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Posts: 1,523 | Thanked: 1,997 times | Joined on Jul 2011 @ not your mom's FOSS basement
#1
I find the integrated one crap. You can't use categories, and adding calendars is a hassle. Also, i have to use SyncML via syncevolution to sync to my Memotoo account, which plainly is sh*te. I'd like a way to add CalDAV-based calendars, so that each individual Memotoo-Calendar is linked to a particular local calendar (private, office, etc.).
 

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#2
I personally like the native calendar app. What makes you say Sync Evolution is garbage? What issues do you have?

There are ways to import Internet calendars via pywebcalai. I also wrote maecaltool that can load ics files via command line, which can be scheduled. These aren't sync options, but may be useful.

Do you know how to code? Sounds like a good opportunity for a community contribution.
 

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#3
(I've seen better calendars in the days of limiting computing power on my N73, and this was already in 2006.)

My issues?

a) Sync is SLOW. I have ~195 contacts, and alone this takes several minutes. (Partly because i transmit only one-way phone->server, which means some traffic)

b) Errors 22001, 20017, several others before i cleansed the history - never could get it to sync successfully in other than by overwrite-from-server mode, and now even this mode won't do it anymore

c) the logfiles it generates cannot even be opened on-device - they bring MicroB to a crawl or the device hangs - seems memory isn't enough to parse such huge HTML files

d) the configuration isn't friendly in - maybe if all you are trying to sync is one (1) of each task, calendar, notes and contacts datastore, but definitely not if you need to access multiple datastores, perhaps even over multiple accounts. I waited to receive my BT keyboard, before i tried to fix my configuration issues - too much typing involved.

I hate to say this, but Android (at least by 3rd party paid applications, which i happily invested in) is miles ahead here. By using CalDAV-Sync together with aCalendar+ (or even the stock calendar), it was even easier and reliable than using Lightning together with Thunderbird an a desktop. Sorry, but i simply don't have time to fiddle around trying to sync 10+ calendars, debugging sync issues relying on huge-as* HTML files, if i'm using an already tested (Memotoo) sync provider. And no, i don't code (but know some stuff), never wanted, never will, and luckily don't have tom despite working in a software company.

Sorry if this sounds like ranting, it is, i also wouldn't mind paying, (i do so frequently, be it services or software) just because it's more efficient spending some bucks instead of wasting hours, days, or weeks. And in the end having more issues than you were trying to solve at first.

All the stuff like manually importing ICS files or using external workarounds is not acceptable. This is 2013, and when a network connection is available, i expect things to happen silently after they are set up once.

Sorry, but Maemo (don't know if Harmattan is any better here) has to get way better. To be honest, the only thing more like a trainwreck i had to be unfortunate to use for months was webOS.

Last edited by don_falcone; 2013-01-02 at 11:50.
 

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#4
Yeah Maemo is certainly showing it's age. I wonder what the steps would be to add the support you want. Is it just caldav? I am curious as I have enjoyed writing my apps thus far and looking to do more that have the most utility and mass appeal. Does memotoo use caldav sync?
 

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#5
It looks like the calendar-backend api emits dbus signals when events are added and removed. http://maemo.gitorious.org/calendar-...ticalendar.cpp

It may be possible to create a dbus-listener daemon that then pushes the changes behind the scenes to a caldav server.

Getting changes propagated from the server side is probably trickier and would probably require a lot more work.

This problem is an interesting one. It sounds like you have a lot of calendars and items to sync. Can you archive old data and at least make the amount of items to sync smaller?
 

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#6
Originally Posted by jackburton View Post
I personally like the native calendar app. What makes you say Sync Evolution is garbage? What issues do you have?
I also like the native calendar, & the things that nicolai has done with it make it hard to improve upon.

With the exception of being able to sync with other devices. All the sync options for calendars & contacts for the N900 seem to involve going into the cloud, or installation of a server on another computer, etc. It was mentioned long ago that of all oddities of the N900, the lack of easy sync with Evolution for a Linux-based device is almost the strangest.
 

