SyncML plugin

[futal]

SyncML, now OMA-DS, is an open standard for data synchronisation. It has been developped by mobile phone manufacturers. It is mostly used to synchronise PIM data. It is often natively available on mobile phones but also in many PIM software and services. A SyncML plugin would be a nice feature for ownCloud.

SyncML support in ownCloud has been discussed on forums and mailing lists such as: http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/owncloud/2010-December/000357.html.

There are a few open source implementations of a SyncML server:

• Funambol, written in Java, AGPL. A good choice except Java may not be available;
• libsynthesis, written in C++, LGPL-EPL. Requires even more priviledges on the server;
• Horde, written in PHP, GPL.
• eGroupware, written in PHP, GPL.

It may be a better option to have a PHP implementation with the same installation requirements than ownCloud.

The Horde project wiki has a page with many links about SyncML http://wiki.horde.org/SyncML/

Some software and services to test the implementation with:

• Gmail Contacts;
• Funambol clients;
• Akunambol;
• SyncEvolution;
• Symbian devices.

[oparoz]

What would be the advantages today in using OMA-DS vs using Cal/CardDAV?

[futal]

Willing to migrate from Google services to OwnCloud, I encounter two barriers:

1. Gmail contact photos are not exported but can be retrieved with syncml. Thus it would offer a seamless and easy way to migrate from Gmail.
2. No CardDAV clients exist for my phone, a business smartphone with Symbian (Nokia E7). As many phones, it has a native syncml client.

With a SyncML interface to OwnCloud, it would also be possible to sync OwnCloud contact groups with specific OwnCloud or Gmail accounts. You can imagine a business team sharing contacts in a mixed cloud environment.

[victort]

also, my webos touchpad (which I use and love, despite its tragic lineage) probably won't see an owncloud client anytime soon, yet has a syncML client. It'd be nice to sync it.

[matzipan]

Nokia Symbian has been supporting this since forever, and I think there is a big number of people willing to use it.

Gmail currently only does SyncML for contacts but not for calendar. This would've been a perfect opportunity for me, personally, to switch to ownCloud.

If I have some time next month I might try and write a plugin.

[futal]

I would suggest to look first at the Horde SyncML plugin. According to http://wiki.horde.org/SyncML/, the SyncML server is implemented in an PEAR package independent from Horde. An example of SQL backend is included as stated in http://wiki.horde.org/SyncML/CustomBackend. This plugin is also used by Kolab so it may be interesting to look at their integration.

[dmth]

I support Futal's suggestion. The Team from Horde also encourages the use of their package: "Other groupware applications can use this package to provide SyncML as well. The only thing that's need to be done is the implementation of a backend interface for their application. Please drop a note on the horde sync mailing list (sync@lists.horde.org) if you are interested in this." -- http://wiki.horde.org/SyncML/

The package can be downloaded here: http://pear.horde.org/#horde_syncml and is licensed as LGPL 2.1

[spacekpe]

Hello. SyncEvolution project from version 1.3 supports CalDAV and CardDAV as backends for their SyncML server. Maybe you can just configure SyncEvolution to use Cal/CardDAV provided by OwnCloud ...

That would be really awesome because it enables you to synchronize "everything with everything else" :-) E.g. an old mobile phone (typically without an OS) with ownCloud then with Thunderbird on local PC etc.

See https://syncevolution.org/wiki/howto section "Bridge between SyncML and CalDAV/CardDAV".

[dmth]

hi @spacekpe that is possible (and working). I'm currently using that solution to sync my nokia phone with my owncloud via a laptop and bluetooth. But the process has the unnnecessary third-component "laptop" and is quite slow. So that's not a good solution. In addition creating the syncevolution profile to do so is not an "end-user-friendly" task.

[spacekpe]

hi @dustindemuth I thought that this thread is about replacing "yout laptop" with owncloud, isn't it? :-) I have created syncevolution profile myself and IMHO this can be wrapped to nice web interface, it is not something impossible.

Anyway, working support for SyncML would be awesome!

[steffenWi]

Since this ticket is one year old and there seems to be no progress...is there a particular reason as to why there is no SyncML support?

[matzipan]

Yes, I can only start working on it in about a month :D

Zisu Andrei

On 6 May 2014 09:28, steffenWi notifications@github.com wrote:

Since this ticket is one year old and there seems to be no progress...is there a particular reason as to why there is no SyncML support?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/owncloud/apps/issues/1061#issuecomment-42277877 .

[DeepDiver1975]

Since this ticket is one year old and there seems to be no progress...is there a particular reason as to why there is no SyncML support?

Quite simple: nobody stepped up and did it :wink:

[steffenWi]

@DeepDiver1975 well, I got that far ;) but thank's for clarifying.

@matzipan ah, sounds promising ;). I haven't done stuff in PHP since at least 2 years now (C#/Java developer), but if you need some smaller tasks done you can message me.

[matzipan]

@steffenWi I'll be more than happy to start discussing this starting June 5th.

[jospoortvliet]

@matzipan people keep asking me if there will be ActiveSync support in ownCloud, and Google supports that, so does the present-day Nokia (at least, the part that went to Microsoft) a lot better... perhaps it is more interesting to look at than SyncML.

Many ppl on the forums are also interested in ActiveSync and there once was support for ActiveSync in ownCloud 4.5 and 5 via this app https://github.com/gza/oczpush

Just a thought ;-)

[oparoz]

There is a much better stack available with Horde: https://github.com/horde/horde/tree/master/framework/ActiveSync

Check out the features http://wiki.horde.org/ActiveSync/FeatureGrid

[paskalito]

Hi question @matzipan could you start developing at june last year? - in other words is there something going on. - if yes, where? (link) unfortunately i'm not a programmer - but if there is something i still would like to look at it - supersimple things i'm maybe able to do.

apart from that there is a service https://www.memotoo.com, which just syncs everything with everything. - including cardav caldav and syncML - i haven't set it up yet but so you should get it working ""directly"" (without bluetooth / laptop). its pretty affordable i think 20$ for 2 years. and there is also a free version (up to 50 datasets) (never know maybe enough for some)