SyncEvolution 1.0 beta 3 released#
SyncEvolution 1.0 beta 3 is available. This release is feature complete and has been tested thoroughly, so only minor bug fixes are expected before releasing 1.0. Beta 3 is ready for day-to-day use and for getting packaged in staging distros as replacement for 0.9.2 or previous betas. If you find issues, please [report them](http://syncevolution.org/support). Binary packages are provided, including Bluetooth support. Major improvements:
automatic, time-driven synchronization in the background
command line integrates properly into the daemon concept
full support for suspend&resume and message resend when using SyncEvolution as client and server
compatible with more phones
a tool to determine a working configuration for a phone automatically (“syncevo-phone-config”) Because the release of 1.0 is close, the documentation on syncevolution.org is getting updated to cover it. A Wiki was set up as part of the site to simplify the editing of certain pages, in particular HOWTOs and compatibility reports. **Call for action**: [test with your phone](http://syncevolution.org/development/sync-phone “Phone sync HOWTO”) and [report which config works and how well](http://syncevolution.org/wiki/phone-compatibility-template “Phone config Wiki page”).
Details#
Automatic synchronization is supported by the syncevo-dbus-server (MB #6378). When that is installed, it will be started as part of a user session and keep running to trigger syncs in the background. Notifications are emitted when syncs start, end or fail (MB #10000). Automatic synchronization can be enabled separately for each peer (“autoSync=0/1”, off by default), will be done at regular intervals (“autoSyncInterval=30” minutes) when online long enough (“autoSyncDelay=5” minutes). That last option ensures that a) an automatic sync does not attempt to use a network connection unless it was already active and b) hopefully is also around long enough to complete the sync. Detecting online status depends on ConnMan. Without it, SyncEvolution assumes that the network is available. For Bluetooth it is enough to have a peer paired. When SyncEvolution is compiled with a backend sync daemon (“syncevo-dbus-server”), then conceptually that daemon controls the configuration and coordinates manually and automatically started sync sessions. Previously, the command line tool bypassed the daemon by running operations itself. Now it can hand over the command line parameters to the daemon to be executed there (”–daemon=yes”, the default if the daemon is available; MB #5043). Command line parameters and output of “syncevolution” are the same as before. Note that the daemon only runs one operation at a time, which delays the command line client when the daemon is busy. For testing purposes (like running a client which talks to a local server in the daemon) it is still possible to ignore the daemon (–daemon=no). Thanks to fixes and improvements in both Synthesis engine and SyncEvolution, suspend and resume are fully supported in client and server (MB #2425). Previously it failed in some cases, as mercilessly exposed by our automated testing. Now all of these tests pass. The HTTP server now also handles message resends by clients correctly. Direct synchronization with older phones (like Sony Ericsson K750i) can be started now by switching to an older version of the SyncML standard (“SyncMLVersion” property, MB #9312). No further interoperability testing with such phones has been done at this time. When acting as client, that same property allows talking to older SyncML servers, like desknow.com. A minor workaround and the right configuration make it possible to synchronize with Nokia N85 and probably also other S60 devices. Added a template for “Nokia S60”. Also made the template for “Nokia N900” accessible in the GTK GUI. Because determining which configuration works for a phone involves a lot of trial-and-error, the new “syncevo-phone-config” script automates that process. Other changes:
Mobical.net (and other, similar services): fix vCalendar 1.0 alarm specifications before importing them (MB #10458)
Nokia N900: added a config template for it and disabled the redundant RespURI when using Bluetooth. Preliminary testing shows that this solves some of the issues seen before (MB #10224).
workaround for Evolution 2.30: “timezone cannot be retrieved because it doesn’t exist” is triggered incorrectly when importing non-standard timezone definitions because libecal change an error code (MB #9820)
“syncevo-http-server” HTTP server script is included in normal install
syncevolution.org binaries: finally solved the libbluetooth3 incompatibility (MB #9289). Binaries of beta 2 crashed on more recent distros because of that.
SyncML client and Bluetooth: a mobile device running SyncEvolution creates a configuration automatically (MB #6175). The peer contacting us has to use the standard SyncEvolution URIs (addressbook, calendar, todo, memo).
command line: when dealing with the shared non-peer part of a config, it checks for properties which are unsuitable only prints those (MB #8048)
GTK GUI: improved setup of devices, automatic sync switch, some fixes for crashes and other tweaks
Nokia 7210c: send time as UTC instead of relying on time zone information (MB #9907).
command line: setting up a configuration for a “SyncEvolution” server on a client was not possible because the “SyncEvolutionClient” configuration was picked instead (MB #10004). The latter has to be used when configuring a SyncEvolution server to talk to a SyncEvolution client.
restore: no longer updates the time of the backup (MB #9963)
various minor improvements and fixes, see ChangeLog Upgrading:
The new “RetryInterval” property causes messages to be resent after 2 minutes (increased from 1 minute in previous 1.0 betas). At least the Funambol server is known to not handle this correctly in all cases (http://funzilla.funambol.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7910). So in the Funambol config template the interval is set to zero, disabling the feature. Enabling or disabling the feature must be done manually in existing configurations.
Source, Installation, Further information#
Source snapshots are in http://downloads.syncevolution.org/syncevolution/sources i386, amd64 and lpia binaries of 1.0 beta 3 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 and .rpm archives in http://downloads.syncevolution.org/syncevolution/evolution. In contrast to 0.8.x archives, the 1.0 .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 getting started steps.