Re: [Evolution] Synchronizing desktop and laptop

[Michael Ekstrand <michael elehack net>]

On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 18:25 +0100, Patrick Ohly wrote:
> I should have mentioned that I am subscribed now, so we could continue
> the discussion on the list. Feel free to forward your email and my
> reply.

Done, so those finding the thread via Google can see its conclusion.

> On Mo, 2006-10-30 at 10:05 -0600, Michael Ekstrand wrote:
> > On Sun, 2006-10-29 at 22:16 +0100, Patrick Ohly wrote:
> > If I remember correctly, that was the most significant issue.  I think
> > there's probably some things that Evolution could be doing better; I
> > think that it should assume some reasonable defaults to allow
> > information to at least be visible when it can't find its custom
> > properties.  But the destruction of custom properties rendered it so
> > that I could not view the phone numbers for a contact in Evolution until
> > I edited and re-saved the contact.
>
> I agree, Evolution could have been smarter, but I believe I have worked
> around this in 0.4. From the "known problems" list:
>
> Evolution GUI
>         When importing or updating a contact from the server, some
>         telephone numbers might only be displayed in the contact summary
>         after editing the contact once. Evolution 2.0.4 till 2.6.3,
>         ContactSync::testMerge test. Starting with SyncEvolution 0.4
>         this is solved by modifying the contact in the same way as the
>         internal editor does. If it still fails, the server might send
>         phone numbers without setting their type correctly.

Perhaps I should go in and make a formal bug report about this, if I can
document sufficiently.

> > I did play with the SyncEvolution source in an attempt to make it set up
> > some default display properties when it saved a contact; this wound up
> > not working.
>
> I followed the same approach; I guess we simply tried slightly different
> things. Would you mind trying 0.4 again?

I'll give it a shot.  It looks like my attempts were against the 0.4pre2
sources.

> > I think some of the rest of the issue was connected with the inability
> > for SyncML to neatly pick up on deleted fields - I wound up with
> > duplicated phone numbers when I was trying to do some initial testing.
>
> This might be better now that ScheduleWorld has settings for devices
> that tell the server how many phone numbers the device supports: if you
> set it to maximum for both your clients, then the server should be able
> to distinguish between "device has discarded phone number" and "phone
> number was deleted". There are some usability problems (like having to
> sync once before being able to set the value and having to do it
> manually in the first place, missing documentation, ...) but it might be
> worth another try.

OK.

> > And I'd seen the SyncEvolution/ScheduleWorld combo as a hack to
> > accomplish what I wanted - ideally, I wouldn't need something like
> > ScheduleWorld to keep these two computers in sync.
>
> Agreed, as soon as data conversion is involved there will be drawbacks.
> In some case it simply cannot be avoided, though.

Yeah.  The Conduit project is looking quite promising in this regard
though - hopefully it will develop into a useful solution soon.

- Michael