Another thing that has to be clarified is what types of data has to be managed and what the requiremens for each data type are. The most common PIM data types are calendar, address book, notes and to-do list.
- Calendar
A calendar item specifies something that happens at a certain date, time or range of either. It can be a one time event or repeat itself. PIM applications ususally support some kind of alarm prior to the scheduled date.
- Address book
Address book entries contain all kinds of whitepage information: First name, last name, title, birthdate, private address, business address, picture, phone numbers, email addresses, and many more.
- Notes
A note is a small text or a graphic, optionally with a title.
- To-do
To-do items are things that have to be done once. To-do items can be marked as complete once their done. Some To-do items might have a due date.
One feature that I have not seen implemented in any PIM application is an automatically apprearing to-do item prior to schduled events. For example: I would like the to-do item “buy present” to appear no earlier than two weeks before a birthday. Or I would like the item “buy train ticket for next month” to appear no earlier than the 25th of each month.
For resons of simplification, we will pick calendar or address book data when explaining some things in detail. The same information ususally also applies to notes and to-do entries.