Total contacts don't match up

If you have "Groups" in Gmail, they get listed as an item in "Contacts". No worries, Plaxo4Gmail ignores the groups when syncing.

For example, if I have 55 contacts and 3 groups, my total items on the "All Contacts" tab would read something like "58 of 58". When I open Outlook and look at the items in the status bar when in "Contacts", it reads "55 Items".

This is correct behavior.

How to install the script

First, you will need the Firefox Browser,
then install Greasemonkey, (visit diveintogreasemonkey.org if this is your first script)
click on the Plaxo4Gmail link in the "Downloads" sidebar of this site and follow the instructions.

Now open Gmail in Firefox and go to "Contacts".
You will see a "Plaxo Login" link next to the area that says "Add Contact",
click on it and log into Plaxo.

Now the "Plaxo Login" changes to "Sync".
Click on "Sync" and your Gmail contacts will link with Plaxo.
You only have to click "Sync" in the future if your changes are not recording properly with Plaxo or vice versa.

Adding a contact

Much of the contact data you add in Gmail will translate directly to Plaxo. I call this data "Basic" data.
Basic data includes:

• Display Name
• Default Email (*matches Work Email 1 or Personal Email 1)
• Notes (**)
  
• Personal
• Email 1 (*alternate default)
• Email 2
• Email 3
• IM
• Phone 1
• Phone 2
• Mobile Phone
• Fax
• Street Address
• Other (**)
  
• Work
• Email 1 (*primary default)
• Email 2
• Email 3
• IM
• Phone 1
• Phone 2
• Mobile Phone
• Pager
• Fax
• Company
• Job Title
• Street Address
• Other (**)
  
• Other
• Phone 1
• Fax
• Street Address
• Other (**)
  

(**)Plaxo4Gmail also recognizes many Plaxo/Outlook fields in the "Other" select choice and in the "Notes" field in Gmail.

Data that has unique field descriptions are known as "Extended" data. P4G's recognition of these field descriptions makes Plaxo and Gmail nearly 100% compatible. The Gmail "Other" data field will not map to Plaxo unless it has a field description. The field description does not get interpreted as contact data, only the information after the colon.

Extended data includes:

• Personal
• Other:
• Web Page:[url]
• Anniversary:[mm/dd/yyyy]
• Birthday:[mm/dd/yyyy]
• Spouse:[text]
• Work
• Other:
  
• Web Page:[url]
  
• Assistant:[text]
• Asst. Phone:[number]
• Department:[text]
• Manager:[text]
• Other
• Other:
  
• Skype ID:[text]
• Skype In:[text]
• Nickname:[text]
• Categories:[text, text, text...]

Finally, there is some incoming data from Plaxo that doesn't need to be mapped. I call this data "Read Only".

Read Only data includes:

• Personal
• Other:
  
• Photo URL:[url]
• Work
• Other:
  
• Photo URL:[url]
• Other
• Other:
  
• Plaxo ID:[number]

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.

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.