Synology Contacts beta

[Micky]

Just downloaded and installed the beta of Synology Contacts on my DS918+. This Syno is part of my Active Directory (the DC is a DS916+) and I tried to log in using a AD account, this is what I get when opening the administrator page of Synology Contacts:

The save button on the bottom is inactive. When changing the drop down box "account system" from "Domainuser (OURHOME)" to local account, I can save and continue, however, I do not want this.

Anyone already trie the new CardDAV server (beta) using an AD?

 

[Telos]

Interested to hear your feedback (and screenshots if possible). I'm not brave enough to risk my contacts setup on a Synology beta. Good to know that it doesn't require DSM7.

 

[Jovink]

If you login as a domain user you get your contacts.
If you use mail plus server you can also select domain or account system. You can't use both (as far as i know)

 

[fredbert]

Just installed Syno Contacts to test it vs CardDAV Server.

As I suspected it is a separate CardDAV service just like Syno Calendar and WebDAV Server are separate CalDAV services. To migrate from CardDAV Server you have options for importing:

• connect to Google or Outlook services
• connect to a CardDAV server
• export from app to CSV or vCard and import the file

Getting Mac Contacts app to successfully log on was hit and miss until I tried only entering username, password, and server address of 'dsm_web_portal_url:dsm_https_port'. The server path left blank and to auto select the ssl port (hint: it used the dsm_https_port I had already used in the server address).

It seems to be working and I could add a new card in the Syno Contacts web gui and another in Mac Contacts. They both sync'd to the other app and so did updates to the cards.

 

[fredbert]

Things I've noticed between Mac and iOS Contacts apps.

In iOS [13] Contacts app you can see all the address books:

• My Contacts
• Suggested (only useful if you use MailPlus)
• Starred
• other personal address books you've created
• Team Contacts
• and I assume other group address books (I haven't created any others)

But for Mac Contacts apps [Mojave and Catalina] I only see 'All my <account name>' which seems to be My Contacts and none of the other address books. When you import your vCard or CSV file of contacts you should probably select My Contacts are the destination if you want to use Mac Contacts.

Contacts web gui doesn't support Groups but if a Group is created in Mac Contacts then they will be accessible in iOS Contacts.

Tags assigned in Contacts web gui are not accessible in Mac or iOS ... so they are not a pseudo-Group.

 

[Micky]

If you login as a domain user you get your contacts.
If you use mail plus server you can also select domain or account system. You can't use both (as far as i know)

That's it, I've to login into DSM using an AD-user since the new Contacts package does not give me the option to provide any credentials. This is not the best solution for a login into a package IMO.

 

[Jovink]

I have problems with sync my android.
I use Davdroid and paste the url from synology contacts.
I get a http 500 error.
When i paste the link in a browser i get a faut as well.

A server error occurred. Please contact the administrator.
Don't know where to look.

 

[Jovink]

I found it myself.

Do not import .vcf files generated by Android directly into the Synology CardDAV server! It often breaks synchronization (500 Internal server error), because Android exports vCard 2 files, and Synology will import these files without error message but they can't be processed later (because CardDAV requires vCard 3). Import them on Android instead.

 

[Telos]

Do not import .vcf files generated by Android directly into the Synology CardDAV server!

I don't know if the beta cured this problem, but Synology's current CardDAV release munges all the address fields into one field when importing. I only enter "test" cases in Synology's CardDAV, everything else is entered either through Android Contacts, or Thunderbird's CardBook extension.

 

[Jovink]

I don't know if the beta cured this problem, but Synology's current CardDAV release munges all the address fields into one field when importing. I only enter "test" cases in Synology's CardDAV, everything else is entered either through Android Contacts, or Thunderbird's CardBook extension.

The new Synology Contacts does splits the new contacts, created with my Android correct.
Can't tell about the old one because i don't know how they are created.

