[The Bishop]

wow if it could sych with IMAP that would be poyfect!

[timmyc123]

I agree, we need a tutorial. I am so confused with this, can't get it to work!

[ncflashman]

Originally Posted by Camarones

I did nothing special. But remember, I installed the "stable" version which is just the sync4j server project, so the funambol beta enhancements (such as email) are not included.

Every chance I get I put in a request to Scalix to work on a Scalix server to funambol connector, so I don't have to mess around at the (desktop) client side. For me, the problems have been on the BB client. Sometimes it times out, and it takes FOREVER to sync, even over EDGE. It seems like I get one successful sync a day, no more.

I decided to run the stable version to increase my chances of success on my first try. Now that it was successful, I might try the Funambol betas.

Is the calendar working or just contacts?

[dozment]

I have the funambol version running on a linux box and the 1.2.4 Blackberry client. I was finally able to get a sync with Outlook, the GUI client, and (it appears) my Blackberry. The Blackberry sync is running very slowly, and it doesnt' have the option to sync calendar - contact only.

[dozment]

I spoke too soon. I can't do a complete sync of my address book. The sync process runs for a very long time (30 minutes to an hour), and the fails with either a timeout or some kind of "invalid data" message that I didn't catch.

[Camarones]

Calendar sync depends on the client version, not the server. If you run 1.1.5 instead of 1.2.4 you'll have calendar and contact sync. However, it has difficulty with all-day appointments and they chose the remove calendar from 1.2.4 instead of letting it out with this problem.

My sync was taking forever the first couple of days, but the last couple of days its been very fast.

[dozment]

I was using the 1.2.4 Blackberry client and the Funambol release of the server. I switched over to the 1.1.5 client and still had problems. I had the server set to log everything, so I know I was getting a connection.

Today I switced back to the stable sync4j server release, and I have been able to sync my calendar and contacts on Outlook and my Blackberry. It does take a long time, but based on what I'm seeing in the server logs it looks like the delay is part caused by duplicate entries that have to be merged.

[Camarones]

That could be it. I've noticed that the last 5 days or so my sync time have been reduced dramatically... to less than 30 seconds on 1.2.4 (just contacts). I upgraded to 4.1 Bharti last friday on my BB, so that may have something to do with it... I'm going to try 1.1.5 this morning so I can regain calendar sync.

[dozment]

Digging a little further... The slow syncs happen when it decides to do a "slow sync" (dump of the entire contact list and calendar) as opposed to a "fast sync" (only sync changes). It does that on the first sync of a device, and when some pointer loses track of when the device was last sync'd.

I was hoping to use my syncml server to sync my Blackberry, my calendar on my laptop, and a calendar on a machine at a client site. Apparently, that won't work. From what I read in the sync4j user mail archives if you syncing more than two devices forces it into slow-sync mode.

[Camarones]

Just an update from me...
I installed the Funambol 3 beta server and Outlook clients, and they work. I can sync Contacts with my BB8700 using the sync4j 1.2.4 client but I cannot get the Funambol Blackberry client to work, I keep getting Java errors (when the BB boots up, and when I try to launch the Funambol app).

The actual error is "Uncaught exception: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundException"

I REALLY don't want to reload my BB OS right now, but I may do so just to test (if I get bored)...

[Camarones]

A further update. I resolved the java error. It turns out that I had somehow lost my APN setting on the BB so I set it again and the error is gone. However, I'm quite disappointed with the Funambol 3.0.0 Blackberry beta client. It doesn't include Calendar, Tasks or Notes sync. All it seems to add over sync4j 1.2.4 is the mail feature, which I'm not using.

[mrogers]

This looks really cool, but I'm confused about something here. If I want to get my Exchange (via Outlook) Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, etc synced with my BlackBerry OTA, but I don't run the Exchange server, can I do it with this software? I'm downloading the Server 3.0 Beta 5, and the BlackBerry client, but what else do I need? I'm trying hard to decipher all this...

EDIT: OK wow I really can't make heads or tails of this. Their documentation blows. If someone could provide a brief writeup of what to install and how the heck to use the Administration panel -- and how to install all these different modules and stuff -- it would be greatly appreciated. I hope this can do what I want it to do.

[Camarones]

I would think that what you're trying to do is possible. The Funambol (or Sync4j) Outlook client is just that, a plugin for outlook that accesses your PIM info through Outlook, whether it lives on a server like Exchange or Scalix or in a PST file. It then takes that PIM info and syncs it to a Funambol server. Your other clients (such as your Blackberry) then access the Funambol server.

So in this respect, Exchange is pretty much irrelevant.

[techman1]

Just a fast thought. does this mean the new bb8703e may have problems when it attempts to synch to Outlook?

[Camarones]

Originally Posted by techman1

Just a fast thought. does this mean the new bb8703e may have problems when it attempts to synch to Outlook?

What do you mean? How is it different?

[Camarones]

Funambol Installation Guide.
This is by no means definitive, but since there have been so many requests for a tutorial I'm going to go over the basic installation steps and do a brain dump of anything else that comes to mind.
I would say to read the manual, but the manuals don't really help! However, the client software usually does have a manual available, so read over those!

