JahSync: The Free Calendar Sync Solution

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Fixing the sync id problem...

Continuing from the last post I made, I've decided to take the low road - I'm using a simple ID string in the Note/Description field to identify events that are synchronized through Jahsync between the Google calendar and the Palm datebook. The advantage is that this is easy, however, I don't like it, because it's not really portable to other calendar structures (eg., if the note field changes, etc). Also, its just not very elegant. Anyway, since I want to at least get the sync feature stabilized this week, I'll do this for now, but continue thinking about a less invasive event identification alternative.
Another peeve is the non-persistence of the user/password between sessions of the hotsync program. I will be looking at some persistent properties store or registry for the program right quick, since I see it getting pretty tiresome re-entering username and password everytime you start up the computer and want to sync between our PDA and Google. So - those are the current development tasks, I expect to have an update before the week is out, so continue to monitor the site for the updated downloads!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

0.1 Bugs and gotchas...

Now that I have the pre-pre-pre-release version available, I'll talk a bit about the limitations so far, and what I'm trying to achieve. The goal of JahSync is to provide a smooth, simple way to easily update your Treo, Clio or Freeo (the last doesn't exist) datebook with the contents of your Google Calendar (which went live sometime in April). And of course, to do the reverse, moving events from the PDA to Google. I have elected to use Java as my development platform, so I'm developing on the PalmSource JSync CDK, which allows one to access the Palm Hotsync and Palm-based devices from Java, using a provided library. In addition, I'm making use of the JahSync Conduit Manager, a third-party Java tool that helps to manage the installation and de-installation of Java conduits with your Palm device.
To the limitations so far; the version I have up, 0.1, is crap. It is mostly a proof-of-concept at this point. You can hotsync and your appointments on the Palm will go up and the ones on Google will come down. However, do it again, and you'll end up with duplicates. Again, you'll get triplicates. See a pattern? This is basically because I'm learning as I go along, so once I have worked out the details of the synchronization method for new, modified and deleted events, that will go away. There are a couple of promising directions I'm trying out, so keep watching on that.
BTW, you'll need to put in your Google calendar username and password (in the Hotsync Custom dialog) for the synchronization to work. At the moment, this is not stored, so each time you start up Hotsync, you'll have to reenter them.
If you download any of the versions of JahSync, please provide useful feedback or comments; I'll try my best to act on all the valid criticisms & suggestions.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Enter JahSync - the Google edition...

Welcome to the first post for the JahSync Calendar sync tool...those of you in the know, will recognise the name as a derivative of another app I've developed, called JahSing. Well, this is yet another Java-based tool, hopefully of some use to the WebWorld. JahSync is the first (to my knowledge) fully bi-directional sync solution for Google Calendar and Palm-based PDA's. Although I do have it working, I am putting together a simple installer for the tool, since it makes use of some other components for integration between Java and the Palm Hotsync application. I expect to have the full installer-based download available later today.
Feature-wise, the program is very basic for the moment - you get the Title, Description, Date and Time. At the moment, there is no support for recurring events, priorities or attendee/guest information, although they are all high on my todo list.
I will provide updates on development progress, releases and features on this site - from here, you'll always be able to get to download the various releases of the program. So without further ado, here is the download for Jahsync 0.1 - the Google edition!