Birthdays continue to be shown in calendar after death

[pwaring]

Describe the bug

One of my contacts recently died, so I went and set the date of death field in their entry. However, there are still ongoing calendar entries for this contact's birthday after their date of death, and I get notifications for them.

I'm not sure if this is a contacts bug or a calendar bug, but I think it is an issue with contacts because the calendar is, as far as I'm aware, simply displaying entries populated by the contacts app.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Add a contact.
2. Set date of birth.
3. Set date of death.
4. View calendar and jump to what would be the next birthday after the date of death - entry is still there.

Expected behavior

No more birthday entries in the calendar after the date of death.

Actual behavior

Birthday entries continue indefinitely.

Server configuration

Operating system: Linux 5.4.0-58-generic nextcloud/contacts#64-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 9 08:16:25 UTC 2020 x86_64

Web server: nginx/1.18.0 (fpm-fcgi)

Database: mysql 10.3.25 (reported as mysql in Nextcloud but it is actually MariaDB).

PHP version: 7.4.3
Modules loaded: Core, date, libxml, openssl, pcre, zlib, filter, hash, Reflection, SPL, session, standard, sodium, cgi-fcgi, mysqlnd, PDO, xml, bcmath, bz2, calendar, ctype, curl, dom, mbstring, FFI, fileinfo, ftp, gd, gettext, gmp, iconv, imagick, intl, json, exif, mysqli, pdo_mysql, Phar, posix, readline, shmop, SimpleXML, sockets, sysvmsg, sysvsem, sysvshm, tokenizer, xmlreader, xmlwriter, xsl, zip, Zend OPcache

Nextcloud version: 20.0.4 - 20.0.4.0

Contacts version: 3.4.2

Updated from an older Nextcloud or fresh install: Updated

Signing status:

No errors have been found.

List of activated apps:

Enabled:
  - accessibility: 1.6.0
  - activity: 2.13.4
  - admin_audit: 1.10.0
  - calendar: 2.1.2
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.3.0
  - comments: 1.10.0
  - contacts: 3.4.2
  - contactsinteraction: 1.1.0
  - dashboard: 7.0.0
  - dav: 1.16.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.10.2
  - federation: 1.10.1
  - files: 1.15.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 2.0.1
  - files_rightclick: 0.17.0
  - files_sharing: 1.12.1
  - files_trashbin: 1.10.1
  - files_versions: 1.13.0
  - files_videoplayer: 1.9.0
  - firstrunwizard: 2.9.0
  - issuetemplate: 0.7.0
  - logreader: 2.5.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.8.0
  - nextcloud_announcements: 1.9.0
  - notifications: 2.8.0
  - oauth2: 1.8.0
  - password_policy: 1.10.1
  - photos: 1.2.1
  - privacy: 1.4.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.10.0
  - recommendations: 0.8.0
  - serverinfo: 1.10.0
  - settings: 1.2.0
  - sharebymail: 1.10.0
  - support: 1.3.0
  - survey_client: 1.8.0
  - systemtags: 1.10.0
  - text: 3.1.0
  - theming: 1.11.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.9.0
  - updatenotification: 1.10.0
  - user_status: 1.0.1
  - viewer: 1.4.0
  - weather_status: 1.0.0
  - workflowengine: 2.2.0
Disabled:
  - encryption
  - files_external
  - user_ldap

Nextcloud configuration:

