Hi, Danny!
Please add two fields (attributes of Contact) to the Contacts Control: Birthday and Anniversary.
I'm planning to use them in my Birthday Reminder application.
These fields should be added:
- to the "dataDesired" element
- and to the "contacts" Argument of "ContactsControl.createContacts" function.
Thank you.
--
Yuri
Request to add Birthday and Anniversary
JesseD70
Hi Yuri,
The Windows Live Contacts database doesn't contain birthdate or anniversary fields. However, it does support annotations, which would allow an application to tack additional data onto a contact record. I'm hoping we can get the contacts control to support annotations sometime soon. Probably not in the next two months, though.
Thanks for the link to your birthday reminder app! I'll make a note of it in the feature request.
-Danny
byronfromwesleyan
Hi Yuri,
Yes, Windows Live Messenger uses the same Windows Live Contacts database as the Contacts Control. However, that doesn't automatically mean that all apps that read from the database know what to do with all the data they find there. The contacts database architecture supports a core static schema as well as application specific schema extensions (annotations), so it's quite likely that what Messenger stores in the database is a superset of the database's core schema.
At any rate, I did finally find the anniversary field you asked about, down in the depths of the core schema docs. The spouse field displayed by Messenger, though, is not part of the core schema, it's an annotation type. Supporting annotation data in the contacts control is on our wish list, but way out there.
While it's true that region-sensitive date formatting should not be a factor for the pure data transfer protocol of the contacts control, the contacts control is more than just data transfer. The contacts control must be able to display the data to the end user, and allow the user to edit that data. The data review and editing requirements for the contacts control require that when date field support is added to the contacts control, the control must be able to display and edit the dates in the format appropriate to the user's language and region.
Thats why we don't support the birthdate and anniversary date fields yet. It's on our to-do list.
-Danny
Warren13
I believe, that "Anniversary" field _is_ in the "Windows Live Contacts database", because I see it in "Windows Live Messenger" (right-click on the contact, select "Edit contact" and then go to the "Personal" Tab: both Birthday and Anniversary are there!)
As I understand, your "Contacts Control" looks in the same database, as "Windows Live Messenger" !
As to the formatting of dates, I, as an application developer, who "automates" your control, need very much standard for XML, "YYYY-MM-DD" format, that doesn't depend on regional settings (it's "yyyy-MM-dd" in DotNet, e.g. Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") ).
--
Yuri
Equis
Wait! Hang on, I misspoke. The Windows Live Contacts database does have a birthday field. I don't see an anniversary field, though.
So, it should be easier to get birthdays exposed in the contacts control. The main work item is adding support for regional date formats (mm/dd/yy vs yyyy/mm/dd).
-Danny