[Kde-pim] Moving pim data to new kde install

[ianseeks]

On Friday 04 Nov 2011 10:22:06 Kevin Krammer wrote:
> On Friday, 2011-11-04, ianseeks wrote:
> > On Thursday 03 Nov 2011 20:32:22 Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> > > On Thursday 03 November 2011, ianseeks wrote:
> > > > Wouldn't it be nice to have a "kontact" link directory that you
> > > > could
> > > > just copy and it pulled in all the various parts of the PIM
> > > > together
> > > > instead of having to search out all the disparate parts of it.
> > > 
> > > There is such a directory. It's called $HOME. I will not get tired
> > > of
> > > preaching that the only sensible way of migration to a new system is
> > > a
> > > full copy of the entire $HOME directory. I have been doing this
> > > successfully about 7 times or so for the last 15 years and I have
> > > never
> > > lost a single bit of data.
> > 
> > I've never lost any data either but if i was going to back up all the
> > data for one app, it would be simplier and more sensible to have one
> > directory to copy. I've always found the system performs better when i
> > start with new config files, i'm never sure if old, no longer used
> > config data (or files) is deleted when they upgrade an app.
> 
> The use case of copying or creating a backup of $HOME is to preserve a
> user's data, independent of the type of data (documents, photos, contacts,
> and so on).
> 
> Where those files are exactly within $HOME is usually each user's choice,
> e.g. some might store all their documents in $HOME/docs, some might have
> subdirectories depending on context (e.g. $HOME/work, $HOME/private).

> Users who only want to copy specific types of data, e.g. spreadsheets, will
> usually adjust their directory structure accordingly and configure
> applications to point to the respective "root".
> 
> By default most applications use only one storage location so all their data
> remains in a narrow locality.
> Data that is not specific to an application, e.g photos, contacts, and so
> on, is usually located in type specific default locations.
> 
> However, locations can usually be reconfigured, e.g. in order to procude an
> on- disk layout more suitable for a certain use case.
> For example a user who wants to have contacts, calendars and emails close to
> each other would most likely reconfigure these three data type specific
> locations in such a way that they would be close to each other, e.g.
> sharing a common root directory.

Sure, no problem, but why can't there be a default $KONTACT for those like me 
who do not move their PIM data around. I can't see anyone other than some 
developers (or perhaps enterprise) wanting to move their PIM data to other 
locations other than the default.
I use ~/Documents for all my other data and structure the sub-directories to 
suit my tastes but that still ends up being just one copy statement to backup 
or move the data elsewhere without affecting anything else.

> > > If some people think they need to use a more complicated method then
> > > that's their problem.
> > 
> > To my mind, having the data for Konact spread all over the file
> > structure
> > is more complicated. We're not all developers and highly technical but
> > making things simpler would be more reassuring.  I realise there is a
> > huge legacy of changes to Kontact and its parts and it maybe a huge
> > undertaking to do it.
> 
> Traditionally the default root has been $HOME, which has the additional
> benefit of also including configuration.
> In the last years this has become somewhat more fine grained with the
> introduction of $HOME/.local/share as the root for application data and
> several document centric roots ("My Music").

But is  $HOME/.local/share the place for ALL bits of KONTACT data?  If so, 
that makes it easy. But if i copy $HOME/.local/share then i presume i copy all 
apps data.

> On new setups applications are often using those per default, on exisiting
> it usually depends on the application whether it moves data or prefers to
> preserve the user's configuration of locations instead.
> 
> Since all new default locations and even most user chosen locations are
> inside the traditional root of $HOME, using that for a starting point of
> backups is something that almost always works without requiring any special
> knowlegde.
> 
> Users which more specific requirements, e.g. having certain types of data
> co- located somewhere, will usually reconfigure storage locations to suite
> their needs.
Thats the way it should be.

I was wondering if there could be, as a temporary solution, a ~/Kontact which 
had links below it to point to the real data. I'm all for making things easy 
for us not so techie users.
.
> Cheers,
> Kevin

regards

Ian
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