{
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        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
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        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "20.0.4.0",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "maintenance": false,
        "theme": "",
        "loglevel": 2,
        "trashbin_retention_obligation": "auto, 30",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "updater.secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
    },
    "apps": {
        "accessibility": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.6.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "activity": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.13.4",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "admin_audit": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.10.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "backgroundjob": {
            "lastjob": "976"
        },
        "calendar": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.1.2",
            "types": ""
        },
        "cloud_federation_api": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.3.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "comments": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.10.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "contacts": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "3.4.2",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "contactsinteraction": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.1.0",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "core": {
            "backgroundjobs_mode": "cron",
            "enterpriseLogoChecked": "yes",
            "installedat": "1538569858.8053",
            "lastcron": "1608197103",
            "lastupdateResult": "{\"version\":\"20.0.4.0\",\"versionstring\":\"Nextcloud 20.0.4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/download.nextcloud.com\\\/server\\\/releases\\\/nextcloud-20.0.4.zip\",\"web\":\"https:\\\/\\\/docs.nextcloud.com\\\/server\\\/20\\\/admin_manual\\\/maintenance\\\/upgrade.html\",\"changes\":\"https:\\\/\\\/updates.nextcloud.com\\\/changelog_server\\\/?version=20.0.4\",\"autoupdater\":\"1\",\"eol\":\"0\"}",
            "lastupdatedat": "0",
            "moveavatarsdone": "yes",
            "oc.integritycheck.checker": "[]",
            "previewsCleanedUp": "1",
            "public_files": "files_sharing\/public.php",
            "public_webdav": "dav\/appinfo\/v1\/publicwebdav.php",
            "scss.variables": "db81cddf52fdb3c8ca1e4c859e214124",
            "shareapi_allow_group_sharing": "no",
            "shareapi_allow_public_upload": "no",
            "shareapi_allow_share_dialog_user_enumeration": "no",
            "shareapi_default_permission_cancreate": "no",
            "shareapi_default_permission_candelete": "no",
            "shareapi_default_permission_canshare": "no",
            "shareapi_default_permission_canupdate": "no",
            "shareapi_default_permissions": "1",
            "shareapi_enabled": "no",
            "theming.variables": "b92d206521717ac032f8aa58d3c7ff2f",
            "updater.secret.created": "1608143427",
            "vendor": "nextcloud"
        },
        "dashboard": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "7.0.0",
            "types": ""
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        "dav": {
            "buildCalendarReminderIndex": "yes",
            "buildCalendarSearchIndex": "yes",
            "chunks_migrated": "1",
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.16.2",
            "regeneratedBirthdayCalendarsForYearFix": "yes",
            "sendEventRemindersPush": "yes",
            "sendInvitations": "no",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "federatedfilesharing": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.10.2",
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        "federation": {
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        "files": {
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        "files_versions": {
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            "installed_version": "1.13.0",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "files_videoplayer": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.9.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "firstrunwizard": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.9.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "gallery": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "18.4.0",
            "types": ""
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        "issuetemplate": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "0.7.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "logreader": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.5.0",
            "relativedates": "1",
            "types": ""
        },
        "lookup_server_connector": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.8.0",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "nextcloud_announcements": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.9.0",
            "pub_date": "Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0200",
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        "notifications": {
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            "installed_version": "2.8.0",
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        "privacy": {
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        "provisioning_api": {
            "enabled": "yes",
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        "serverinfo": {
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        "settings": {
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        "sharebymail": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.10.0",
            "sendpasswordmail": "no",
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        "support": {
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        "systemtags": {
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        "text": {
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        "theming": {
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        "twofactor_backupcodes": {
            "enabled": "yes",
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    }
}

Client configuration

I don't think the problem is with my client configuration, as the issue is the calendar being populated on the server. I have tried multiple browsers and the same problem occurs in all of them.

Browser: Firefox 84.0

Operating system: Ubuntu 20.04

CardDAV-clients: n/a

[skjnldsv]

Hi, sorry for your loss.
That is an very good point, I'll move this issue to the server repository as this is where we generate the events.

[mburnicki]

The basic question here is what a user expects. IMO it is totally OK to be reminded in memoriam of some folks.

On the other hand, I have birthday saved for some contacts where I wouldn't need to be reminded, so IMO a cool feature would be to have a way to configure which birthdays should show up in the birthdays calendar at all, and also if those birthdays should show up after a person's death.

[skjnldsv]

@mburnicki I understand. Such settings can be very complicated. It's easier to have a all-in or all-out config here. So you enable birthday sync or not. But picking specific contacts would be far too complicated.

cc @tcitworld :)

[tcitworld]

It would be interesting to have a look at how Google/Apple/… handle their birthday calendars for deceased people.

Also see #1505 for generic birthday calendar reminder settings.

[ilippert]

The basic question here is what a user expects.

I would underline this and without hesitation claim that crosscultural norms for when and /or how to remember specific dates relating to contacts are highly diverse. Using Google/Apple as examples might not be the best orientation.

[mburnicki]

Maybe a good workaround could be if each address book had a property to determine if dates of birth should be added to the "contacts birthday" calendar, or not.

With such an approach, contacts that are expected to show up in the birthday list could be moved to one address book, and contacts that are not expected to appear in the birthday calendar even though a date-of-birth field is available could be moved to a different address book, and the routine that creates/updates the birthday calendar can evaluate that property.

If a person has died and you don't want to have a birthday reminder anymore, you could simply move that contact to the other address book, or leave it where it is if you do want the reminders.

Of course, if you sync your address books to Android or e.g. Thunderbird/Cardbook, these apps will still create their own reminders because they don't know the property that has been configured on the server, but at least the generated "birthday calendar" should behave as expected.

[tcitworld]

With #34388 and nextcloud/contacts#3009 you can exclude specific contacts from the birthday calendar.

[pwaring]

I've tested on:

• Nextcloud 25.0.3
• Calender 4.2.1
• Contacts 5.0.2

The issue is still present - if I set a Date of Death on a contact their birthday continues to show in the calendar.

[tcitworld]

I've set the labels as enhancement, since the aim is to find a way which would match everyone's expectations.

Would a global user "Hide birthdays from deceased persons" setting + the exclusion of specific contacts feature I've linked above work and is enough? Is a "disable birthday" setting per address book needed as @mburnicki suggested?

[mschilli87]

@tcitworld: My 2 cents: A global setting would be a big improvement and sufficient to resolve this issue AFAIC. But I see why some users might want even more control so @mburnicki suggestion remains valid (but could be tracked in a separate, lower priority, issue, IMHO).