Funambol Clients Interoperability
From Sw
[edit] Time Zone Problems
It's possible that your sync will create events that start at the wrong time. This can happen if there is a time zone mismatch. You need to make sure the following timezones are all the same:
- Microsoft Windows time zone.
- ScheduleWorld general preferences time zone - found on the [preferences] page.
- ScheduleWorld device-specific preferences time zone. You can find this by going to the [preferences page] and clicking the 'Edit Settings' button next to your Funambol client.
Making sure all of these are the same will ensure a consistent correct behaviour.
[edit] Windows 98, 2000, ME Specific Time Zone Problems
Windows XP and Vista receive the new time zone definitions during the Windows update procedure. Unfortunately 98, 2000 and ME do not. There is an unofficial time zone update program you can use to fix this problem found here.
[edit] Conflicting redmption.dll Files
If you have an older conflicting redemption.dll on your computer you will have timezone and many other problems. Follow these steps to determine if you have this problem and resolve it:
- search C:\ for the file: redemption.dll
- if there is more than one you have a problem and you need to uninstall or update the application that installed the older DLL. Google desktop search is often the source of this problem - so is other synchronization software or any Outlook add-ons/extensions.
[edit] Recover Mode Problems
Sometimes the Funambol 'recover' mode (from ScheduleWorld, replace Outlook data) doesn't properly delete items in Outlook and replace them with data from ScheduleWorld. If this is happening to you you'll see a few recurring events are not appearing on their start date, but every instance after that looks fine.
To guarantee a perfect recover sync follow these steps:
- delete all items in Outlook. For example, if you are recovering calendar events, you don't have to delete your Outlook contacts just your Outlook events. The category view works best for this as this view allows you to bulk select and delete events.
- perform a recover sync.
[edit] Summer Time / Daylight Savings Events or Todos (Tasks) Off By One Hour
If your events or todos (tasks) have their start/end times wrong by the daylight savings offset (usually one hour) you can fix this by enabling the 'Ignores DST' option like this:
- Go to the ScheduleWorld preferences page (you may be asked to log in).
- Click 'Edit Settings' for your Funambol client device.
- Enable 'Ignores DST' and click 'Save'.
[edit] Wacky Categories Issue
It is easy to mistake the Outlook Event 'Label' setting as the category setting. The real categories are found at the bottom of the window.
Further, some localized versions of Outlook translate 'Label' into 'Category' which is doubly confusing.
saintgermain (ScheduleWorld forums) posted this neat tip on how to assign categories to labels:
http://www.uwec.edu/help/Outlook03/CAL-color.htm
Original post: http://www.scheduleworld.com/jforum/posts/list/783.page
[edit] Broken Proxy Compression
There seem to be bugs in how the Funambol client uses deflate/gzip compression. New versions are coming out to disable compression. Here is a quote from the Funambol mailing list:
Hi, Someone has already reported the issue you have found. At this pourpose we have delivered a new release in which it is possible to disable the data compression. In order to test the release, please download it from Object Web in our Experimental section http://forge.objectweb.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=96. The plug-in version for your device is the 6.0.20 for pocket pc. After the installation of the plug-in, please install the compression.cab that you can find in the same repository. Some instruction about how to install this package in the wiki: https://wiki.objectweb.org/sync4j/Wiki.jsp?page=Howtodisablecompression.
[edit] Broken Recurrence Exceptions
Funambol 6.x clients now can support EXDATEs. For example, you have swimming lessons every Saturday at 10:00AM _except_ for next Saturday.
However, 6.x clients badly break iCalendar RecurrenceId support. For example, you have swimming lessons every Saturday at 10:00AM _except_ next Saturday is at 11:00AM. The Funambol Outlook client will delete the 'next Saturday' instance using an EXDATE, then create a copy of the event and change the start date to 11:00AM.
This is bad because now the new event does not have a link to the original. You can no longer delete all occurrences of your swimming lessons in one operation. Also, this scheme makes it impossible to use the Funambol client to interoperate correctly with any other scheduling server in this regard. This means that servers that have the capability of properly handling recurring instances changing properties will not (and can not) sync the data properly into Outlook when the Funambol Outlook client is used.
[edit] COM Pointer Errors
Latest: It seems the Google desktop search is conflicting and uninstalling and re-installing Google desktop search resolves the issue. More info here: http://forge.objectweb.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=308658&group_id=96&atid=100096.
Recently a problem with COM pointer errors have been giving some folks trouble. A message posted to the Funambol mailing list might provide some help:
Probably it's a specific Windows update (KB939683, for Window Media 11 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939683) that is causing the COM pointer error. Some other users have experienced the same issue after installing this Windows update patch... it seems breaking the Outlook API. Unfortunately so far we didn't have much time to investigate on it, I'll let youknow for updates. You could try to uninstall KB939683, then Outlook plugin should work again.
Other experience: KB939683 is not installed on my system and I have the descibed problem. Using Windows XP x64 and deinstalled everything that had to do with WM11. Problem not solved.
Mark Swanson's Experience: I just installed and updated a new Windows XP machine (32-bit) and I couldn't make the COM Pointer problem go away with the 6.0.14 client. I had to upgrade to 6.5.7.
[edit] Possible Solution
- This might be an issue with the older redemption.dll. If so, installing the newer DLL should resolve this. Some instructions about this can be found on the Outlook (Configuration) page.
