Zimbra OSS to Android sync

We just started using ICSSync with Zimbra 7 and it works in both directions. It also works with unsigned SSL certs which was important for us.

I tried it before LVSync because we can use it for 20 days before buying it. If it continues to work well, we'll most likely buy it. Has anyone else used LVSync and had success? I'm interested in it but there were some bad reviews (for what little that's worth). I just wish I could try it out first, because if it works as advertised it's a better choice than the ICSSync.

I've added LVSync as a paid app.

Theoretically, it's great, though currently I'm having lots of errors with LVSync when trying to sync tasks, though it could just be my setup.

Additionally, the app currently does not sync tags (other than for tasks), this makes sorting calenders and especially contacts on Android very difficult for me - i.e. when wanting to sms everyone tagged 'office colleague'.

One of the developers has mooted to me about adding tag syncing in the longer term. Once contact two-way syncing becomes available, I reckon it would be a viable option.

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Originally Posted by splante

We just started using ICSSync with Zimbra 7 and it works in both directions. It also works with unsigned SSL certs which was important for us.

I tried it before LVSync because we can use it for 20 days before buying it. If it continues to work well, we'll most likely buy it. Has anyone else used LVSync and had success? I'm interested in it but there were some bad reviews (for what little that's worth). I just wish I could try it out first, because if it works as advertised it's a better choice than the ICSSync.

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Hi,

Well, as far as we know, since we're the author of the application, believe us or not but it works as advertised and, due to the way we do this sync (Zimbra's native SOAP API), we can retrieve much more informations and details than our competitors who are using CalDAV (ICSSync uses ICS which is in fact the CalDAV protocol) which is a general purpose synchronization protocol for calendar sync and thus, works well but can't handle some specific features of this or that server.

Anyway, I have good news for you and probably many people who are asking for it : we will release a "demo" version of LVSync very soon (probably today or the beginning of next week).
This will be a very limited demo (only the 10 first items of contacts, calendars and tasks will be synchronized and read only) but the goal of this demo version is to make sure LVSync works as expected for your setup so you can buy it if it suits your needs.

Best regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by splante

[...]
I tried it before LVSync because we can use it for 20 days before buying it. If it continues to work well, we'll most likely buy it. Has anyone else used LVSync and had success? I'm interested in it but there were some bad reviews (for what little that's worth). I just wish I could try it out first, because if it works as advertised it's a better choice than the ICSSync.

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For what little that's worth, I want to share my experience:

- I bought LVSync a couple of days ago, one of the bad reviews will be mine, because it's not worth the money. :mad: I found it useless in a business enviroment because:

• The product lacks many fundamental features in order to be useful, at this point is little more than a toy.
• It only addresses One platform. I usually need at least support for Nokia, WinPhone and Blackberry devices.
• I am forced to install it and manage every single device, even personal one.
• Last, but not least, in a business enviroment meeting invites are a must-have feature, not an optional one

my 2 cents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by federico.bertola

For what little that's worth, I want to share my experience:

- I bought LVSync a couple of days ago, one of the bad reviews will be mine, because it's not worth the money. :mad: I found it useless in a business enviroment because:

• The product lacks many fundamental features in order to be useful, at this point is little more than a toy.
• It only addresses One platform. I usually need at least support for Nokia, WinPhone and Blackberry devices.
• I am forced to install it and manage every single device, even personal one.
• Last, but not least, in a business enviroment meeting invites are a must-have feature, not an optional one

my 2 cents.

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Hi,

Well, would have been fair to contact us at least ... we might have solved your issues (if there are) or at least answer your questions, even refund your purchase in case you'd be that unhappy with the product before flamming us in the reviews.

Now, concerning the points you're talking about :

What are the so fundamental features LVSync lacks that you require that much ? As much as I can say, except for ActiveSync enabled users who can use the Corporate Account supported by Android (which is not that well implemented anyway), there is no competitor product which provide more features than LVSync with Zimbra in one product.

About the platform, you're right but there too, there is not much applications that are fully cross platform ... we're investigating the possibility to support iOS devices in a near future but there is very few chances that we support Win Phone, Black Berry or even Nokia one day so I'm sorry but this is not a bug, this is a choice. And no, PalmOS, WinMo or Symbian 2 are not probably beeing supported too ... sorry :p

Concerning deployment, well, like many application coming from the Play Store, they are mostly intended for personnal usage and unfortunately, Google don't provide any kind of volume licensing for large scale deployment. We are thinking in providing our own "Corporate Licensing" system but we are already busy at completing LVSync which still lack 2-way sync on contacts, this is our priority but we need time for this which is something rare those days (LVSync is not our only activity).
Anyway, we can provide dedicated APK with negociated discount for volume licencing ... as I said, you could just have contacted us ...

Concerning "Meeting invites", I didn't understand what your problem is exactly ? You could have send us a feature request like Störm did when he proposed us to add a feature to support tagged contacts as Android groups ... we didn't think of it at first and as I answered him, this might be included one day but this is not in our top priorities.

Regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by storm

I've added LVSync as a paid app.

Theoretically, it's great, though currently I'm having lots of errors with LVSync when trying to sync tasks, though it could just be my setup.

Additionally, the app currently does not sync tags (other than for tasks), this makes sorting calenders and especially contacts on Android very difficult for me - i.e. when wanting to sms everyone tagged 'office colleague'.

One of the developers has mooted to me about adding tag syncing in the longer term. Once contact two-way syncing becomes available, I reckon it would be a viable option.

