Re: [SyncEvolution] Experiences with syncevolution

On Fr, 2013-11-22 at 00:12 +0100, Christian Heinrich wrote: > So, after I lost my 6 years old phone, I decided to get a new phone and > my choice was the Google Nexus 5. Unfortunately, since I never owned a > smartphone before, I didn't know how tightly Google integrated their > services into Android, so I decided to get rid of them (as much as > possible). > > Thanks to syncevolution, syncing my laptop with my cell is now (mostly) > a piece of cake, but the learning curve was steep. Please note that I > have never used Android before, so I was a complete newbie in that > regard. > > Installing syncevolution is easy - I used the package available in > Ubuntu 12.04 and I installed "sync-ui" as well. I really thought I could > sync directly via bluetooth (I read the HowTo on the page), so I tried > it - but it wouldn't work. I had to figure out that the reason was the > syncml client; Android does not have one. > > -> I'd suggest to add a comment to the howto that Android (and most > likely iOS?) will not be able to use this method (at least out of the > box) and that they should use a different approach. I suppose you mean: https://syncevolution.org/wiki/sync-your-phone-bluetooth It's a Wiki page, so you could do the editing yourself. All of your changes make sense; you would be more than welcome to apply the proposed changes directly. I can review afterwards. If some part of an HOWTO doesn't make sense, leaving an inline comment explaining the problem would help. > (2) I would explain how to find out which "backend" to choose and what > the right database is, like "By printing all databases, syncevolution > will list all available backends with all contained databases; the > backend can be determined as the value after the "=" sign, in the > previous example this would be "evolution-calendar". The database names > are at the beginning of each subsequent line. The values in brackets are > only identifiers, not database names. In the example above, the > available databases would be "Personal" and "Work". Note: Database names > are case-sensitive!" (I don't know if the latter is true but I simply > presume they are :) ) Actually, database names are case-insensitive, or at least should be. > (4) This is by far the most important issue for me: The SyncML-Client by > Synthesis was mentioned a couple of times in this howto, so adding more > databases using the Synthesis SyncML-client should be explained. How can > that be done? For my part, I really don't know how to do that! Does the SyncML client support multiple databases? I am not sure. > In general, I thought that the user experience could be seriously > improved by cleaning up the webpage; the "Wiki articles" box on the side > is just so chaotic, I didn't exactly understand the difference between > "documentation" and "wiki" (I clicked on a link in the documentation and > I ended up reading a wiki page). I would get rid of one of them! > > For example, an introductory page would be neat (needs formatting, of > course): "Welcome and thanks for using syncevolution. If you want to > sync with a phone, click on your OS: > (1) Android (2) iOS (3) MeeGo (Tizen?) > > There are currently multiple howtos for phone models: > *list of models, ordered by manufacturer* > > If you want to learn more about SyncML, click here." > > The OS sub-pages will then tell the user which options he/she can choose > from. All of that is nice and well and I agree that it would be useful, but who has the time and motivation to actually go and do this documentation work? I know that I don't. > PS: I should have mentioned it earlier, but if there's a way you could > use some (limited) help, let me know. Ah, finally :-) Yes, as I said above, you would be more than welcome to edit the Wiki directly. Some other chunks of text on the web page require additional privileges in Drupal, but even that could be arranged.