[edit] Outlook 2007 Notes Fail To Sync (Color / Categories)
Microsoft changed Color to Categories. Funambol mentions they have fixed this and the next client version will have the fix: http://forge.objectweb.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=307104&group_id=96&atid=100096
[edit] Outlook 2007 Duplicates or Strange Behaviour
A number of fixes are in the latest redemption.dll for Outlook 2007. You'll have to download the new redemption.dll from here: http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/Redemption.zip and replace your existing redemption.dll.
You should be able to find your existing redemption.dll by right-clicking on your computer's C:\ drive and using the 'Search' feature.
[edit] Redemption License Popups
dubwise posted in the forums a solution that worked for him: http://www.scheduleworld.com/jforum/posts/list/91.page
In a nutshell, the issue seems to be that you have multiple copies of the redemption.dll on your system. It doesn't matter if they are used with other applications. The solution seems to be just to delete them all and install the latest redemption.dll.
[edit] BlackBerry Calendar Sync Problems
Note: This bug is also discussed here:
- http://www.scheduleworld.com/jforum/posts/list/971.page
- http://www.scheduleworld.com/jforum/posts/list/920.page (detailed explanation of the problem)
When syncing your calendar you may receive this error: Synchronization failed. com.funambol.syncclient.spds.SyncException. Forum user krkeegan asked Funambol about this and received some helpful information and status on this bug. Pasting krkeegan's post:
The error occurs trying to sync non-private calendar events from the BlackBerry to the DS Server. Unfortunately, the error is due to an issue in the API from RIM.
More specifically, the method getInt() defined in the interface net.rim.blackberry.api.pdap.BlackBerryEvent cannot be invoked without that an exception is thrown if the event class is 'public' and not 'private'. Refer to our class com.funambol.syncclient.blackberry.parser.XMLEventParser, method appendSensitivity().
An event that is created as 'private' on the BlackBerry can therefore be synced without errors. As a workaround, in order to sync also calendar events created on the BlackBerry whose sensitivity is 'public', when creating the SIF-E payload of the SyncML message to be sent to the server, our Plug-in now catches the exception thrown when the sensibility of the event is 'public'. In this case the flow isn't interrupted anymore, and a SIF-E element containing the right sensibility level is created ad hoc, and added to the payload to be sent.
On the other hand, an issue was noticed also whenever calendar events with non-private sensibility level came in from the server. In this case the sensitivity level for 'private' could never be correctly set for the event, because an exception was thrown when the event-object was cleared in order to receive the new sensitivity status. Being the value of the 'public' status equal to 0, and remaining always the value of the variable used the initialization value (0) (due to the interruption of the flow caused by the exception), the sensitivity level of the incoming event was always 'public'. As a workaround, the initial clearing operation of the sensitivity flag of the event object was eliminated, so that the value corresponding to the 'private' status could be added without that an exception was thrown. Please refer again to our class com.funambol.syncclient.blackberry.parser.XMLEventParser, method modifyEvent(). Possible side-effects of this operation are up to now still unknown.
The changes to the code for the workaround need to be tested extensively.
[edit] Howto Enable Logging
Type this from the BlackBerry home screen (not from the Funambol client)
alt + lglg
Using this global event log can help a lot with debugging sync problems using the Funambol client.
[edit] Encryption Is Not Supported
If you enable the encryption option of the Funambol client you will not be able to sync.
[edit] Item #0 in folder "Calendar" is not a appointment item.
If your syncs are failing and you notice this log statement in your Funambol client logs:
Item #0 in folder "Calendar" is not a appointment item. Please check if Outlook is working properly.
then the following may help:
- Ensure that you are syncing an Outlook folder that only contains calendar events.
- Remember that sub-folders are included in the sync by default. You must disable this if you have sub-folders that contain non-event items.
The Funambol 6.5.x clients have a panel that allows you to adjust both of the above. You can find it in the Funambol client under Tools -> Options -> click the 'Details' button across from Calendar.
[edit] General Funambol Configuration Settings
Funambol clients come configured correctly except for the URL, username and password.
- URL - http://sync.scheduleworld.com/funambol/ds
- username - This is your ScheduleWorld account ID (number). You must not use your email address. Your ScheduleWorld account ID was emailed to you when you signed up, and can also be found on your preferences page (General Preferences for <account ID>). You need to log in to see this page.
- password - the same password you use to login to the ScheduleWorld web site.
The following settings are the default settings:
- contacts URI - scard
- calendar event URI - scal
- calendar todo/task URI - stask
- notes - snote
- encryption - no
- v-card - no
- i-cal no
Please do not set the scheduler to sync more often than once every 30 minutes. This helps keep the load on the server down.
[edit] Funambol 6.x
Requires Windows XP or greater, and Outlook 2003 or greater.
[edit] Issues With Vista
At the moment --MarkSwanson 11:37, 12 March 2008 (EDT) your best bet is to use the funambol-outlook-plugin-6.5.7.exe Funambol 6.5.7 client.
[edit] Funambol 3.x
Works with Windows 2000 and Outlook 2000.
- Warning this version can not be used to sync more than one computer with the same username. For example, if you want to keep your work and home machine in sync you must use a different username on each machine. This means signing up for two separate ScheduleWorld accounts, and then sharing your calendar between the two users.
