Sync: Nokia , Thunderbird and Google Calendar

I need to sync many applications on different devices so the best idea for me was using a central server where I can sync too. ScheduleWolrd is a funambol based service that regardless of its ugly interface does what I want .This small howto covers my Nokia N95 , thunderbird + lightning and Google Calendar but it should work with many other devices or applications. Syncing between ScheduleWorld and Google Calendar works mostly out of the box.

ScheduleWorld Side

After signing up and logging in there are a few things that must be changed in the scheduleworld configuration page.

• General Preferences for: as it says those are just general preferences , they have nothing to do with the syncing procedures,can be left as they are
• GMail Contact Synchronization: would be handy but gmail sucks under this point. Gmail remembers automatically every address you have sent an email to and this means that after a while you will find a lot of guys called “unsubscribe” on your phone contacts, this is the part that sucks.I don’t use this feature.
• Standard SyncML Client Configuration: these are the configuration options we will use on the Nokia, all Nokia N series comes with syncML compliant client and we will use it.
• Funambol SyncML Client Configuration: if the application/device you want to sync doesn’t come with a syncML compliant client there is a possibility that you can install some funambol components to make it work and sync properly with scheduleworld.(for iPod , Windows Mobile, Outlook, theres should be something for BlackBerries too)
• Evolution SyncML Configuration (SyncEvolution): for the evolution office suite ( if you don’t know what it is don’t bother).I use Gnome but I when I’m not home I must use windows,so I prefer crossplatform applications like the ones from Mozilla.

There are other configuration option at the bottom of the boxes (its actually another wider box in pink and purple colors). If you want to sync with google calendar the configuration options with a pink background are the ones that matter the most.(those ones that come after “To manually sync with your specific Google Calendar click ‘Google Sync’ at the top of the day view. “).

• Authorization: most of people should click on “Single User/AuthStub”, if you use google apps for your domain then you should click on “Hosted Domain/Client Login”.After that your browser will fire up a google page that asks you if you want to grant permission to scheduleworld.com, you should answear yes.
• Corresponding Google Calendar Username (email): your google login
• Google Calendar Title:click “Find” and chose the calendar you wish to sync with.
• Other options: the defaults are ok, maybe you want the “Automatically sync with this Google Calendar with every SyncML sync” set to “yes” so that every time you sync with scheduleworld you get synced to google calendar automatically.

Nokia Side

The syncML client by Nokia is called “Syncronization” and it should be under “Utilities” (my N95 is in Italian).Options->NewProfile.

• Profile Name: Anything you want
• Applications:we will sync Contacts and Calendar, click on Contacts: Include:yes ; Database: card ; Direction:both; go back.Click on Calendar: Include:yes ; Database: cal ; Direction:both. Pay attention: Contacts database is “card”, Calendar database is “cal”.
• Connection: these info are on the scheduleworld configuration page in the “Standard SyncML Client Configuration” box. Put the server url in the “host address”, do the same for username and password.

Now go back with your phone to the syncronization page and click on the new created profile to sync your phone to Scheduleworld and to Google Calendar with it.

Thunderbird Side

You can find Scheduleworld extension for thunderbird here, right click save, fireup thunderbird and under Tools->Add-Ons click on install and select the extension, restart thunderbird. Upon restarting a wizard should show up guiding you to the configuration options,as usual you can find these infos on the scheduleworld configuration page.After Username and Password you are asked what contacts you want to sync, Personal Address Book are the contacts you created , Collected Address Book are the contacts you know cause you sent or they ahve sent something to you.Next is the Calendars to Syncronize, put a mark on “Sync” and chose the calendar to sync, keep going and reading till you finish.Now aunder tools->SyncSW to sync.

Tip for Gnome Users

Gnome has a clock applet that if you click on it it shows you a calendar , that calendar is connected to evolution and it will show in glance all your appointments,pretty handy feature. If you don’t want to use evolution there’s a solution here