, https://help.libreoffice.org/6.3/en-US/ ... files.html didn't work the first time I tried it. And now they do*.

Could still use some Column resizing and making it look pretty.

Beats the following written before the success above:

Osmo can export the data of its Contact Module to either a csv or xhtml file. The following website will convert a csv file into a spread sheet in xlsx format. https://www.convertcsv.com/

I could open the contacts.xlsx file in LibreOffice. [If you prefer, you could then use LibreOffice to export it to a different spreadsheet format]. All I had left to do was resize columns. Optional: Adding some color to the spreadsheet.

The good: I don't have that many contacts. But someone may have hundreds. Having to manually re-enter the pertinent information would be a Royal PITA. As a spreadsheet file, it could be used as a node in such applications as CherryTree.

The bad: I don't like using online services; and especially don't like having to upload information I prefer to keep private. But I could not find (see following) a desktop application to handle the conversion.

Don't hesitate to post to this thread if you have any other suggestions.

Menu Entry:
If you export your Osmo contacts to a Spread-Sheet, the following will create a Menu Entry so that you can open it directly.

Contacts.desktop.gz

(174 Bytes) Downloaded 58 times

Remove the false gz. Then drop it into /usr/share/applications. You'll have to edit the file. Open it in geany/text-editor and change the line which currently reads
Exec=defaultspreadsheet /PATH-TO-FILE/Contacts.ods

Note that it will open the file in your default spreadsheet. Mine is LibreOffice-Calc. After opening the converted file as a xlsx I exported it to 'Calc's' native ods format with the name Contacts; hence Contacts.ods. Replace "PATH-TO-FILE" with the actual full path to whereever you've located it.

Other arguments in the desktop file locate it on the Personal Submenu, and use the builtin user.svg icon. Then run fixmenus-or-restart-x/Graphical Server. Remember to Save to your SaveFile/Folder.

-=-=-=-=-
Both gnumeric nor FreeOffice-Calc lack conversion modules. OpenOffice probably has one. And microsoft-suite has it own method.

[BarryK]

Why all this trouble, when Contacts works OK in Osmo?

The cause of the crash, as posted in the second link above, is libgtkhtml.

So, the fix has been around for over a year, and has been mentioned many times, so how come the problem is still persisting?
Why haven't the people responsible for the Puppy PET repos, such as for Fossapup, fixed it?

I presume that whoever maintains the PET repos hasn't been aware of the fix.

The fix is posted here:

https://bkhome.org/news/202104/osmo-crash-fixed.html

[BarryK]

I just checked, Fossapup was last updated in 2020, so will not have the fixed libgtkhtml. Forum member dogcat posted a fixed libgtkhtml pet here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 512#p57512

I recently noticed a post in the vanilla dpup thread, I think that was where I read it, that contacts not working in Osmo. So even with recent pup releases, the fix hasn't been applied.

@dimkr :
https://github.com/WdesktopX/libgtkhtml2/commits/master

jamesbond did some fixes to libgtkhtml, many years ago:

https://bkhome.org/news/202002/helpsurf ... fixed.html

...don't know if wdlkmpl put those into his commits.

I have applied all of the patches, they can be found inside one of my OE tarballs:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/proje ... fell/2022/

[BarryK]

Just thinking out loud: it would be good if apps like osmo and surfer and notecase, that all use libgtkhtml, could be changed to use litehtml:

https://github.com/litehtml/litehtml

...which is an active project.

[dimkr]

@BarryK The latest Osmo uses webkit2gtk instead of libgtkhtml, and the contacts feature is disabled if webkit is missing. The old GTK+ 2 versions of Osmo have exotic dependencies not needed by any other application, so the newest version is "smaller". Considering the size of webkit2gtk, I think it's better to use a separate application for contacts.

[mikeslr]

FWIW, installing BarryK's build of Osmo for EasyOS in Voidpup64 provided a fully functional application including the Contacts module. But not in vanillaupup or vanilladpup. IIRC, there was at least one other recent Puppy where BarryK's Osmo didn't work.

I don't compile. I particularly like Osmo for its Task module: It's the first thing I see when I boot up, reminding me that I have other things to do besides exploring Puppys. And I'm particularly interested in Vanilla dpup. It's the first Puppy which on my systems provided apt & synaptic, still allowed the use of traditional Puppy techniques AND produced a functional SaveFile/Folder. So the above workaround enabled me to continue to explore this 'best of all worlds' without loss of any functionality. I published just in case others were similarly inclined.

[dimkr]

But not in vanillaupup or vanilladpup. IIRC, there was at least one other recent Puppy where BarryK's Osmo didn't work.

If you install Osmo with apt install osmo, it will pull the webkit dependency (~60 MB). The built-in Osmo is built without the contacts feature to avoid this huge dependency.