[SyncEvolution] SyncEvolution 0.9.1 beta 1 released, SyncML server in 1.0 development branch

SyncEvolution 0.9.1 beta 1 is available. It is going to replace 0.9 as the official stable release soon, so this is *the* chance to find and report problems before they sneak into the final 0.9.1 - die, bugs, die! SyncEvolution synchronizes personal information management (PIM) data like contacts, calenders, tasks, and memos using the SyncML information synchronization standard. Up to and including 0.9.x, a third-party SyncML server is required. In the current development branch, SyncEvolution itself is already able to act as a SyncML server. Support for direct synchronization via Bluetooth is planned for 1.0, with a very rudimentary alpha scheduled for end of October. If you want to get involved, then contact the team: http://syncevolution.org/support Changes SyncEvolution 0.9 -> 0.9.1 beta 1 ========================================= Mobical and Memotoo are now officially supported. Memotoo uses vCard 2.1 with several Evolution specific extensions. It uses iCalendar 2.0, however, without actually supporting the advanced features of it. Times are converted to UTC and meeting information are lost. Mobical uses vCard 2.1 and vCalendar 1.0 as data formats, with the result that many properties used in Evolution are not supported by the server. In particular calendar support is very limited (known issues when events are in time zones different from the one selected locally and on the server, no support for meetings). For details see README.mobical. *** Beware *** that the Mobical SyncML password is *not* the same as the one for their web site. Log into mobical.net, then go to "my accounts credentials. It is now possible to compile database backends outside of SyncEvolution, install them and have SyncEvolution use them automatically like any other backend. The backend API has been enhanced considerably. For example, backend developers have access to a modular set of utility classes that can be mixed into a specific implementation. Backends can access the internal Synthesis representation directly and therefore no longer need their own vCard/vCalendar/iCalendar parser. The sqlite demo backend can be enabled and compiled again with --enable-sqlite. It demonstrates how to map directly from the Synthesis field list to some internal format (an SQLite database schema in this case). Other changes: * Resend messages to cope with intermittent loss of network connectivity (Moblin Bugzilla #3427). See the new "ResendDuration" and "ResendDelay" configuration properties for details. * The logging of added and updated items was enhanced. Events, tasks and memos are logged with a short description instead of just the local ID. The description for contacts was improved. * The sync UI allowed to enable calendar and task synchronization with Google although Google does not support that (MB#5871). In new installations this is prevented by clearing the URI for those data categories. * Importing work and home phone numbers from Google into desktop Evolution works better, because SyncEvolution now adds the "VOICE" flag expected by Evolution (MB#6501). * SyncEvolution command line uses the GNOME keyring when the new --keyring option is given. * SSL certificate checking with Google is enabled by default and enabled in Moblin, because libsoup in that distro has the necessary fix. Without that fix, all connection attempts fail. The binaries on syncevolution.org are compiled with --disable-ssl-certificate-check, so users who want the additional security must enable it. * Some sync UI enhancements (describe sync services, avoid crash with very long input in some of the text boxes (MB#5219), set application icon, improved some strings). * Improved checks which logs in the logdir belong to the current server (MB#5215). * Improved sanity checking of integer configuration parameters (MB#6500). Known issue: * Mobical and Memotoo do not have a description in the GUI yet. * ZYB.com is not supported because of a known anchor handling problem in the server (MB#2424). * syncevolution.org binaries are meant to be compatible with a wide range of Evolution releases, but there are some issues with that (MB#6552). Source, Installation, Further information ========================================= Main project page: http://syncevolution.org/ Technical information: http://moblin.org/projects/syncevolution/ Source snapshots are in http://downloads.syncevolution.org/syncevolution/sources Binaries of the beta for Debian-based distributions are available via the "unstable" syncevolution.org repository. Add the following entry to your /apt/source.list, then install "syncevolution-evolution": deb http://downloads.syncevolution.org/apt unstable main These binaries include the new "sync-ui" GTK GUI and were compiled for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy). Older distributions like Debian 4.0 (Etch) can no longer be supported with precompiled binaries because of missing libraries, but the source still compiles when not enabling the GUI (the default). The same binaries are also available as .tar.gz archives in http://downloads.syncevolution.org/syncevolution/evolution. In contrast to 0.8.x archives, the 0.9 .tar.gz archives have to be unpacked and the content must be moved to /usr, because several files would not be found otherwise. After installation, follow the http://syncevolution.org/documentation/getting-started steps. -- Patrick Ohly, on behalf of everyone who has helped to make SyncEvolution 0.9.x possible: http://syncevolution.org/about/contributors