ScheduleWorld - SyncML

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SyncML

1 How Much Does The ScheduleWorld SyncML Service Cost?
2 What Software Do I Need?
3 Configuration
4 What Type Of Data Synchronizes With SyncML?
5 How Do I Configure ScheduleWorld?
6 Cell Phones
7 Local Time
8 Why Doesn't My Device Sync?
9 Blackberry Specific Issues
10 Synthesis Palm Client Specific Issues
11 Funambol Sync4j Client Specific Issues

1 How Much Does The ScheduleWorld SyncML Service Cost?

It's free.

2 What Software Do I Need?

Any software that conforms to the SyncML open standard and uses common open standards data formats will work. The following clients are known to work well. Using different versions of these clients will not work.

NOTE: The following clients specifically use a non-standard XML format and require specific URIs (scard, stask, scal, snote). After you install any of these clients leave their default URIs alone as these clients come with the URIs pre-configured correctly.

Outlook Client 2.0.26 SyncML client for Outlook 2000, 2002/XP, 2003.
NEW The Sync4j folks have made an ALPHA patch available that enables support for non-ASCII characters! Unfortunately it has a BUG in that it squishes your task and event descriptions into a single line. However, if you still want to download the patch and test it out to provide feedback you can download it here. To install simply copy the patch files from the zip over top of your existing Sync4j Outlook client (version 2.0.26) and restart it.
Pocket PC / Windows Mobile 1.7.6 SyncML client for Pocket PC 2003.
BlackBerry 1.1.5 SyncML client for BlackBerry.
Palm 1.0.5 SyncML client for Palm.
iPod 1.0.14 SyncML client for iPod. A Windows .exe that syncs your iPod's contacts and calendar.
Mozilla (Windows) 1.0 SyncML client for Mozilla.

NOTE: These GPL'd clients are in a state of rapid development and often each new release breaks backwards compatibility with no warning. Only the versions available here are supported and known to work.

3 Configuration

You need to configure the server URL, your username (ScheduleWorld ID) and password. You can view your username and set the SyncML password in the ScheduleWorld Tools-Settings-SyncML panel.

A snapshot of the SyncML Outlook client config:

4 What Type Of Data Synchronizes With SyncML?

Calendar Events - iCal and (older deprecated) vcal events are supported.
Contacts - your contacts are stored in an LDAP service that interoperates out of the box with many applications such as Outlook, Mozilla email/Firefox, KMail, Evolution, and many more.
ToDos/Tasks - iCal and (older deprecated) vcal todos are supported.
Notes supported - the server just stores the notes from your device.

You should be able to sync end-end in any character set and language with all symbols staying intact. Exception: the Sync4j Outlook client will garble any non-latin-1 character. The Sync4j folks know about the problem and are working on a fix. This paragraph will be updated when the Sync4j folks fix the problem.

5 How Do I Configure ScheduleWorld?

Open the Tools -> Settings Dialog and select SyncML (shown on the right).
Set your password.
Click 'OK' to save your SyncML password.

Device Name: you won't see the device in the SyncML panel device table until after your first sync. Seeing your device in this table means your device/software is successfully making an HTTP connection to the ScheduleWorld server.
SyncML ID: the unique ID that defines your software or device.
vCal: a deprecated calendar specification that all cell phones seem to support. This should always be clicked for now.
Local Time: some phones seem to ignore time zones and display the wrong time. Enabling this option tells ScheduleWorld to account for this.
Fix DST: some phones seem to get DST times wrong. Enabling this option tells ScheduleWorld to account for this.
Import Photo: some phones can export contact photos but not import photos. If you enable this ScheduleWorld will include contact jpeg photos while syncing to the phone.

6 Cell Phones

Cell phones require a username, a password, and URIs configured for each type of sync (calendar, contacts, tasks, notes).
Some cell phones let you enter a username and password for each URI but ScheduleWorld doesn't support that.
ScheduleWorld automatically determines your SyncML deviceID so you no longer have to worry about SyncML deviceID or IMEI issues.

7 Local Time

Some phones ignore timezone information and/or UTC formatted data. This means ScheduleWorld has to manually convert dates and times to/from your configured timezone into a local time format.

Since some phones work properly and some phones do not - and since manufacturers do not admit they have problems handling timezone data or UTC dates you have to sync with and without 'Local Time' enabled to figure out how your phone works.

8 Why Doesn't My Device Sync?

Possibly you spelled the URI wrong.
Some folks have tried to use 'guest' as the username. You should be using your ScheduleWorld ID. For example, in the picture above the username is 6880. Use 6880 instead of 'guest'.
Encrypted events or todos(tasks) will not sync via SyncML. If you want an event to sync you need to ensure that the Event's default permission is 'Grant_Read_Deny_Write' so it is not encrypted.
- When you have opened an Event for editing simply click 'Permissions' to change the default permissions.
- To change the default behaviour so all newly created events are not encrypted simply change the calendar's base permissions. To do this right-click the calendar and select 'Base Permissions'.

9 Blackberry Specific Issues

Blackberry devices normally sync fine. However, there seems to be one problem with at least one particular firmware revision: the device loses its APN settings in the "TCP Settings" section when you turn off the device.

The device that reported having the problem was:

7230 Blackberry.
On the Vodafone network.
BWC (Blackberry Web Client).
Firmware/OS version:4.0.0.171.
BWC is different than the BES (Enterprise Service) as BWC doesn't have full data services (MDS) enabled.
Full data/TCP access is enabled through a seperate GPRS APN which had to get provisioned manually.

Also, the Blackberry does not seem to work if you provide the SyncML software the APN + gateway + port. If you omit the gateway from the client configuration it seems to default to the "TCP Settings" and it works.

Recently I found a forum that might contain some useful information:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/archive/index.php/t-2185.html

New versions of the Sync4j BB client have the calendar sync disabled. Apparently this is because of a device bug. However, one user has reported that after having trouble syncing with the currently supported version (1.1.5) upgrading to 1.2.3 and then downgrading to 1.1.5 fixed the problem. Hopefully this helps someone with their BlackBerry.

10 Synthesis Palm Client Specific Issues

A ScheduleWorld user tried to sync his Treo 650 CDMA phone with his ScheduleWorld account using the Synthesis SyncML client. The Synthesis software (palm client V2.1.0.42) worked, but he initially kept getting a "database not found" error.

The "database not found" error was caused because the palm client was sending "./Calendar?/dr(-30,90)" instead of just "./Calendar". The solution was to uncheck the date range option (30 days before and 90 days after the current date).

11 Funambol Sync4j Client Specific Issues

The Funambol Outlook client is fairly quick for small calendars and contact lists but those with larger data sets may find themselves waiting a long time for the sync to finish. The problem is not on the ScheduleWorld side as ScheduleWorld can modify/remove/update data extremely quickly.

If you find the Funambol client too slow (it can take 30 minutes or more to do a sync in some cases) perhaps you could either use the client's capabilities to schedule the sync while you are sleeping or consider purchasing a SyncML client from another vendor. Recommendations will be posted here based on positive reports so email support about your experiences with other SyncML products.

Please click here to email support about your success or trouble syncing a device with SyncML.