CounterPath Bria 3.0 for Windows User Guide – Enterprise Deployments - Manual (Page 36)

CounterPath Corporation
32
Populating the Contact List
At any time, but particularly when you first deploy Bria, you may want to populate the contact list with contacts
from an external source.
From WebDAV or XCAP
If your system administrator has set up a WebDAV or XCAP server, then once Bria is configured to use this
server for contact storage, the contacts from that source will automatically appear in the contact list. From then
on, each time you add a contact, it will be stored on that server.
The contact list on WebDAV or XCAP is individual, not shared among users.
From an LDAP Directory or Active Directory
If your system administrator has set up an LDAP directory or Microsoft Active Directory, then once Bria is
configured to connect to this directory, the contacts from that source will automatically appear in the Directory
tab (page 43). From that tab, you can select people and set them up as contacts.
Synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook
You can populate the Bria contact list by synchronizing with your Microsoft® Outlook® contacts. In this case,
you are actually using your Outlook contacts from within Bria. When you start Bria, contacts are fetched from
Outlook. When you add or modify a contact in Bria, the contact is actually saved in the Outlook personal
address book.
To synchronize with Outlook, set your contact list storage method to Microsoft Outlook.
If you started using Bria with contact storage set to Local and then want to switch to Outlook, you can export
the contacts currently stored locally in Bria and then import them into Outlook. Then when you switch to
Outlook, these contacts will reappear along with all the other contacts from Outlook. See below for information
on import and export.
Importing Contacts
You can populate the Bria contact list by importing from an external file or files. Your system administrator may
have placed a file on a server for you to import. You can also import your own file or files, as many as required.
The new contacts will be added to the existing contacts.
If you are using Microsoft Outlook to store contacts, you cannot import or export; these menu items are
disabled.
You can import a contact list from:
• A comma-separated file. Use this method to import from a Microsoft® Excel® file. You will first have to
set up the file; see below.
• A vCard file (*.vcf file). A vCard is an electronic business card that is often attached to an e-mail.
• A Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft® Exchange contact list (a *.pst file).
1. From the main menu, click the Contacts menu and choose Import Contacts. The Import Contacts wizard
starts.
2. As soon as you click Finish on the wizard, the Contacts tab in Bria is updated to show the imported entries.
Setting up an Excel File for Import
1. Remove any introductory text or headings from the top of the file. (You can keep text at the end of the file;
it will be ignored during the import.)