First of all you need to select and download and install the following:

• Funambol or Sync4j server (Windows and unix versions available)
• Funambol or Sync4j Outlook client
• Funambol or Sync4j device (Blackberry?) client

You are on your own to select the server version based on the requirements of your environment. I chose to use the Windows server because all my linux machines already have web application servers running on :8080

Now that you have the 3 software components, you need to perform some infrastructure tasks to make sure each client can contact the server.

A couple of notes:

• You'll probably have to modify your firewall to enable Internet clients to access TCP port 8080 on the machine you installed the Funambol Server on. This is how the clients will connect to sync.
• You might have to update your DNS host to make the Funambol server available by name from the Internet (if you care to do so). I made sync.mycompany.com point to my firewall, which then redirects to the internal host.

Lets get started...

• Launch the Funambol server (in Windows, there is a status icon on the taskbar). From the start menu open up the Administration Tool. It is here that you'll need to set up the user accounts, and associations with devices, that will enable syncing.
  
• Double-click on Funambol Administration Tool to open the Login window. I think it will default to the local machine's name and port 8080, so enter check to make sure that is correct and click Login. Now you will see an item in the tree representing your Funambol Server.
• Click on the + to expand your server's item, and double click on Server Settings
• Look for the Server URI value. It may be incomplete or missing. This is the URL by which clients will contact the server, and serves as a root (base folder) of operations. Funambol expects clients to connect to a URL in the form of: http://sync.yourcompany.com:8080/funambol/ds so you'll need to enter you server's IP or hostname in place of “sync.yourcompany.com”.
• Double Click on the Users item. Add a user for testing (fill in username, password, and select type User)
• Double Click on Devices. For now, you won't need to add a device, because both of the clients you will be using (assuming you're syncing Outlook with a Blackberry) already has devices defined in the default Funambol server.
• Double Click on Principals. Principals are configuration objects that associate usernames or devices with sync clients. This way you must define a potential sync scenario to enable a user to use a particular client type.
• Click on Add. You will see two sets of blank fields. Click on both Search buttons. Select the username you added earlier in the box on the left, and select sc-outlook-pim in the box the right, then click Add Principal. This will enable the username to connect using the Outlook client. Repeat the task for the sc-pim-blackberry and syncml-phone devices.
• Go back to the Principals section again and click search, you should now see listed the default “guest” principals and three new principals for your username.

At this point you've basically done all you need to on the server to enable a single client to connect via Outlook, sync4j Blackberry client, and generic syncml-phone (which is how the Funambol Blackberry client identifies itself to the server!). You're ready to configure the clients and test.

The Outlook client configuration is pretty basic.

• Look for a Funambol or Sync4j item on the Outlook menu bar.
• Go to Communication Settings and enter the full URL for the server (again it will be something like http://sync.yourcompany.com:8080/funambol/ds). Enter your username and password
• Go to Syncronization Settings and select the PIM items you wish to sync with the server. I chose them all. Now, stop for a moment and get ready for some disappointment. Not all clients support all PIM items.
• Click on Synchronize on the main menu. If it reports errors, view the error log through Help --> View Logs. That should provide you some insight as to why it didn't work.

Now for the Blackberry client...

• Use the Blackberry Desktop Manager to install the Blackberry Client.
• Configure the Blackberry client in the same way as the Outlook client, providing the server URL and selecting the PIM items you want to sync. What, you want to sync more than just Contacts? Sorry!
• Ensure that you have set the APN in your Blackberry's TCP configuration screen. This varies by carrier. For t-mobile its “wap.voicestream.com”.
• Save your settings and attempt to sync. If its going to be successful it will take a while to sync the first time, so be patient. You'll see the upload/download activity arrows in the upper right of your BB screen.
• If it fails you must rely on the SERVER's error log to troubleshoot because you can't view the BB client's log.

That's about it. I tried to include pointers around all the minor issues that hung me up for a while. I spent hours examining the server logs to determine what needed to change, tweaking settings, and testing again in order to make it all work, so I hope this helps!

[pvantienen]

Fantastic! thanks!

[Camarones]

Glad to hear my afternoon writing that wasn't wasted! I should note that I've been testing some other clients as well. I've tried the following BB-specific clients so far, all with some success:

• Sync4j 1.1.5 (syncs Calendar and Contacts)
• Sync4j 1.2.4 (syncs Contacts)
• Funambol 3.0.0 (Syncs Contacts + email (haven't tried the mail part)
• SyncJe-BB (Syncs Contacts, Calendar and Tasks (I haven't gotten the task part to work yet but I just started trying yesterday) 15-day trial

SyncJe-BB is a commercial, generic syncML client for Blackberry. It appears to have much promise, as it supports "any SyncML server," which includes Funambol.

[Camarones]

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.

[The Bishop]

Originally Posted by Camarones

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.

Just curious as I've not tried it, but does it allow you to file mail into your subdirs of an IMAP account?