---

Hi,

We released a new version just today (2.2.8) which might fix your issues with tasks, please, keep me posted.

Regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hybrid512

Hi,

Well, would have been fair to contact us at least ... we might have solved your issues (if there are) or at least answer your questions, even refund your purchase in case you'd be that unhappy with the product before flamming us in the reviews.

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Just to clarify the point, I am not talking to you, I am merely sharing my experience with other Zimbra users. These are the Zimbra Forums, not the LV-Sync Forums!
Being a Zimbra professional, the amount of money invested to evaluate your product is, frankly, beneath my notice. What isn't is the amount of time wasted in testing it, which was by far more valuable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hybrid512

Now, concerning the points you're talking about :

What are the so fundamental features LVSync lacks that you require that much ? As much as I can say, except for ActiveSync enabled users who can use the Corporate Account supported by Android (which is not that well implemented anyway), there is no competitor product which provide more features than LVSync with Zimbra in one product.

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I have no interest, nor further time to waste, in discussing this. Every other approach to the matter of mobile synchronization I've tried until now (e.g. Z-push, Funambol) has worked better than this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hybrid512

About the platform, you're right but there too, there is not much applications that are fully cross platform ... we're investigating the possibility to support iOS devices in a near future but there is very few chances that we support Win Phone, Black Berry or even Nokia one day so I'm sorry but this is not a bug, this is a choice. And no, PalmOS, WinMo or Symbian 2 are not probably beeing supported too ... sorry :p

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I find your answer quite unprofessional, although that at least appeas to be consistent with your product. In the real world, Android is but one platform, not "the" platform.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hybrid512

Concerning deployment, well, like many application coming from the Play Store, they are mostly intended for personnal usage and unfortunately, Google don't provide any kind of volume licensing for large scale deployment. We are thinking in providing our own "Corporate Licensing" system but we are already busy at completing LVSync which still lack 2-way sync on contacts, this is our priority but we need time for this which is something rare those days (LVSync is not our only activity).
Anyway, we can provide dedicated APK with negociated discount for volume licencing ... as I said, you could just have contacted us ...

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I'm not talking about licensing or pricing, what I mean is that a protocol natively supported (even if not specific), or at the very least cross-platform (like funambol), is preferable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hybrid512

Concerning "Meeting invites", I didn't understand what your problem is exactly ? You could have send us a feature request like Störm did when he proposed us to add a feature to support tagged contacts as Android groups ... we didn't think of it at first and as I answered him, this might be included one day but this is not in our top priorities.

Regards.

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As I already made clear, suggesting or requesting new features is not something I am interested in. I only wished to spare other Zimbra admin from wasting their time as well.

Share your experience as you like, for sure, this is not a "LVSync forum" but this thread is about mobile sync solutions for Zimbra and the latest questions were about LVSync.
You gave your point of view and as a representative of the LVSync team, its also my right to answer and to be honest, I find you quite disrespectful for the people behind this application.
You can have your opinion, your "2 cents" as you say, and you can have a bad opinion, this is perfectly right to me but don't be aggressive and don't judge our "professionalism" just because there are features that are missing or that you dislike.
A missing feature is not a bug and as far as I know, LVSync does what it says, we don't fool people.

It's not a lack of "professinalism" to report problems or ask for features when you thinnk that things are missing ... this is the way software evolves.

Now, LVSync is a little app which aim is to give a solution for people willing to sync their Zimbra account easily with any version of Zimbra, even without ActiveSync.
That's all it pretends and yes, it is (at least by now), Android only and what ?
I didn't say Android is "the" only mobile system, you are extrapolating. What I said is that we don't intend to support every platform because we have limited ressources so we made a choice, beeing not yours is not my concern.
We try to satisfy the most people we can and if you don't like our work, then, that's ok, use something else but don't say this is a "waste of time" or "not worth the money", this is completely subjective and since I do know the amount of work behind this, I can assure you that it is worth the price.

Now, about professionalism, please ... Funambol for Zimbra sync with Android ? Are you joking ?
Z-Push for sure is a good alternative, after all, it provides a quite good ActiveSync support to Zimbra OSE, apparently, Zextra Mobile is good too but you need to have access to your server for that, it needs manipulations that are unsupported by Zimbra and so, you can't be sure it will work with any new major release, even intermediary releases can break compatibility.
It takes less than 10mn to try LVSync capabilities compared to the hours of tweaking it takes to have a fully working Z-Push, you can even cancel your purchase within that time period.
Zextra is more expensive since it is an annual subscription.
And LVSync is based on the Zimbra's native SOAP API which is the one used by Zimbra Desktop and which is supported at least with Zimbra 8 since ZDesktop is going to be deprecated but ZCS8 will remain compatible with it so it will continue to work without any changes.

Now, I'm finished with this discussion with you, I'm not there to troll way around, I'm here to answer peoples questions, just as you and if you're unhappy that much with LVSync, let's continue this privately or ask for a refund.

Regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by splante

We just started using ICSSync with Zimbra 7 and it works in both directions. It also works with unsigned SSL certs which was important for us.

I tried it before LVSync because we can use it for 20 days before buying it. If it continues to work well, we'll most likely buy it. Has anyone else used LVSync and had success? I'm interested in it but there were some bad reviews (for what little that's worth). I just wish I could try it out first, because if it works as advertised it's a better choice than the ICSSync.

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Just to tell that we finaly released a free demo version so everyone can try LVSync before buying.

Available on the Play Store as usual : https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...acts.sync.demo

Regards.