Perparing for ActiveSync

[florian]

what's your definition of 'stable'?

The current alpha code we are using internally has no problems with it's uptime, it hasn't caused any data loss in the server-side mailbox structures (and the way it works, it actually can't do that, really) and the issues I've seen have been around push email not reliably working in the case of network disconnection recovery, some email messages with complex nested content being not readable on the device and some cases of contact record duplication on change.

I'd personally call that stable - as I said, I'm using it for my day-2-day mobile email and my volume is pretty high.

There will be known limitations in Beta 1 that will be documented in the release notes, most notably that we haven't enabled full attachment support, calendar scheduling and device management functionality yet as some parts there need further work. That's why it's considered a Beta, not a release candidate.

Would I rollout a Beta version in production? Well, as I said, we internally do. For customers, I'd say it depends. Would I put my technology-phobic CEO on it that really relies on his wireless email to work 100%, 24x7? Probably not. I guess you see my point.

As for deployment and Scalix server compatibility... Beta 1 will need to be installed on a separate machine and will work against a Scalix Server 11.4.1 or higher. Future Betas may and the final product will have various deployment options, including the separate server deployment or actually being installed on the Scalix Server. In the latter case, the Scalix Server will have to be upgraded to 11.4.2 or maybe even 11.4.3 as they become available (don't ask for dates here, please, this is work in progress, although 11.4.2 patch release is only a couple weeks away) - during ActiveSync development we've found a some things on the server side that we wanted/had to improve to ensure best possible compatibility, performance and user experience.

Obviously the main reason why we've moved out release dates for ActiveSync as compared to our original plan is that we'll only ship this once it has reached the quality and maturity level our customers expect from us. Turns out that even though we've licensed the protocol specifications from Microsoft, some pretty deep reasearch was still required as sometimes not everything that's written on paper is as accurate as one would hope to be. Also, the various device vendors - most notably Apple with the iPhone - actually use the ActiveSync protocol in quite different ways and one has to accomodate for all of them.

I'm using this interchangeably with iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian-based devices, btw. Haven't tried the Versamail/Palm yet, but assume it's not really a huge factor in the market anymore and I believe our QA team is playing with that as well.

Florian

[Kris]

Quick question about the AS part on another server. I've Scalix running on a CentOS 5 server, can this AS-server also be a CentOS 5 server? Are there some specific items needed on this server? I want to prepare a server, so I can install AS as soon as it is available. :lol:

[florian]

Fundamentally, the system requirements on the software side are very much the same as for a Scalix server and it will work on the same set of platforms as Scalix.

That makes sense as a further Beta and the final release can also be run on the actual Scalix system without requiring an extra machine.

Florian

[jimidmb]

Hi!

I've been seeing this sig:

"Florian.
_________________
Florian von Kurnatowski, product guy and community geek

*** Scalix 11.4.1 available now at http://www.scalix.com/downloads - Scalix ActiveSync Beta 1 coming soon ***"

for quite some time now... so: how soon is soon? what's the time frame? days? weeks? months?

Thanks for the info!

[florian]

I have answered the question several times in this and other threads; quality is key and we're still in a QA cycle and internal beta testing where we're fixing a couple issues seen with the current code.

As the testing is quite involved and this is a new product - as opposed to a new feature of our core products - we don't have exact estimates on QA cycles and things.

All I can say is - it'll be ready when it's ready.

Hope you don't force me to remove the state from my sig, which is what I'd have to do if it causes confusion.

Florian.

[jimidmb]

[quote="florian"]
All I can say is - it'll be ready when it's ready.

Hope you don't force me to remove the state from my sig, which is what I'd have to do if it causes confusion.

Florian.[/quote]

Hi, and thanks for the quick reply. Of course I don't want to force you to do anything ...

It's just that my company is trying to decide whether to go with scalix or kerio and ActiveSync/iPhone support is crucial... We can wait a week or month, but not half a year...

Anyway... hope you get it up and running really soon.

[florian]

well, i think it is fair to say that it may still be a week or even a month, but as I am using it on a daily basis for my production email, I wouldn't expect anything in the year-type timeframe. Otherwise I'd probably leave this place in deep frustration as a user. (I'm an iPhone guy....

If you haven't done so, you may want to engage with our sales folks - see contact form for details - to get on the list for the initial Beta sendout.

Cheers,
Florian.

[shr]

I have posted this in another forum, but this is the right one I believe: ActiveSync is really heavily overdue and had been promised since June. Due to the fact the itunes sync doesn't work anymore I am back to the stone ages in terms of data portability with the scalix server and an iphone. The information policy as well as expectation management is frustrating me to say the least. Don't promise if you can't deliver!

[florian]

The thread you're referring to is

viewtopic.php?p=54327#54327

and I have responded over there.

-- F.