Package: pybbdb
PyBBDB -- an interface to the Insidious Big Brother DatabaseIntroductionPyBBDB may sound like a rude noise, but it is actually a Python interface
to the Insidious Big Brother Database
(BBDB), an address book used withGNU
Emacs.  You can find out more about
BBDB on theEmacs Wiki.  The
PyBBDB source repo is hosted atSourcehut.  Releases can be found onPyPI.Note:This module currently only handles BBDB file format 9 (the latest
format, as of January 2021).  Formats earlier than this should first be
converted by GNU Emacs.InstallationThe usual incantation will install things:pip install pybbdbUsageCreating a BBDB databaseTo create a new database is as simple as you might expect:>>> from bbdb.database import BBDB
>>> db = BBDB()The database starts with no records.  To add a new one, use theadd_record()method, specifying the first and last names, and any
other attributes you want to set:>>> fred = db.add_record("Fred", "Flintstone")
>>> fred                       # doctest: +ELLIPSIS +REPORT_UDIFF
Record(firstname='Fred', lastname='Flintstone', affix=[], aka=[], ...

>>> barney = db.add_record("Barney", "Rubble")
>>> db
<BBDB: 2 records>The first and last names are attributes:>>> fred.firstname, fred.lastname
('Fred', 'Flintstone')There's also a compositenameproperty:>>> fred.name
'Fred Flintstone'You can set other attributes on the returned record object:Most BBDB attributes consist of lists of things:>>> fred.add_company("Slate Rock & Gravel")
>>> fred.add_affix("Mr")
>>> fred.add_aka("Freddie")
>>> fred.add_net("fred@bedrock.org")
>>> fred.add_net("fred.flintstone@gravel.com")

>>> fred.net
['fred@bedrock.org', 'fred.flintstone@gravel.com']

>>> fred.affix
['Mr']Telephone records consist of a location tag and a phone number.  The phone
number can be either a list of integers (USA-style) or a string
(international style):>>> fred.add_phone("Home", "555-1234")
>>> fred.add_phone("Work", [555, 6789])
>>> list(sorted(fred.phone.items()))
[('Home', '555-1234'), ('Work', [555, 6789])]Records can have multiple addresses, each indexed by a location tag.
Each address in turn has several attributes:>>> home = fred.add_address("Home")
>>> home.set_location("Cave 2a", "345 Cavestone Road")
>>> home.city = "Bedrock"
>>> home.state = "Hanna Barbera"
>>> home.zipcode = "12345"
>>> home.country = "USA"

>>> home                       # doctest: +ELLIPSIS +REPORT_UDIFF
Address(location=['Cave 2a', '345 Cavestone Road'], city='Bedrock', ...

>>> home.location
['Cave 2a', '345 Cavestone Road']

>>> home.zipcode
'12345'Finally, each entry can have an arbitrary dictionary of user-defined
notes:>>> fred.add_note("spouse", "Wilma")
>>> fred.add_note("kids", "Pebbles, Bam-Bam")
>>> fred.add_note("catchphrase", '"Yabba dabba doo!"')
>>> list(sorted(fred.notes.items()))
[('catchphrase', '"Yabba dabba doo!"'), ('kids', 'Pebbles, Bam-Bam'), ('spouse', 'Wilma')]Note values can also have newlines:>>> barney.add_note("pets", "brontosaurus\npterodactyl")Reading and writing BBDB filesThewrite()method will write the database to a stream (defaultstdout) in a format suitable for use by GNU Emacs.  THewrite_file()method writes to a file instead.  They both use thelisp()method
internally, to return the raw lisp text:>>> print(db.lisp())      # doctest: +ELLIPSIS +REPORT_UDIFF
;; -*-coding: utf-8-emacs;-*-
;;; file-version: 9
;;; user-fields: (catchphrase kids pets spouse)
["Barney" "Rubble" nil nil nil nil nil nil ((pets . "brontosaurus\npterodactyl")) ...
["Fred" "Flintstone" ("Mr") ("Freddie") ("Slate Rock & Gravel") (["Home" "555-1234"] ...The conveniencewrite_file()method will put that in a file:>>> db.write_file("examples/bbdb.el")You can read a database from file using thefromfile()static method:>>> newdb = BBDB.fromfile("examples/bbdb.el")
>>> newdb
<BBDB: 2 records>Theread()andread_file()methods of a BBDB database can be used
import records from other databases.Exporting to other formatsYou can convert a BBDB database to a JSON string for serialization, using
thejsonmethod:>>> print(db.json(indent=4))   # doctest: +ELLIPSIS +REPORT_UDIFF
{
    "coding": "utf-8-emacs",
    "fileversion": 9,
    "records": [
        {
            "firstname": "Barney",
            "lastname": "Rubble",
            "affix": [],
            "aka": [],
            "company": [],
            "phone": {},
            "address": {},
            "net": [],
            "notes": {
                "pets": "brontosaurus\\npterodactyl"
            },
            "uuid": ...
            "creation": ...
            "timestamp": ...
        },
        {
            "firstname": "Fred",
            "lastname": "Flintstone",
            "affix": [
                "Mr"
            ],
            "aka": [
                "Freddie"
            ],
            "company": [
                "Slate Rock & Gravel"
            ],
            "phone": {
                "Home": "555-1234",
                "Work": [
                    555,
                    6789
                ]
            },
            "address": {
                "Home": {
                    "location": [
                        "Cave 2a",
                        "345 Cavestone Road"
                    ],
                    "city": "Bedrock",
                    "state": "Hanna Barbera",
                    "zipcode": "12345",
                    "country": "USA"
                }
            },
            "net": [
                "fred@bedrock.org",
                "fred.flintstone@gravel.com"
            ],
            "notes": {
                "spouse": "Wilma",
                "kids": "Pebbles, Bam-Bam",
                "catchphrase": "\"Yabba dabba doo!\""
            },
            "uuid": ...
            "creation": ...
            "timestamp": ...
        }
    ]
}Thedict()method dumps the database as a Python dict.  You can also
create a BBDB database from an appropriately-structured dict using thefromdict()method:>>> data = db.dict()
>>> newdb = BBDB.fromdict(data)
>>> newdb == db
TrueRelease historyVersion 0.7 (1 March 2021)Bugfix: allow string lists for aka, affix and company entries.Version 0.6 (28 February 2021)Bugfix: installbbdb.lark, so that things actually work outside a
development environment.Version 0.5 (27 January 2021)Major rewrite to support latest BBDB file format (version 9).Uselarkanddateutilfor parsing.Usepydanticfor validation.Drop support for Python 2.Version 0.4 (10 February 2017)Use pytest for unit tests.Bugfix: add support for newlines in fields.Bugfix: allow last name to be nil.Version 0.3 (22 July 2015)Bugfix: get things working properly with Python 3.Version 0.2 (2 July 2015)Add validation of data usingvoluptuous.Add a bunch of demo converter programs.Addtoxtest support.Add Python 3 support.Bugfix: convert records from file to correct type.Version 0.1 (11 June 2015)Initial release.FeedbackYou can add bug reports, feature requests, etc., to theissue
tracker.  Patches will also be welcome!