ZCS 4.5.4 Mobile - No Multiple Calendar Sync?

[dlbewley]

I'm on a Cingular HTC 8525 phone. Using the airwaves or using ActiveSync over USB to a windows box does not pull in details from any secondary or share-mounted calendars.

My VIPs delegate their calendar to an assistant, but they want to be able to "hide" some appointments. We've told them to use "Calendar" for most items and create a "Personal" calendar with free/busy unchecked for personal items.

If they could not sync a 2nd calendar another possible option could be to tag appointments as "private". Private appointments would not be visible to someone even if they have manager rights to my calendar. This would be a Zimbra enhancment, and I don't know how that would affect outlook clients.

Perhaps the appointments from each calendar could be merged into the one calendar available on the mobile client. I don't know if each appointment has a UUID. If it did then the mobile client could successfully edit appointments on a second calendar even if it wasn't smart enough to create them.

Where exactly is the limitation preventing the 2nd calender from syncing? Is it a limitation of the mobile Outlook client? A limitation of the Active Sync software? Zimbra?

[jjzhuang]

The limitation lies in that ActiveSync clients don't support sync with multiple calendar folders. There is no such a notion. In fact even for multiple email folder sync only WM devices support.

There is an enhancement request ticket open to add support for multiple calendars on the server so that at least the client will show all of them. It is not clear which release will have that feature, but it doesn't sound like even that feature is what you want.

[dlbewley]

Originally Posted by jjzhuang

In fact even for multiple email folder sync only WM devices support.

I'm not sure what that means. Are you saying only Windows Mobile clients can sync more than one email folder and other clients (such as Palm) can sync only one?

Originally Posted by jjzhuang

There is an enhancement request ticket open to add support for multiple calendars on the server so that at least the client will show all of them. It is not clear which release will have that feature, but it doesn't sound like even that feature is what you want.

Do you mean multiplexing of the calendars on the server before presenting it to the sync client? I believe that would be a positive workaround for me given the limitations on the client side. Do you know the bugzilla #?

[jjzhuang]

Precisely. Palm, Nokia and WM Smartphones only sync Inbox. Only WM PocketPC can choose additional email folders to sync. Of course if you use a PocketPC, we do support multi folder sync.

[jjzhuang]

The bug number is 8157.

[scalper]

how to differentiate WM smartphone / pocketpc? Does the wm version shows that? what activesync version is needed?

[CrazyOne]

I just tested Treo 750 and Samsung Blackjack (i607). These had WM 5 on them, but Treo is PocketPC and Blackjack is Smartphone. Pocket PC should have a touch screen interface; that's usually the differentiator. You may be able to dig into some screen on the phone that tells you this.

BTW, I had no trouble with OTA syncing of additional email folders on either phone. On the WM PocketPC (Treo 750, but should be same for others), I could select this in the phone itself. On WM Smartphone (Blackjack, but again, others should be same), this had to be set in the *PC* ActiveSync settings. There is ActiveSync on the phone and ActiveSync on a PC, and the only way to get additional folders or change the number of days to sync on the Smartphone was to do it while it was connected to the PC and using the PC's interface. I used ActiveSync 4.5 for that; the CD that came with the phone had 4.2 on it.

Once that was done, I was set. The Blackjack worked pretty well. The Treo was quite the brick in comparison (thicker and over 25% heavier). We're probably going to get a few Blackjacks for people here to use with Zimbra. With any luck those settings could be changed just the once and forget about it, because we don't want to PC sync, just OTA sync. Both synced contacts and main calendar just fine.

[scalper]

thanx for the info. i am using dopod 838pro smartphone. i noticed that there is no option at activesync via phone to add additional folders to sync OTA. will look on edit the folders sync option while docked to the pc via activesync.

[scalper]

my activesync is preinstalled when i get the phone. dont know what version. is there any way to check the version installed on my smartphone? i really needs to get all folders sync since i rely so much on mail filter!

[scalper]

solved! just need to select the folder when I dock my phone to pc via activesync!