Sync Contacts, Calendar (and Notes)

[8h2a]

Is it possible to include a function to sync the calendar, contacts and possibly the Notes? Else i have to use (paid) apps like CardDAV-Sync free beta and CalDAV-Sync beta.

[rperezb]

@thedd thanks for your suggestion.

Certainly, we're adding new features to the ownCloud app, this will be implemented in future releases.

[herbert00]

Yes, this would be a great idea! Definitely necessary!

[happysysadm]

+1 for having this feature in OC!

[legalstuff]

For my viewpoint its also usefull to add Tasks and appointments with attendies in OC and the Clients(Win/Linux/Adroid)

[pschichtel]

+1 this would be awesome!

[helonaut]

Ok, is there up until now anyone who started writing code for this feature?

[davivel]

No

[Booloki]

+1 This would be great features !

[HLFH]

+42

[teoverton]

Definitely needed. Otherwise owncloud is pointless as a caldav server for android wielders.

[jancborchardt]

By the way, the new Notes app will enable note syncing automatically because it uses a "Notes" subfolder with plain text documents in it. http://github.com/owncloud/notes

[HLFH]

For CalDav, it has been already possible with an Agenda like in Google Apps (http://goo.im/gapps, you could choose another) AND CalDAV Sync Adapter (FOSS) : http://f-droid.org/forums/topic/caldav-sync-adapter/

Available with FOSS Appstore F-Droid : http://f-droid.org/FDroid.apk

The last problem is CardDAV-Sync with FOSS philosophy :)

[untitaker]

@HLFH This adapter does only one-way sync, which is insufficient in most situations.

[HLFH]

@untitaker The author said "one-way for the moment, waiting to have a stable app for all the servers before enabling two ways". So, please contribute here : https://github.com/gggard/AndroidCaldavSyncAdapater/issues And then, it will be possible.

By the way, aCal is an undesigned app. So I prefer the unfinished but efficient backend app above.

@jancborchardt Finally, Notes Syncing is not ready because OC Notes on OC Android App are not viewable but only downloadable :)

[da2x]

+1

[dlech]

If anyone would like to contribute to the Contacts part of this issue, I have created a separate issue #120 to discuss contacts sync only.

p.s. It is nice to know that there is interest in this particular issue, but if you are going to say +1, you should add something useful after it. Just a suggestion.

[jancborchardt]

Just as a note: Marten Gajda (the author of CalDAV & CardDAV sync) announced that he is going to open source the apps as soon as they reach 1.0 – nice dude!

[helonaut]

AWESOME !

[mokkin]

Great! Already using them. But especially for easy configuring and business usage it should be integrated in the OC android app.

[jancborchardt]

Yes, it’s of course on the roadmap somewhere (in the far future), but right now the focus is on having the core file sync stable. :)

[zerginator]

@jancborchardt From where do you have the information ? I couldn't find any sign of this on Marten Gajdas website

[mbiebl]

@zerginator http://dmfs.org/wiki/index.php?title=Open_source_status http://dmfs.org/wiki/index.php?title=CalDAV-Sync_FAQ#Is_CalDAV-Sync_open_source_Software.3F

[zerginator]

@mbiebl and @jancborchardt Thanks ... so I think we could wait until is opensource

[jancborchardt]

And in the meantime, buy the app to support the developer. It’s like crowdfunding.

[da2x]

I have followed the open-source status of CalDAV/CardDAV Sync for about a year. The referenced document was actually updated one year ago, and not much have happen since.

The developer has published this as an answer to why it isn’t open-source yet: “Because it's not ready yet. Some parts of the source code are quite messy, it would be too embarrassing to publish it ;-)” I’m sure that concern could be addressed by offering help.

From this conversation, it is not clear if anyone actually made a request for the source to be opened? I mean, this is a larger project that would have immediately use of it. If I where the developer, I would publish the source if I got such a request (and maybe an offer to clean it up first).

[jancborchardt]

Then, everyone of you who would like the code to be open source, please mail the developer. Discussing here does not help.

