Re: Ubuntu UDS-Boston, Syncing solutions

[John Carr <john carr unrouted co uk>]

Hi Martin

It has been a while :)

On Tue, 2007-10-30 at 23:45 -0400, Martin Owens wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've pushed the syncing engine and support issue into the UDS as I'm
> here all week; I want to talk seriously about how we can start to
> integrate conduit and opensync in a coherent set of functionality for
> the ubuntu desktop.

I think the primary goal of your spec was PIM<->device sync. So these
are some issues to think about. Note that i'm ignoring bluetooth for
now, i'm also ignoring the work Conduit is doing on making GNOME apps
more sync friendly, media sync use cases and playing nice with "Online
Desktop". 

This stuff is sync platform neutral and is needed before the user even
thinks about how the heck to make their data sync.

Windows Mobile support. 
-----------------------
I'm involved in the SynCE project that targets these devices so am able
to help here somewhat. Here are some thoughts.

We need help packaging the components in a "desktop integrated" way -
for example, to make Windows Mobile support "just rock" then plugging in
a device needs to start 3 programs - odccm, sync-engine and DTPT.py. 

I'm sure dbus activation is possible for sync-engine, but that doesnt
handle making sure it goes away when you disconnect. I don't want it
hanging around needlessly. 

The other two need to start in response to me plugging in a device and
go away when i unplug the device.

For WM5 and WM6, we will need to patch the kernel. Most of the patches
are upstream and there are some more that can go upstream. This is
proving difficult though. Samsung processors are a big problem and while
I have a patch that solves it in some cases, but its the spawn of satan
and needs love from a more experienced kernel hacker. Note that network
manager will disconnect you from WIFI when you want to sync your phone.
Annoying.

Shipping this driver will allow WM6 people to access the internet using
there device as a modem. It couldnt really be any more plug and play
than it is right now - network manager plays OK in this case.

Among the current active developers there is hardly any WM2003
knowledge. I have a 2003 device and hope to change that. This will
require some way of automatically bringing up a PPP interface in
addition to some or all of the above apps.

SyncML support.
---------------
I've only investigated this in the context of a P900. Again, we need
some way to automatically establish the ppp connection when a device is
plugged in. IP needs to be set and NetworkManager needs to not
interfere.

At that point I think the opensync plugin has everything it needs.

> I'm sure many of you will be familiar with my emails in the past, I am
> unhappy about the current dispersed and non integrated fashion with
> which this functionality is being developed. but I want to talk about
> it in the context of ubuntu.

It's not that dispersed :) I'm a SynCE dev (and it only targets
opensync) and a Conduit dev. I chat with dgollub quite a lot on
#opensync and often try to help out users there (though generally they
are SynCE users who got a bit lost).

As for integrated, thats how I see conduit. The integrator. But I see
Daniel has already replied so I will post my thoughts on that there :)

> So if you have any issues you want me to bring up; or your attending
> and would like to take part. please do reply and register on the
> blueprint as required.

Have you got a URL to hand? I'm obviously going to have a look when i
can (busy @ work right now) but for others tracking discussions it would
be handy.

John