[Kde-pim] GSoC: Akonadi SyncML support

[Riccardo Iaconelli]

On Friday 09 April 2010 13:06:15 Sascha Peilicke wrote:
> Furthermore I'm in touch with Riccardo Laconelli, the guy that started 
> Akunambol. It's another SyncML/Akonadi effort currently lying in
> playground  that gained some traction again. He used libfunambol as the
> SyncML backend (the same I did last year). We had a conversation about how
> we could join forces here but we haven't found a final conclusion yet.
> Akunambol may also have a different focus that this GSoC project.
> 
> @Riccardo: Maybe you could sum up your conclusions on the topic?

So, a little summary for everyone:

Akunambol is a project that started within the Funambol program of "code 
snipers". The idea was to create a client to to synchronize your local Akonadi 
data with a SyncML sever, using the solid Funambol SDK.
http://blog.ruphy.org/posts/75 and http://gitorious.org/akunambol are the two 
most relevant links.

On the other hand, SyncEvolution builds on a different set of libraries, and 
tries to be a more comprehensive solution, allowing to locally sync (e.g. via 
bluetooth) a SyncML capable device and your desktop.

Akunambol is now currently working quite well for the few things it's doing, 
which for now is just contacts synchronization. Adding calendar and tasks 
support on top of the currently existing code would be a little effort though.

Now, the Funambol SDK only supports syncing to a server on the interwebs. To 
simply base Akunambol on SyncEvolution I would have to get rid of most of the 
code, and rewriting most parts from scratch.

Now, since I don't really feel like trashing, just after the first release, 
all the code and all the effort that I put into it, and since it is already 
there and it already works well, until I finish implementing the needed 
features I'd like to continue developing it as a very lightweight application 
that, in a very UNIXey philosophy, does one thing and does it well, eventually 
with room for additional features and integration.

But I'm also definitely open to thoughts on what to do for the future. :) 
After all, I think that joining forces is much Better(tm) than reinventing the 
wheel. Anyways, just throwing some ideas here: what if we made the target of 
the GSoc to develop a "backend" for akunambol, so that, when it finds 
SyncEvolution over dbus, it is able to use some of its features? That would 
still an Akonadi plugin for syncevo, but it would mean reusing the UI and 
allowing deploying additional features in an easier and more granular way on a 
working and tested utility. Or, I don't know...

Oh, by the way, how does SyncEvolution work on embedded devices?

Anyways, this is just some initial thoughts, if you have better ideas, let's 
discuss them! =)

Bye,
-Riccardo
P.S: btw, Sascha, the beginning of my surname is a capital i, not an l. ;-)
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