On 14.04.2013, at 13:18, Daniel Aleksandersen notifications@github.com wrote:

I have followed the open-source status of CalDAV/CardDAV Sync for about a year. The referenced document was actually updated one year ago, and not much have happen since.

The developer has published this as an answer to why it isn’t open-source yet: “Because it's not ready yet. Some parts of the source code are quite messy, it would be too embarrassing to publish it ;-)” I’m sure that concern could be addressed by offering help.

From this conversation, it is not clear if anyone actually made a request for the source to be opened? I mean, this is a larger project that would have immediately use of it. If I where the developer, I would publish the source if I got such a request (and maybe an offer to clean it up first).

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[davivel]

@jancborchardt +1000.

Please, let's keep the focus here about the ownCloud app. As Jan stated before, contacts and calendar are in our backlog, and any help in this will be very appreciated. But chatting about what could or could not be used from other projects without their authors being involved here is not useful.

[helonaut]

"Hi -----,

thanks for your emails. Unfortunately the code is not ready for becoming open source yet. Gently spoken it's a mess. I'm a professional software developer and I can't let my customers see this code until it meets our quality standards.

During the last months we've focused on a new task app to sync tasks to. That was necessary because Android doesn't support tasks yet. We've avoided many of the mistakes I made with the sync apps and the code quality is much better. I'm planning to release the task app under Apache 2 in a few days. I just have to clean up the doe a little.

Once we've published the task app and updated CalDAV-Sync to sync tasks we'll continue to work on the open source release of CalDAV-Sync.

cheers Marten"

Can't wait ! :+1:

[pserwylo]

Sorry to drag this discussion on, but for anybody who is interested, AndroidCaldavSyncAdapter v1.18 has two way sync and it seems to be working with my owncloud instance. You can get it from F-Droid if you'd like: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=caldav%20sync&fdid=org.gege.caldavsyncadapter

[HLFH]

There is now Davdroid ! CardDAV + CalDAV sync on Android! It's available since today on F-Droid.org! F-Droid : https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=dav&fdid=at.bitfire.davdroid Repository : https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid Official Website : http://davdroid.bitfire.at/what-is-davdroid

OwnCloud for Android must be first optimized for files, not for other things.

[derherrc]

@HLFH I don't agree to your point, that "OwnCloud for Android must be first optimized for files, not for other things.". As calendar and contact are out-of-the-box features of ownCloud there is a basic need (at least a feature request or wish by some users, including myself) to get this synced on mobile devices as well. Such as files are synced with the Android app by now.

[nodiscc]

@derherrc Owncloud is compatible with standard open protocols like CalDAV and CarDAV.The point is not having to rewrite everything from scracth. Once we have a proper FOSS app to handle contact sync, I don't see the need to clutter the codebase of the Owncloud app, and waste the developer's time. DAVdroid is a pretty good choice for this (though https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/3 needs fixing). When it's stable enough it could be recommended by the Owncloud team. As an example, you wouldn't want the desktop owncloud app to sync your contacts/calendar with thunderbird would you?

[dper]

@derherrc The reality is that this project is a file sync project. Some people imagine it being a comprehensive OwnCloud client, but in reality it is not, shows no signs of becoming one any time soon, and really doesn't need to be, because we have other options. This is probably a good thing, because big projects are hard to do right and even harder to keep up to date.

[jamesjwarren]

Fair points. However from a usability point of view, for end users, it makes so much sense to have it all in one client app. Otherwisewe have to provide users with a complex and convoluted setup procedure.

[nodiscc]

Sorry for polluting this thread with discussion. There's some truth in what @jamesjwarren said. Installing 2 apps is not a major hassle (want to sync files? install an app. want to sync calendar? install an app), but setting them up, entering credentials twice, accepting self-signed certificates twice and so on will be painful. This could be solved if the external calendar sync app is able to read/use data from the ownCloud app account data stored by android. I'm pretty certain there's no need to reinvent the wheel here, that there are good FOSS apps that do the job (davdroid is one), and that the owncloud developers will feel better not wasting time reimplementing such features.

If we want an easy setup, someone please file a bug at https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/ to enable owncloud account integration (use user credentials, list available calendars, pick one). There's a lot of interest on this project so it may get fixed. Again, once it's good enough the app could be recommended or distributed by the onwCloud team itself, as it's free software.

