[Evolution] Up to date exchange-Server-Backend info requested

[David Sampson <david sampson nrcan-rncan gc ca>]

Hey Folks,

After months of putting up with bothersum evolution behaviour and
looking through gnome and ubuntu bug logs I was hoping the list may
point me to updated info on the current status of:

* Evolution-exchange-storage
* Evolution-data-server

My situation
* Personal computer at home running Ubuntu and doing email through
various IMAP servers including Gmail and some other private services.
Evolution works fine.

* At work I am running Ubuntu through WUBI and using Evolution to
connect to a web exchange server. This works but seems quite unstable.
Please note local tech support is MS centric, no local help for anything
outside of Windows. They won't even give out LDAP info, all of that
needs to be inferred for Global address book.

* I do telework on occasion so i need stemless integration between
remote sites.

* I have just recently added email to my personal blackberry to improve
mobility. It is still unclear if this poses more issues.

* Google IMAP works great across all sites and platforms using
Evolution. So Evolution is a great solution.

* I hope to someday pitch Evolution as an alternative e-mail client to
corporate IT. We are from from a stable use case to do so.


Current scenarios:
NOTE: Many of these bugs are tracked in GNOME bug tracker as well as
Ubuntu bug tracker. Most Ubuntu related bugs end in a request to go
upstream to Gnome bug tracker. This makes sense.

Many of the bugs related to exchange in Gnome Evolution seem to be old
and never get tasked to be tackled. Obviously no one has time or the
money to do this.

my purpose is to see if somehow a group of people are working on this
and the info is just lost to me searching the bug archives and I can get
some quick updated info that I can apply a patch and get going.

If not, then I would like to know how I can be part of the solution by
providing information to the people who can fix the bug. many bug
reports end in "just don't use evolution and use XYZ". Not quite the
community type response I was expecting to end a bug thread.

Both my desktop at work and at home collect work related e-mail. note
that these issues existed before I hooked in home computer to work
e-mail. So the addition of a second simultaneous client should not be
the issue.

I also have access to windows outlook client, virtual telework desktop
outlook client and MS web mail client. These all work as expected, so i
do not suspect corporate network or exchange server to be of issue.


Dependencies:
* So evolution proves to work for me whenever I am not relying on an
exchange server. This at least narrows the issue down to how Evolution
interacts with Exchange.

* Obviously I can not provide access to the exchange server for others
to repeat given steps. However my issues do not seem unique according to
bug logs. So the bug reports keep coming in and people offer up ideas
but nothing systematic. Also, no solutions offered as far back as 2008.
I hope to help with this.

* Although I use Ubuntu I don't think the packagers change anything. So
my version of Evolution 2.28.3 should be pretty stock.

Issues:
=========
Of course I can reference a bug in bugzilla, however there are so many
duplicates and loose ends and false SOLVED bugs that it would take an
RDMS to accurately show all the linkages. It would be nice for a
coordinated effort to clean these up. Some people have tried but it
looks like they give up quickly. 

Maybe removal of bugs and copy the content over is required. I don't
know how to manage the bug log, but it seems a little unruly at present.

So here is my list of issues with exchange and Evolution
* Not all messages get downloaded to desktop client
* the BOLD number in brackets next to folder name do not correspond with
number of new messages. Sometimes these numbers do correspond with what
is found in web client, but sometimes those are off too.

* Connection to exchange server drops unexpectedly and often. Then stays
stables for days. I have refresh of emails every 10 minutes

* Some times calendar events and meeting invites don't come through to
Evolution but are available in web mail. I feel silly not attending a
meeting set up by my boss, and managing two email clients does not make
sense to me.

* I can not book resources such as board rooms using evolution, so I
have to use webmail, which has a less than desireable interface. Or I
will use virtual desktop through telework.

* sometimes I can not book normal meetings using Evolution. Sometimes I
can

* Sometimes I create a meeting through another desktop client or at home
or webmail and then I can not edit it on my work desktop. it says I do
not have permissions to edit it. So I need to wait until

* Connection to the Global Address List is unpredictable (however it
does sometimes work, although slow) and thus use public government
listings here:
http://sage-geds.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/cgi-bin/direct500/eng/XEou%
3dNRCAN-RNCAN%2co%3dGC%2cc%3dCA



Please let me know how I can help so that the next version of Evolution
gets me closer to a recommendation.

Thanks for the patience with a lengthy first post to the list.

Cheers

-- 
Dave Sampson <david sampson nrcan gc ca>

Natural Resources Canada
Earth Sciences Sector (http://ess.nrcan.gc.ca)
Mapping Information Branch
Geospatial Systems and Applications
CGDI Technology Analyst
601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail