Maintenance release. syncevolution.org binaries are now getting compiled for distros >= Ubuntu Trusty 14.04 LTS, which allowed removing several hacks that were needed when building binaries that also had to run on older distros. Compilation from source for old distros should still work as before, but is not getting tested anymore.

Compile problems with recent libraries (libical v2) and tools (GCC v6) were resolved. Syncing via Bluetooth with certain phones now should work reliably in incremental mode.

New backends for the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) were added to the source code.

About 1.5

This version is the new stable, supported version of SyncEvolution. Compared to the last 1.4.99.4 pre-release only minor changes were done (see below).

This release enhances CalDAV/CardDAV and PBAP syncing and fixes some problems. The enhanced conflict handling introduced 1.4.99.2 was unintentionally limited to syncs with EDS on the server side; it is now also available for example in WebDAV<->SyncML bridge setups.

1.4.99.2 is a new development snapshot. It enhances interoperability with CardDAV servers and in particular Google Contacts considerably. Contact data gets converted to and from the format typically used by CardDAV servers, so now anniversary, spouse, manager, assistant and instant message information are exchanged properly.

The 1.4 release of SyncEvolution replaces 1.3.2 as the stable, supported release.

1.4 is the first stable version with the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) PIM Manager included. GENIVI Diagnostic Log and Trace (DLT) is also supported. For more information about this aspect of SyncEvolution, see the PBAP and PIM entries in the 1.3.99 release notes and these Automotive Linux Summit slides.

The biggest change for normal Linux users is Google CalDAV/CardDAV authentication with OAuth2. These are the open protocol that Google currently supports and thus the recommended way of syncing with Google, replacing ActiveSync and SyncML (both no longer available to all Google customers).

This update focuses on SyncEvolution in IVI again. It adds support for GENIVI Diagnostic Log and Trace (DLT) and enhances searching in the unified address book.

The biggest change for normal Linux desktop users is enhanced support for recent distros. Binaries on syncevolution.org now work with EDS >= 3.6 and < 3.6. Distros with libical1 like Ubuntu Saucy are also supported. Automated testing was updated to cover these newer platforms more thoroughly.

The binaries support Google CalDAV in combination with GNOME Online Accounts (GOA) >= 3.8 and and Google CardDAV with GOA >= 3.10. To use CardDAV with GOA 3.8, one has to patch or recompile GOA.

Support for Google CalDAV/CardDAV with Ubuntu Online Accounts requires recompilation of SyncEvolution with one additional patch.

SyncEvolution now supports Google CalDAV/CardDAV with OAuth2 authentication. These are the open protocol that Google currently supports and thus the recommended way of syncing with Google, replacing ActiveSync and SyncML (both no longer available to all Google customers).

So far the development cycle for SyncEvolution 1.4 mostly focused on implementing the "PIM Manager" D-Bus API for IVI use cases [1]. The 1.3.99.3 pre-release starts to include more features and bug fixes again for syncing. For example, several ActiveSync improvements from Graham Cobb were included.

The remaining goal for 1.4, besides more testing of course, is to work out how to support Google CalDAV and CardDAV. I am in discussion with Google to get SyncEvolution whitelisted for use with these APIs - fingers crossed...

SyncEvolution 1.3.1 fixes some minor issues found after 1.3 was released.