 

[fredbert]

Synology's current CardDAV release munges all the address fields into one field when importing

I imported an export of my iCloud contacts and within Mac Contacts I see address parts as separate items but in Syno Contacts they are in one field. I'm testing with a demo card and adding address info in the Web interface to see what gets shown in the Mac app.

 

[fredbert]

Any address* edit in Syno Contacts forces all the sub-address items to collapse into the Mac app's 'street' item. The issue being when using other contact apps that have the sub-items then most data won't have the delimiting commas and periods that you'd use when writing: the same when Syno Contacts collapses address items to one field then there's no punctuation between sub-items.

*might even be any edit in the contact card, not just an address field.

I've created a Synology support ticket to report back this behaviour.

 

[Telos]

I've created a Synology support ticket to report back this behaviour.

Thank you. My experience (as you saw) is that if you edit the address in the Syno CardDAV interface, then the individual address fields are forever lost. I've got to wonder how many other fields have this shortcoming (phone numbers, as an example) Editing on the phone to avoid this is a PITA, so I use Cardbook (thunderbird extension). Previously I used the free version of eM Client as my CardDAV editing interface.

Can Synology not get the simplest things right? I hoped the new Contacts package would bring CardDAV up to current standards. Apparently not. Just a shiny new interface with the same lame trappings.

 

[Jovink]

Can Synology not get the simplest things right? I hoped the new Contacts package would bring CardDAV up to current standards.

With the new update I was hoping for something like Google has. A all In one sync solution for contacts mail calendar.

 

[Jovink]

Today I saved a contact from Mailplus Beta.
But the name is the only thing that have been saved. No email adres. Very dissapointed.

 

[Telos]

... a foretaste of DSM 7

 

[fredbert]

Thank you for contacting Synology.

Had a reply to this:

Any address* edit in Syno Contacts forces all the sub-address items to collapse into the Mac app's 'street' item. The issue being when using other contact apps that have the sub-items then most data won't have the delimiting commas and periods that you'd use when writing: the same when Syno Contacts collapses address items to one field then there's no punctuation between sub-items.

*might even be any edit in the contact card, not just an address field.

I've created a Synology support ticket to report back this behaviour.

And the answer is

Very sorry that this is not a current feature.​

​

I would recommend in this scenario to put forward a feature request so that this can be looked to be changed in the future.​

​

Feature Inquiry | Synology Inc.​

Have now submitted it as a feature request. Text (if you feel like creating a request too) after battling the 1024 char limit:

***Address field collapses items from Mac/iOS Contacts app***

Mac/iOS Contacts app breaks address into separate items, without punctuation between them:
- Street
- Town/City
- County
- PostCode
- Country

When this data is imported from vCard into Synology Contacts the backend CardDAV server retains the address items (verified in Mac/iOS). But the Contacts web GUI displays it as a single address field with no punctuation.

If a contact is editted in the web GUI then all the address item structure is lost. The address is then displayed by Mac/iOS Contacts in the street item.

Synology Contacts needs to be able to support address field items or at least offer to add punctuation during import.

 

[Telos]

Very sorry that this is not a current feature.

Contacts 101... and this basic feature is not a current feature? Good grief. More lame implementation. Only "good enough" to get by.

Synology does not understand vCard standards !!!

 

[fredbert]

There are two Syno CardDAV backend servers and they seem to be the same as each other (ignoring needing unique IP ports) but one has a light web-based Contacts application. The issue comes from the web app but if you don't use it then it's [probably] possible you can safely use either backend server.

The 'safe' Web app scenario is to use it sparingly and view cards read-only, i.e. click cancel/close on the detailed pop-up. While far from perfect it's still better to be able to view contact info without having to rely on external apps.

Just thought: if I was going to deploy CardDAV for users then I'd stay with CardDAV Server as there'll be less noise from complaining about 'corrupted' addresses.

 

[seren]

So I guess, even with DSM 7, their PIM functionality is not mature and integrated enough between mail, contacts & calendar enough to replace my G suite... Too bad