Wireless Blackberry Sync with Sync4j / Funambol -- SUCCESS!

[cdclark]

I gave up on getting tethered sync to work between Scalix and our Blackberries. We have a variety of devices ranging from 7100 to 7290 to 8700. They run OS 4.0.2 and 4.1, and it was a nightmare trying to get Desktop Manager 3.X to work cleanly with these newer devices.

So today I hunkered down and decided to give Funambol a try. I installed the stable sync4j windows package (all my linux servers already have tomcat installed, running some other applications, I didn't want to mess those up). I installed the Outlook Sync4j connector and opened up my Scalix outlook profile, then launched the plugin. I synced it up with the server, and was able to retrieve those contacts/appts from my Blackberry 8700 running OS 4.1 and Sync4j 1.1.5.

I gotta run, but here's the basic setup, known to work (for me).

Scalix Connect for Outlook + Sync4j for Outlook v 2.0
talks to Sync4j 2.3 server (I made :8080 internet accessible)
which talks to Sync4j 1.1.5 on Blackberry OS 4.1 (1.2.4 would work but it lacks calendar sync)

Its pretty slow to sync, but it works. What would make it better, would be a backend Scalix Server to Funambol connector and/or full integration... *cough* *cough* :)

[axsom1]

Awesome to hear!

I just tried this with the beta 3 server and connectors trying to sync Nextel i930's. Unfortunately the funambol v3 (and Syncml) client is not compatible with Windows Mobile 5 devices.

I wish I knew how to compile the code to work with WM5 devices...

John

[florian]

Good stuff.

I think this really demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of Open Systems and Open Standards. We do believe that, going forward, SyncML will be a really strong player/factor to solve all these problems; however, as the examples provided here show, it's still a fairly new technology, with a few glitches.

I'm sure, we'll be getting there at some point - not too far in the future.

We at Scalix heavily believe and invest in Open Standards, and this is certainly one of them. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff coming!

Thanks for sharing this,
Florian.

[PaulHerron]

Really great development here... thanks Cdclark for posting your howto. I intend to try to replicate it sometime in the near future. And will post my results.

Florian -- any hints of what we might expect from Scalix in this area?

Paul

[florian]

Well, if you check out our recent open source announcements, obviously a direct connection of Funambol via the server is somewhat on the radar...

Florian.

[cdclark]

I posted up a better how-to for getting a funambol server up and running with Outlook (plays nice with Scalix plugin) and Blackberries. Its over at Blackberry Forums:

http://www.blackberryforums.com/general ... post315378

-Cameron

[florian]

maybe it would also make sense to post this to our Wiki as a HowTo?

www.scalix.com/wiki

Cheers,
Florian.

[cdclark]

maybe it would also make sense to post this to our Wiki as a HowTo? :-)

www.scalix.com/wiki

Cheers,
Florian.

Posted to the wiki, and updated the How-To table of contents. :)

http://www.scalix.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... s/Funambol

[cdclark]

A new Funambol Blackberry client (version 3.0.7 beta) has been released. It once again includes Calendar sync along with Contacts. Still no Notes or Tasks. You can find it on the downloads section of the Funambol website.

It seems to be working well for me on my 4.1 OS 8700g, syncing to my Scalix mailbox.

[mweichert]

How is the performance? For example, if someone sends an e-mail to your scalix e-mail address, what's the deny before it appears on your blackberry? Or if you add a calendar event using SWA, how long does it take before it appears on your blackberry?

Thanks,
Mike

[cdclark]

How is the performance? For example, if someone sends an e-mail to your scalix e-mail address, what's the deny before it appears on your blackberry? Or if you add a calendar event using SWA, how long does it take before it appears on your blackberry?

Thanks,
Mike

I actually haven't used the email portion of the funambol client. I just use it for PIM sync, since tethered sync has never worked for me with scalix.

For those of you who swear there's a way to make 3.6 bb desktop sync work let me put it this way: I sincerely tried and failing that, invested the many hours needed to get funambol to work.

The lack of a working tethered Blackberry sync is really all that's keeping me from purchasing Scalix company-wide. Running around trying to get funambol to work, or shelling out to NotifyLink to make up for basic lost functionality is ridiculous.

[SnaRf]

Sorry for dragging this old subject up....

I have got funambol to sync with my BB reasonably well, but I have 1 weird issue though

Even though I have turned email sync off on the funambol app on my BB I have to send every email twice.

The first time I try to send it, I get a popup on my device saying that the server name does not match the destination.

Does anyone have any clue how to make it go away?

Thanks in advance

[cdclark]

I'd love to help you with that but I still haven't tried the email portion of the funambol client, and I have not yet seen that issue. Maybe you should pursue the free support options listed here: http://www.funambol.com/opensource/supp ... rview.html

[cdclark]

I don't know if its related, but ever since I upgrade to Scalix 11 GA (from 10.0.5) I have been unable to complete a sync from Outlook to my funambol server.

Anyone else have similar results? I've tried on different client workstations, with different versions of outlook, and the latest funabol outlook client (3.0.15).

[uwe-beach]

What is the error message ?

I was able to complete a sync from outlook to my funambol server.
I'm using Scalix 11 Community Edition, Outlook 2003 SP2, funambol outlook client (3.0.15), funambol server 3.

sorry, I'm a beginner with scalix and funambol.

Where are my contacts and calenders in the funambol server after the sync ?
How can i see the data in the funambol server ?

regards
uwe