121948 - investigate SyncML protocol (PDA palm)

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Address Book, enhancement)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

if we add sync support, investigate supporting SyncML protocol

see http://www.syncml.org/

Comment 1

[Mark Shuttleworth]

There is an implementation of SyncML available directly from the SyncML
consortium. The source code is downloadable directly from the web site. The
licence does not look like a familiar O/S licence, but it seems they might be
able to be convinced to released it to Mozilla under a suitable licence.

It would be great to see SyncML in Moz for:

  - addressbook
  - calendar

Syncing to Palm / WinCE / PocketPC / Symbian

Comment 2

[Thomas Evensen]

other phones as i.e siemens s55 also supports syncml. would be nice to also
support those devices (if that requires something different from the rest). 

Comment 3

[Henrik Gemal]

Nokia 7650 also have SynML support. Missing sync options in Mozilla is the main
reason why a lot of Mozilla users in my department is using Outlook at their
main mail application.

Comment 4

[hennessy]

any links to a good portable license-friendly implementation of syncml?

All I've seen is libsyncml, but it's C++..

Comment 5

[hennessy]

any links to a good portable license-friendly implementation of syncml?

All I've seen is libsyncml, but it's C++.. 

(I can't find the library implementation download link off the reorganized site
now :/)

Comment 6

[simon annear]

There appear to be two things to try and achieve with syncml
1. Allow mozilla calendar to sync with existing syncml server (ie www.weblicon.com)
2. Allow mozilla calendar to be a syncml server.

Option 1 seems to suit the mozilla calendar project - ie calendar is acting as a
client.  This means that you have converted your calendar from stand-alone, to
working with a standards-based calendar server (and synchronising, not just
importing/exporting, ie iCal).

Option 2 is probably the domain of another project - ie some of the open syncml
server based projects

Comment 7

[Pauli "suokko" Nieminen]

Some SyncML links:
IBM open source directory:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-syncml3.html
java lib: http://sync4j.sourceforge.net/web/theproject.html
C lib: http://sourceforge.net/projects/syncml-ctoolkit/

There is also possible that small group implement syncML for mozilla. Here is
plce where is syncML std.
http://www.syncml.org
http://www.openmobilealliance.org/syncml/docs/DevMan%201.1.1%20pdfs.zip
http://www.openmobilealliance.org/syncml/downloads.html

I will try to find more usefull stuff for this later.

Comment 8

[Yata Honga]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Nokia 7650 also have SynML support. Missing sync options in Mozilla is the main
> reason why a lot of Mozilla users in my department is using Outlook at their
> main mail application.

A little note of caution regarding Nokia's SyncML application on the Series 60
phones: at the time of this writing, they only allow for a synchronization with
a REMOTE server, meaning a SyncML server component available via some kind of
remote GPRS connection!

This means SyncML may not be the right choice if the goal is to synchronize with
Series 60 phones locally in the same manner as they can be synchronized with MS
Outlook and Lotus Notes.

Comment 9

[Phil Hannent]

A plugin for the MultiSync app would go some way to solving this problem.

http://multisync.sourceforge.net/

Mozilla doesn't really want to be tied down to supporting the different sync
devices out there and really it should be up to another application to manage
the task.

The only downside to this is that its not been ported to other platforms yet.

Comment 10

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

*** Bug 275826 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Paul Tomlin]

*** Bug 357029 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13

[Jonathan Pritchard]

No movement on this? SyncML seems widely supported on most modern mobile phones. This should definitely be on the roadmap for Sunbird/Calendar in my opinion.

Comment 15

[Robert Kaiser]

This would also be achieved if we implement bug 303963, as OpenSync is a cross-platform library that can talk to SyncML devices among others.

Comment 17

[H.-Dirk Schmitt]

The funambol connector is not well supported and not updated for Thunderbird 24.
Some installations and organizations are relying on syncml for cross platform synchronization, especially with mobile phones.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

obsolete