Zimbra + Funambol Sync4j Code

[Verbunk]

Hi Guys,

Ok, so, this has me confused. I am running the community version of Zimbra (5.rc1) and have a linux smartphone with native support for 'syncml'. What are the settings one needs to insert into client to get this working... I didn't see any wiki entry or howto @ zimbra.com. From what I gathered there is work being done on a client for windows mobile and also a server component?

Could someone please explain the work being done on this?.

-Joshua

[hillman]

To clarify, "Zimbra Mobile" is the name of the product that Zimbra sells to give direct access to Zimbra from certain mobile phones. As far as I know, it doesn't do SyncML.

The Connector being discussed in this thread, although located in the "Zimbra Mobile" forum, doesn't actually have anything to do with the Zimbra Mobile product. This connector is a plugin for the Funambol SyncML server. Here's how the data flows:

ZimbraServer <--SOAP--> ZimbraConnector/Funambol <--SyncML-->PDA

So to use a PDA with Zimbra using the SyncML language, you need to install a Funambol server separate from the Zimbra server.

And although the installation of Funambol is relatively straightforward, getting it to work with the Zimbra Connector and then getting it all to work together is definitely non-trivial, as the discussion on this thread indicates. The Zimbra Connector is in what I'd call an "Alpha" stage right now, so if you like hacking on software, by all means give it a try, but don't expect reliability right now.

[DenRaf]

K, managed to get logging working rather easily

cp Sync4j/server/default/config/common/beans/sync4j/server/logging/Logging.xml Sync4j/server/config/sync4j/server/logging/Logging.xml

Also the sub-menus of logging in the admin console are working. But the sub menus of the modules still aren't working.

Anyone a solution for that?


Edit:
- Almost there. All sub-menus for the modules works, except that one for the zimbra module. The problem was that I used different java versions for the admin console and for the server. I think that the problem for the zimbra module is also there for me. This is with jre 1.5.0
The server comes by default with jre 1.4.2. When I use that java for the admin console, the console does not work.

[hillman]

Weird.

I haven't played with using anything but the bundled version of Java with the sync4j server, but I'm running the admin console on a completely different box (a Win XP box), and it "just worked".

With the logging, I was able to get logging from all components of the server (the core engine and the zimbra module) by just setting the top-level logging level. The default is "INFO" which is fairly terse. Setting it to "ALL" gives you all the gory details suitable for debugging.

Re: problems with Blackberry client. I've done a bit more testing at our site with my colleague's device (a BlackBerry Curve - 8310). In short, none of the free clients work with the connector so far. The older sync4j clients are sending their data in what appears to be base64 encoding, which the sync4j server doesn't expect and can't deal with. The newer Funambol client uses SyncML version 1.2 which the Sync4j server doesn't support, so the server throws an exception.

We had some success with the Nexthause SyncML client, but it's a commercial client ($30). We bought it to test against Oracle's SyncML interface, so the testing with Zimbra is just a bonus. Using that client, we were able to sync contacts (to some extent), but not calendars. Testing is on-going. Unfortunately we can't really do any more testing with the free clients until the Zimbra connector is ported to Funambol v 3 & 6 (which add support for SyncML 1.2)

Update: The reason the Nexthause client couldn't sync the calendar is because the server isn't sending a version string with its VCALENDAR updates. Since there are now 2 versions of VCalendar, it makes the update ambiguous, so the client gives an error. This may not be fixable from the Zimbra module, which means it'll remain broken until it gets ported to Funambol v3/6 also

[DenRaf]

I'm now also able to see the sub-menus off the zimbra-module. I removed the config files of ical and vcard that I had manually added.

Well yeah, I use a linux client (Fedora 7) and a linux server (CentOS 5). I hope to have my cell back tomorrow so I can test again.

[fisherad]

I just want to thank everybody for putting all the effort into this. I can't wait to get this into beta. Thanks

[hillman]

I just wanted to post an update on my work..

I did some more testing with the SyncJE Blackberry client against the Zimbra connector. I was able to get calendars to sync one-way to the Blackberry, but at the end of the sync process, a null-pointer exception is thrown on the server (outside of the Zimbra connector) and the sync status is lost.

I've concluded that it's a waste of time continuing to work against the 2-year old Sync4J server. Better to port to the Funambol v6 server and get it working there. I understand enough about the internals now (I think), that I can probably move the important bits into a v6 module. The SOGo team have produced a very compact, lightweight Funambol connector for their server, so I plan on using that as a framework moving forward.

However, I'm still not a Java developer, so I'll be getting some mentoring help from some of my colleagues who are developers. As such, I probably won't be able to produce anything more for a few weeks. I've put my latest version of the connector up at the same URL -- http://www.sfu.ca/~hillman/ZimbraSync4j.tar.gz

[SpEnTBoY]

Just a note to thank you again for all your efforts!! I'm pretty optimistic about getting my Motorola Q sync'ing with Zimbra somehow in the (near?) future. I still dont have the old Sync4j server running and have little to no damn time to try it but I'm still planning on testing what you have at least to feed debug info ... hopefully it'll help with the port to Funambol ... I am by far not a java developer either lol ... I hack C/C++/Perl/_some_ python but my code usually gets laughs followed by confused looks

EIther way, still very excited about your work!!

[jproig]

hillman,
wich version of blackberry client are you using?
i want to help porting to funambol v6, please let me know,
thanks
juan

[hillman]

I was using the Nexthause SyncJe client (commercial). None of the Funambol clients will work because they all try to speak SyncML V1.2 which the older Sync4j server doesn't support (another reason to switch to Funambol V6 server)

On an unrelated note, the Zimbra Mobile forums no longer show up until you login, which means this particular thread isn't visible until you login. Since it's linked from various other sites (including the Funambol site), perhaps we could allow it to be visible to non-logged-in users, or move it to the developer's forum (somehow without breaking the link )