Hello,
I am happy to announce the first 0.6 prerelease of SyncEvolution for
Maemo and the DBus Evolution Data Server. I have prepared a .deb package
in the hope that this will make it easier for people to try it out
before the 0.6 release.
What does it do?
SyncEvolution [1] synchronizes the Maemo system address book via
SyncML [2]. In theory calenders managed by the "Dates"
application can also be synchronized, but see below.
Other PIM suites are currently not supported. It wouldn't be
difficult to write backends for them, though.
SyncEvolution is a command line tool. You need to invoke it via
an xterm or when logged into the device via ssh.
If someone feels like developing a GUI or adding support for
other backends, I'd be happy to accept patches.
Why would you want/not want to use it?
The advantage of SyncEvolution is that it works with existing
SyncML servers available as free services in the Internet,
without needing a PC or special software on the PC. The drawback
is that these servers have to be trusted. Alternatively one can
install the Funambol SyncML server [3] on a private PC or
server.
SyncEvolution for the desktop Evolution has been around for over
a year with a steady number of downloads and hardly any problem
reports - it seems to get the job done...
Installation
The .deb package was compiled for Maemo 2.0, so it should work
with any IT OS >= 2006 and even the Nokia 800, but it was only
tested on a Nokia 770 with the latest IT OS2006. Backends for
address book and calendar access are compiled as loadable
modules. They will be enabled automatically if the required
libraries are installed: the address book is part of the base OS
installation, but the Evolution Data Server (EDS) packages for
calendar support have to be installed separately from the o-hand
repository [4].
I had problems getting these calendar packages to run. The
latest "Dates" application did not install due to a missing
dependency, so I chose an older version. But then the EDS
calendar server crashed after importing all events from the
SyncML server during the initial synchronization => feel free to
try out calendar syncs, but do not expect them to work at this
time.
Getting Started
SyncEvolution and ScheduleWorld [4] work well together. These
instructions are for synchronizing the address book with
ScheduleWorld - see the README for further information.
- install the Maemo _armel.deb from the SF project page:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=146288
- get an account on ScheduleWorld [4]
- open a shell window (xterm or ssh session)
# mkdir -p ~/.sync4j/evolution
# cp -r /usr/share/doc/syncevolution/scheduleworld_1 ~/.sync4j/evolution
# edit ~/.sync4j/evolution/scheduleworld_1/spds/syncml/config.txt
- choose a "deviceId" which is unique among all clients that you want
to synchronize with ScheduleWorld
- enter your "username/password"
- edit ~/.sync4j/evolution/scheduleworld_1/spds/sources/addressbook_1/config.txt
- set "evolutionsource" to "<<system>>"
- edit ~/.sync4j/evolution/scheduleworld_1/spds/sources/[memo_1|calendar_1|todo_1]/config.txt
- set "sync" to "none" to disable syncing for them
# syncevolution scheduleworld_1
The initial synchronization will do a "slow sync" which sends
all items on the client to the server and returns those that the
client does not have yet. Any further synchronization will do a
"two-way" sync which only exchanges modifications: updated
items, deletions, additions.
To synchronize your calendar, set "sync" to "two-way" again in
spds/sources/calendar_1/config.txt and "evolutionsource" to
"Personal". "syncevolution" without parameters will show all
available data sources.
Caveats
Under /var/tmp/SyncEvolution-user-scheduleworld a dump of the
address book before and after synchronization is created
together with a log of the last synchronization. This log is
rather verbose and can get large (several MB for many items), so
beware! The directory can be configured in the
spds/syncml/config.txt. Configuring the verbosity level is on
the todo list.
This release is not as well-tested as full releases normally
are; in particular only manual tests were run because the
automated test suite does not yet work under Maemo.
The package probably does not quite follow Maemo standards and
cannot be updated via the package manager because it is not part
of a proper repository.
Reporting Problems
Please use the SF [6] tracker for reporting problems and
requesting features. For discussion of the Maemo package please
reply on this list.
Further Reading
The README in the .deb package contains the full user
documentation. Compiling for Maemo requires several hacks which
are described in the source and the HACKING document in the
source distribution.
[1] http://www.estamos.de/projects/SyncML/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SyncML
[3] http://www.funambol.com/
[4] http://maemo.o-hand.com/
[5] http://sync.scheduleworld.com
[6] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=146288&atid=764733
--
Bye, Patrick Ohly
--
Patrick.Ohly at gmx.de
http://www.estamos.de/
