How to add the Plaxo image to Gmail

If you want to add that Plaxo contact image to the Gmail entry for that contact, the script gives you an easy way to do it.

Simply find an entry on a Plaxo synced contact in Gmail that has an image.

1. COPY the "Other: Photo Url:" address from either Work or Personal.
2. Now go into the edit contact in Gmail and choose "Upload Picture".
3. You should see the regular "Upload a picture" dialog. Click "Browse...", and you should be looking at a system "File Upload" dialog.
4. PASTE the address of "Other: Photo Url" into the file name box and click open.
5. The "File Upload" dialog will momentarily go grey, disappear and the "Upload a picture" dialog will now have an address in it from the local machine.
6. Click "Upload Picture >>", crop and save.

Updated script

I've been working on the issues in Plaxo4Gmail. Here is what works:

• Add/remove/edit entry in Gmail and Plaxo properly reflects the change.
• Edit or delete an entry in Plaxo or Plaxo linked address book, and Gmail properly reflects the change

Here is what is buggy:

• Add a new entry in Plaxo or Plaxo linked address book and Gmail gets all the information,... BUT, Gmail does not record a photo entry for the new contact when updating "en masse" (lots of updates at the same time like an initial "slow sync"). Without this photo on their server (or "ghost image" for empty photo entries), we cannot open the new contact to edit in Gmail.

I am playing around with some ideas to see if I can give the Gmail site a few milliseconds to catch up with the newly added entry. I 'll post a working version here soon.

What I think about

So I'm sitting around thinking "What if someone needed my help to decode Gmail?" What words of wisdom could I pass along to the next developer of a kick ass extension for Gmail.

There is no guide on the subject, at least on the address book part and you think there would be. No Gmail guru seems to be out there who could share bits of wisdom, and I searched the Internet for days and days to find out who may have something to say on the subject.

Finally when all is said and done, the best advice I have is "read the gmail lite code and libgmailer code even if it does not work with the current version of Gmail". It was originally written over a year ago for .php and has not been updated since September 2006 at the time of this post. Both these files helped me decipher what was needed to send "data packets" to Gmail. If you send a data packet to the correct [iframe] you can manipulate Gmail.

I wrote two deconstructing Greasemonkey scripts to help me figure out what is going on under the hood. hijackgmaildatapacks.user.js Lets you enter URL strings you can get from HTTP LIVE HEADERS and watch the Javascript Console for what those data packets return and gmailiframesnoop.user.js lets you know the loading order & when an Iframe has been loaded etc...

I've included them here for your development pleasure. Maybe this is the answer you are looking for.

Before you begin

Proceed with caution (AT YOUR OWN RISK). Before starting the Plaxo4Gmail script, make sure you have a back up copy of BOTH your Plaxo contacts and your Gmail contacts. Remember, this script has only been tested by me. I'm sure there are a few possible scenarios I could have overlooked.

There are a few issues with the current script I am aware of:

1. Plaxo does not recognize Gmail photos...
• The photos from Gmail are references (302 temp moved, like an ad banner) not the static URI Plaxo requires.
  
• The Gmail image URI looks something like: http://mail.google.com/mail/photos/greg.bays%40gmail.com?t=e&49755=
• No workaround unless Plaxo updates it's process
2. If adding multiple NEW contacts from the Plaxo address book, like when you "slow sync", Gmail will not let you in to the contact entry unless it exists in Gmail BEFORE you begin the sync.
   
• If you click on the entry and get a script timeout error, the photo issue is why.
  
• The current workaround is before you initially "slow sync" your contacts from Plaxo, import the Plaxo contacts.
3. A "slow sync" with Plaxo will overwrite any existing Gmail contact data if the same email address.
   
• I don't have any "Which information do you want to keep?" scripts yet.
• No workaround yet
  
4. Different contacts coming from Plaxo that have the same email address will only map to Gmail with the first one presented.
   
• The second one will fail as Gmail does not like duplicate email addresses.
• The current workaround is make sure all your Plaxo contacts have a unique email address or none at all.
  
5. Photos from Plaxo do not display in Gmail.
   
• I have provided the Photo URL where you can load it yourself.
  

So we begin...

After waiting around for the past few month I've decided to stop waiting for Plaxo to come out with its Gmail sync tool and decided to produce one myself. We will use Greasemonkey and inject the script directly into the Gmail page.

Screenshots follow.

Log in Screen on Gmails "All Contacts":








Gmail Settings Screen: