SyncEvolution 1.2 released#
The major new feature of the 1.2 release is support for non-SyncML protocols in general and CalDAV/CardDAV in particular. ActiveSync support is in development and will be in 1.3. These protocols are implemented as backends which are combined with other backends by SyncEvolution in a so called “local sync”. The GTK sync-ui does not yet support configuring non-SyncML protocols. See the [README.rst and man page](/documentation/syncevolution-usage) for more information on how to use the new feature via the command line.
Properties not supported by SyncML servers can now be preserved locally in two-way synchronization ([BMC #15030](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15030)). This depends on information about what properties a SyncML server supports (“CtCap”), which is typically not provided by servers. SyncEvolution contains a copy of that information for Google Contacts ([BMC #15029](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15029)). Akonadi backend and KWallet support were merged. They are not included yet in syncevolution.org binaries. To use them compile from source. The configuration format was updated to solve a conceptual problem inherited with the legacy property names: the “type” property had multiple, sometimes conflicting roles. For example, setting the preferred data format for sync with one peer might have changed the backend selection for some other peer ([BMC #1023](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1023)). Now “backend/databaseFormat/syncFormat/forceSyncFormat” replace “type”. “type” is still accepted by the command line as alias.
Upgrading from releases before 1.2#
Old configurations can still be read. But writing, as it happens during a sync, must migrate the configuration first. Release 1.2 automatically migrates configurations. The old configurations will still be available (see “syncevolution –print-configs”) but must be renamed manually to use them again under their original names with older SyncEvolution releases.
Other changes#
Using the –sync-property and –source-property command line options is optional, just specifying the property assignment is enough.
syncevo-http-server was enhanced considerably. See http://syncevolution.org/wiki/http-server-howto
support NetworkManager API >= 0.9 ([BMC #19470](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=19470))
syncevolution.org binaries: now compatible with Debian Testing/libnotify.so.4 ([BMC #22668](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22668)) libnotify is not linked directly into syncevo-dbus-server in the syncevolution.org binaries. Instead libnotify.so.1 till .so.4 (current Debian Testing) are opened opened dynamically and the necessary functions are looked up via dlsym(). Not finding the libraries or the functions silently disables this notification mechanism.
Sync mode is recorded when running in SyncML server mode ([BMC #2786](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2786)).
syncevo-dbus-server automatically stops when some of its libraries are updated and restarts if auto-syncing is on ([BMC #14955](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14955)).
Added code for Buteo, mKCal and QtContacts in MeeGo. Buteo and mKCal were removed again from MeeGo, so the code is obsolete. The QtContacts backend may be still be useful to access items via that API, but for syncing on MeeGo the normal EDS backend is used since MeeGo reverted back to EDS as PIM storage.
“databasePassword” source property: lookup failure in keyring ([BMC #22937](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22937)) The databasePassword also wasn’t looked up at all when doing item operations via the command line. When configuring sources for an HTTP server, the config name typically is just the context (@foo). When using the config in the HTTP server, the config name is the peer inside that context (client@foo). Because the GNOME keyring lookup keys for the “databasePassword” (more specifically, the object name) contained the full config name which was different in both cases, looking up the saved password failed. The solution is to normalize the config name (to accomodate for different ways of spelling it) and use only the context, with @ as before. This will break existing setups where the object name in the keyring (incorrectly) includes the full config name. In that case just configure the source again to set the password anew.
Evolution Calendar: fixed detached recurrence support ([BMC #22940](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22940)) When manipulating a meeting series with more than one detached recurrence certain sequences of operations could incorrectly fail with “UID already exists”.
iCalendar 2.0: must set VALUE in EXDATE (part of [BMC #22940](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22940)) EXDATE has a VALUE parameter, which wasn’t defined in the XML profile. Didn’t seem to matter at all in practice, but wasn’t standard-compliant.
GTK sync-ui: wrap sync service descriptions ([BMC #7199](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7199)) Descriptions of different sync services are not fully visible unless word-wrapping gets enabled.
CalDAV/CardDAV + local storage: avoid empty properties The main motivation for this change is that a recent Apple Calendar server rejects vCards with empty BDAY property. Another reason is that keeping the data as small as possible is desirable by itself. Sending an empty property serves as a hint for the peer that the property is supported. This is not necessary when storing an item in a backend. Therefore this commit disables empty properties for all backends which do not themselves set the m_backendRule Synthesis info value. * Google Contacts: ensure that first/middle/name are set when storing in EDS ([BMC #20864](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=20864)) Evolution and the MeeGo UX assume that first/middle/last name are set. That is not the case when a contact is created in the Google Contacts web interface. Such contacts are sent by Google without the N property. SyncEvolution now tries to recreate the name components from the FN string, by splitting at word boundaries and assuming “
” or “ , ” format. Obviously this heuristic fails for some locales. Evolution Calendar: fixed error handling for broken TZIDs
Sony Ericsson: use ISO-8859-1 for all devices ([BMC #14414](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14414)) Passing invalid UTF-8 strings into libecal caused glib to abort syncevo-dbus-server.
auto sync: show all failed syncs except for temporary network errors ([BMC #21888](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=21888)) Notifications were meant to be shown for all errors except temporary ones. This has never been implemented correctly since the feature was introduced: instead of hiding known temporary errors, all errors except 500 (fatal error) were suppressed.
vCard: inline local photo data ([BMC #19661](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=19661)) Some platforms (Maemo, MeeGo) store photos in separate files. Now SyncEvolution efficiently includes that photo data in the generated vCard right before sending it to a peer; previously it sent a useless local file:// URI. The Maemo port has a less efficient workaround for that which now should be obsolete.
syncevo-dbus-server: online status wrong without Network Manager or ConnMan ([BMC #21543](https://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=21543)) When neither Network Manager nor ConnMan are running, network presence was “not online”. This prevented running automatic syncs. For developers:
modified backend API - ClientTestConfig modernized - InsertItemResult::m_merged turned from boolean to enum
testing and compilation changes; for example, the minimum version of libsynthesis is now checked at configure time instead of failing at runtime due to missing features in the Synthesis engine
SyncEvolution 1.1.99.7 -> 1.2, 13.10.2011#
Some more bug fixes and testing improvements.
fixed potential invalid memory access in add<->add conflict handling
fixed memory leak in workaround for EDS bug
CalDAV/CardDAV: handle ETags without quotation marks (eGroupware) * updated README: warning about sync direction moved to –sync option
Source, Installation, Further information#
Source snapshots are in http://downloads.syncevolution.org/syncevolution/sources i386, lpia and amd64 binaries for Debian-based distributions are available via the “stable” syncevolution.org repository. Add the following entry to your /apt/source.list, then install “syncevolution-evolution”:
deb http://downloads.syncevolution.org/apt stable main
These binaries include the “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 [the download directories](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](/documentation/getting-started) steps.