[coldsync-hackers] ColdSync::PDB and syncing with web-enabled groupware

[Nicola Fankhauser <nicola dot fankhauser at variant.ch>]

hi christophe

I was trying to write a sync conduit for coldsync and noticed that it
would be very complicated to do so (because of the binary protocol
etc.). 

what I really missed was the option to access the dirty-flags of the
records with fetch/dump conduits - this makes it pretty useless for
synchronization with servers which allow per record access.

is ColdSync::PDB correctly showing which records were modified on the
palm? I would be _very_ interested in bi-directional, fast-capable sync
conduits for LDAP (contacts), iCalendar (datebook), memos and todo
lists. 

the motivation is this: most web-enabled groupware are not capable of
syncing data with PDA's - and while writing a SyncML implementation
would be certainly possible, it would unsuitable for low-end palms
(because of the need for a syncml client). besides, SyncML is bloated,
complicated and very verbose.

So one possibility would be to use SOAP or XML-RPC (or something other)
in the syncing conduits to communicate with the backend-system
(groupware server). I searched for a lightweight XML sync protocol, but
found none.

Another solution could be implementing a SyncML client on top of a
syncing conduit which means doing all by myself, as AFAIK no SyncML
module for perl has been written yet.

Another problem is that coldsync supports only Palm devices (and not
even all, like the recent thread about the tungsten T3) - nowadays, more
and more mobile phones are used to manage contacts, calendar etc. And
most of them support SyncML. :(

Ideas and remarks about these issues are most welcome.

regards
nicola



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