iPad Contacts


Recommended Posts

I received an iPad (not by choice) and so far I only used the native Contacts application.

One of the things that I've crossed while using this application is the lack of true relationship between contacts.

Keeping in mind that I'm using it with the Portuguese locale* I will try to explain what I mean by that:

Let's first create a person called Steve Jobs;

At the bottom of the edit view, the last option we have is a "Relate Contacts" entry;

Using this entry we can add relation queries such as "who is Steve's mother", father, siblings, and a little bit more;

There is a problem with this feature: it's all String-based.

I could add a String called "Jabba Skywalker" as being Steve's mother. And some of you would say OK, since I don't have this person defined.

But you can also use a created entity for referencing as being Steve's mother, but it only enables you a String representation of the name of this entity in Steve's profile.

If I pseudolink John Williams as being the mother of Steve and then go to the contact profile of John Williams I don't see an entry for Steve as being the son/daughter* of him.

Meh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I received an iPad (not by choice) and so far I only used the native Contacts application.

One of the things that I've crossed while using this application is the lack of true relationship between contacts.

Keeping in mind that I'm using it with the Portuguese locale* I will try to explain what I mean by that:

Let's first create a person called Steve Jobs;

At the bottom of the edit view, the last option we have is a "Relate Contacts" entry;

Using this entry we can add relation queries such as "who is Steve's mother", father, siblings, and a little bit more;

There is a problem with this feature: it's all String-based.

I could add a String called "Jabba Skywalker" as being Steve's mother. And some of you would say OK, since I don't have this person defined.

But you can also use a created entity for referencing as being Steve's mother, but it only enables you a String representation of the name of this entity in Steve's profile.

If I pseudolink John Williams as being the mother of Steve and then go to the contact profile of John Williams I don't see an entry for Steve as being the son/daughter* of him.

Meh.

true, it would be nice if it did this... buts its only really for reference, you're not going to be building family tree's through the contacts app.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

true, it would be nice if it did this... buts its only really for reference, you're not going to be building family tree's through the contacts app.

No. I'm buildind (truthful) connections. The facts exist, the references exist, why not implement it? And as for your reference to "reference". I found out that it doesn't exist. I linked about 20 people with a guy and then realized that his whole name was completely wrong. Since they rather use a copy of the String of the name and don't use references... I had to edit all those 20 entries by hand!

I don't see the point of this..?

The points of doing this would be something in the lines of: 1) automatically resolution on the relationship of a person/entity to another; 2) instead of having to search for the listed person/entity I could just single tap the name to access its profile; 3) if there is a screwup with the name, all the references would be automatically updated.

You've got way too much time on your hands kid... :p

I like things that work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with tiagosilva on this. It should be very much a standard feature, but it's not. It's not for fanciful building of family tree's its for quick access to a simple function.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you not tap on the blue circle with a white logo and just find the contact?
I don't think you understand what you're doing. You're just copying the (current) instance of the String representation of the entity to the field.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think you understand what you're doing.

No I do understand what I'm doing, I just didn't understand what you were saying. After having tried your aforementioned scenario, I now know what you mean and I agree with what you have to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No I do understand what I'm doing, I just didn't understand what you were saying. After having tried your aforementioned scenario, I now know what you mean and I agree with what you have to say.
Thanks, bro'.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.