Re: [Phpgroupware-users] Palm sync / Calendar popups

[Christian Rost]

>>Anyways, I'd like to know the status of pda synchronisation with phpgw. 
>>I searched the archives and most discussions seems to date back to 2003 
>>so I'm curious as to where this technology is at. For now, they're using 
>>Palms but, being an office supply company, they could easily switch to 
>>Blackberry etc. 
> 
Well, Blackberry is a nasty topic if you've to sync them with OS software. RIM, 
the company
behind Blackberry, only offers one official way to sync Blackberry [BB] with a 
groupware - buy
an Blackberry Enterprise Server [BES], connect the BES to your groupware 
[Exchange, Lotus Notes,
Groupwise] and you're done.

By choosing this way, you can sync your BB by GPRS from all over the world 
through the BES
directly to the groupware, but not with PHPgw. There's no connector between the 
BES and PHPgw
and because the BES is closed source, I'm quite sure there never will be one.

The only way to sync BB with PHPgw so far, needs the help of Outlook, the 
Sync4J-Server and a
connector between the Sync4J-Server and PHPgw. The latter is currently under 
developement but we
don't know when it will be finished.

To make it short, the Sync4J-Server speaks native SyncML to sync calendar and 
contacts with any
pda/ cellphone that speaks SyncML. If your device can't speak SyncML, like 
Pocket PC or
Blackberry don't worry, because the Sync4J guys can help you further. They've 
coded SyncML
clients for e.g Outlook or Pocket PC 2003 that do the syncing.

Back to your BB case. Each BB is shipped with a sync-software called 
Intellisync. With this
software you can sync your BB with a locally installed application only - e.g. 
Outlook, Lotus
Organizer, ... but there's the Sync4J-Client for Outlook. The only thing you've 
todo is to sync
Outlook with PHPgw through the Sync4J-Server and afterwards sync BB with 
Outlook. Because the
current Sync4J-Client includes a scheduler, you can automatically sync Outlook 
at a minimum rate
of 15 minutes.

I don't know much about the palm support, because we tested it only with 
Outlook. IMHO it's the
only way to sync BB and other non SyncML devices with PHPgw.

Christian








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