[Kernald]

@nodiscc I don't think there's any "good" way to share credentials between apps from different distributors on Android. Keeping separate apps is logical, but the good way to do it would be to use one (and only one) account shared by all OwnCloud apps (like Google does). However, this requires to have all apps signed with the same key.

[dper]

@nodiscc I'm not sure we need the OwnCloud team to recommend or distribute any CalDAV or CardDAV apps, except as nice public service. After all, people already are getting these apps directly from F-Droid or the Google's convenience store or wherever they like readily enough.

@jamesjwarren As for logging in twice, if that's really a big concern, I suppose this project would either have to write its own clients or else fork other clients. Who knows what the future may bring, but if I were a betting person, I'd write that down in the "definitely not any time soon" category. It's worth noting that users are already used to logging in twice for different uses of the same server. I personally use the same login for email that I do XMPP, and I imagine this kind of thing is very common.

[kucksdorfs]

How about instead of sharing credentials, you have a core app and then plugin apps available through the play store? That's how Yaste, the XBMC controller works. That's also how you can do something like a "free" app and then pay for plugins (I realize this app is $.99 in the play store).

Link to Yaste in the play store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree

[nodiscc]

It's worth noting that users are already used to logging in twice for different uses of the same server.

I do. It's not so painful. The hard part in owncloud is figuring out the CalDAV/CardDAV URLs for your calendars/address books. Currently you have to open the ownCloud web UI, go to the calendar tab, click the tiny gear icon (horribly difficult from a mobile device/touch screen as the web UI is not responsive), copy the address and paste it in your DAV client. The current ownCloud app could just expose the URLs for available calendars (in a separate calendar/address book dialog), ready to copy/paste in your Card/CalDAV app.

I'm not sure we need the OwnCloud team to recommend or distribute any CalDAV or CardDAV apps

Some users will expect an easy way to sync their calendars from the app. An info screen/dialog like the one I recommended above would be great for them, like "Your ownCloud calendars and address books are available through the CardDAV and CalDAV synchronization protocols. Please install a DAV app like insert recommended client here and use this URL to sync your data: https://my.own.cloud/remote.php/caldav/user/calendars/default". Better than saying nothing and letting users search for this bug report, am I right?

[jancborchardt]

Sorry to break the discussion, but what exactly are you folks arguing about?

It makes total sense that the ownCloud app also enables contact and calendar sync. Otherwise you have to put in your credentials multiple times which is really annoying on mobile.

The only question is when we have time to do it since we focus on file sync and share for now. @MTRichards @rperezb what do you think?

[dper]

@jancborchardt What are you talking about? The devs here say they may or may not have time at some point in the distant future to add these features, so everyone is talking about ways to work around this. Is that OK?

[jancborchardt]

@dper since you said »I'm not sure we need the OwnCloud team to recommend or distribute any CalDAV or CardDAV apps« this sounded like you’re arguing against the usefulness of this being in the main ownCloud app. That’s why I clarified.

[dper]

@jancborchardt Whether the OwnCloud team recommends software is purely a documentation question. It has nothing to do with usefulness of software. Anyway, we appear to have gone off on some tangent that leads nowhere. Sorry about causing this.

[mrflix]

This is my favourite feature request thinking of how complicated it will be for my friends to type in the different urls. I'm aware that below interface this will be a hell lot of work for you guys.

[dper]

@mrflix I sincerely hope you aren't having to type URLs. Copy/pasting is a much better option.

[helonaut]

On a mobile phone? Without a decent mobile theme? Good luck with that !

[ghost]

If anyone is interested in contributing to a bounty for implementing this feature request: https://www.bountysource.com/issues/541755-sync-contacts-calendar-and-notes

[jamasi]

+1 for integrating this functionality into the owncloud client as this will improve user experience.

[noahmenzi]

+1

[soluxima-erik]

Loving the latest ownCloud App version (Android), its real stable now. Still missing the Calendar and Contact sync (using Marten Gajda's CalDAV-Sync and CardDAV-Sync for now). +1