Possibly a dumb question

[Damon]

I've been looking on the around for a little bit (mind you the brain isn't fully switched on this morning yet) but does the community edition of Zimbra, also act as an exchange server? or is it just the 'paid' editions?

[Jbrabander]

Exchange is solely a Microsoft product. So the short answer is, no. No version of Zimbra also runs as Exchange.

[Damon]

Hrmm ok.. I thought I had read somewhere that you could setup a device such as an iPhone to connect to zimbra by using the "exchange" option on the phone.. I guess not. Thanks for that.

[bdial]

you should've specified that in your original post

yes zimbra mobile (only available for NE version) will work with activesync and you add it as you would an exchange server

[ewilen]

Okay, answering the intent of your post rather than the exact wording...

The paid (NE) version of Zimbra has a paid add-on (Zimbra Mobile) that lets it serve ActiveSync-enabled devices such as iPhone 2.0.

It also, independently, has a higher-cost version (Zimbra Professional) that lets Outlook access Zimbra in a manner that is very similar to Exchange, from the end-user perspective.

If you don't buy either of these options, then iPhone 2.0 won't sync Calendar or Contacts with Zimbra--but you could still set up your iPhone as an IMAP client to get your mail off of Zimbra. When iPhone 3.0 arrives, it's supposed to support CalDAV, so in theory you could sync your Calendar via Zimbra's CalDAV facility--just as Sunbird/Lightning/iCal 3.0 do now.

Without the Professional version of Zimbra, the only thing Outlook can do is get mail via POP or IMAP--possibly not very well, either, judging from some brief experience I've had with IMAP and Outlook. There are people working on a CalDAV add-on for Outlook, but that's a completely separate project from Zimra and I don't know how far along they are.

Now if you're not married to Outlook, there are clients which will do email+calendar with the Zimbra community edition. (E.g., Zimbra Desktop, Mac Mail + iCal, Thunderbird/Lightning/Sunbird.) And if you don't need to sync iPhone's built-in calendar, there's a mobile web version of the Zimbra interface which is pretty nice. Won't do reminders through your phone, though.

[phingers]

So now that iphone 3.0 is here, has anyone tried this stuff out?

If I link my calendar using caldav, and my address book via ldap, and mail via imap, what features am I lacking with this setup from the NE version using the exchange setup option on the iphone?

[ewilen]

There are a few threads already on iPhone with CalDAV, search for them for more details.

Right now, you can't sync your address book via ldap. You may be able to access the GAL (haven't tried it) but that's not the same thing. So right off the bat you're missing that. However if you can sync your contacts to Address Book (Mac) or Outlook (Windows)--which requires NE--you could do a wired sync from there to iPhone.

As for CalDAV, iPhone 3.0 currently has a bug which messes up the date/time of some events. This is the "year 2045" bug. I'll bet that'll be fixed soon by Apple but a bigger question is whether you can create invitations currently, as you can with the ActiveSync setup. And if not, how soon Apple will implement it.

OTOH there are some ways in which iPhone with IMAP is superior to the ActiveSync Mail setup. If I recall correctly, the IMAP connection does a better job of retaining info like whether a message has been replied to or forwarded, for example.

One thing to look forward to is CardDAV support in Zimbra (I believe it's slotted for 6.1). If iPhone then introduces same, you'll have contact sync. I think this is a very realistic prospect since Apple apparently plans on having CardDAV in both Mac OS 10.6 client and Mac OS 10.6 server.

[phingers]

Ewilen, thanks for the great info - sounds like I should stick with the zimbra mobile offering from them for now if I want the true syncing.