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#7
Originally Posted by jackburton View Post
It looks like the calendar-backend api emits dbus signals when events are added and removed. http://maemo.gitorious.org/calendar-...ticalendar.cpp

It may be possible to create a dbus-listener daemon that then pushes the changes behind the scenes to a caldav server.

Getting changes propagated from the server side is probably trickier and would probably require a lot more work.

This problem is an interesting one. It sounds like you have a lot of calendars and items to sync. Can you archive old data and at least make the amount of items to sync smaller?
Thanks. It would probably help if the N900 would support categories; then it would be less error prone. And i won't archive data (currently:

Number of records in Memotoo: Nb records Maximum
Contacts (address, phone numbers, ...) 195 unlimited
Calendar
Events 1696 unlimited
Tasks 12 unlimited
Notes 2 unlimited
Holidays 0 unlimited
Categories 11 unlimited <-- my individual calendars

...because the only device that is b*tchy about any data sync is the N900; neither my desktop(s) nor the Touchpad's CM10 install having issues. You don't necessarily fix your infrastructure according to the weakest link/device... you rather fix the problem device, or exchange it. The N73 had way less issues when ScheduleWorld still existed to sync it against (and i did some amount of bugtesting for them then).

And i don't even try to sync all ~1700 events, because i don't need all of them on all devices. (EU week numbers f.e., or Sun timings - they are just subscribed external calendars for places that sometimes need them to be displayed) so it's probably just 10-20% of them.

I'll try the suggestion made about using & adopting the Google Calendar template for CalDAV, and Yahoo template for CardDAV, or the generic DAV template. Memotoo fortunately allows you to use LDAP, CalDAV, CardDAV, ICS files, WebDAV, ActiveSync, Exchange, etc. etc., whatever you dream of. That's why i just prolonged my premium account for another 2 years.
There are of course other sync providers that support some subsets / less, so...

Maybe i'm also too stupid to configure SE correctly. But it isn't exactly the easiest framework to do so.

Last edited by don_falcone; 2013-01-03 at 15:53.
 

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#8
How are the caldav templates working? Did you get a chance to try?

If it doesn't work, then it seems like a properly implemented server should provide items that have changed via etags or ctags. Could make writing a sync client easier.
 

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#9
1700 events?! That's 4 to 5 events a day, every day, for a full year. With none of them repeating, since repeat events are generally stored as one event item. Maybe it's time to trim the database a bit, yes? Or maybe limit the scope of what's synced? Most sync apps can limit the sync to a specific time frame, say 2 weeks back and 14 months forward?

As for the rest, I've found the N900 one of the easiest devices I've had as far as sync goes. I've had no issue syncing with the Exchange server at work and with my Google calendar (via ical/ics and a simple script). The only time I had a "hicup" was when Google changed something a year or so back and it stopped syncing, and that was a pretty trivial fix, given the tools available.

The only issues I have with the built-in software is the lack of complex repeat editing (there's an app), and the inability to have one item exist once on the N900 when it's shared to multiple calendars. But that's more that I don't want my calendars auto-mixing in the real world... At least not anywhere by on my N900.

As for contacts, I sync from Google and work to the N900, and from the N900 to a home system via PCSuite. I've got 90+ on Google, 300+ at work and at least another 200+ unique on the N900. A full sync to/from everything, for all categories, takes under a minute, and happens almost automatically. I have to select Sync mode on the N900 when I connect it to the home PC to sync... the rest is all automated.

I get that you're frustrated... But it sounds like at least part of the problem is a lack of house cleaning. Most desktops would be a bit slow handling/tracking 1700 calendar items. To expect that from a 3+ year old tablet, and for it to all automatically work with things that weren't even on the horizon when it came out, seems a bit much.
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#10
Originally Posted by rotoflex View Post
I also like the native calendar, & the things that nicolai has done with it make it hard to improve upon.
I know of the widgets that Nicolai has created that improve the calendar experience, but what are the other improvements he has made? From what I understand the UI is closed source so there is no chance of making changes there. Are there changes/improvements to the CSSU versions of the calendar? I am still running PR1.3.
 

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