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**woodsmoke** · Dec 09, 2011, 12:25 AM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

It just occurred to me that a REALLY KLUDZY way to get Kontact synced might be to install Evolution, use this thingy, and export an ical and import that with Kontact.

Do Kontact stuff, export an ical import it with Evolution and that then syncs with the calendar on the web.

Kludzy but maybe doable.

Of course I presently do kind of that anyway just shuffling icals around with Google anyway!

woodsmoke

**kubicle** · Dec 09, 2011, 01:00 AM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Err...I'm not really sure what you're trying to do, but that sounds rather weird.

1. which calendar service you're trying to sync with?
Syncevolution is a tool to sync calendars with compatible (SyncML, *Dav etc.) calendar servers...and, despite the name, I don't think it really requires evolution to work.

2. Don't akonadi's remote calendar agents work for you?

**woodsmoke** · Dec 09, 2011, 10:13 AM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Kuibicle

Evidently you haven't noticed the baucoups number of threads that litter the dungeons on how Akonadi doesn't work with google calendar!

For some reason, I'm not a developer, Akonadai goes to Google and what it finds is the "default" calendar, which is blank. There is no option to search for a calendar, which is the one that one makes in Google.

The interactive box only accepts the g-mail addy and one's password.

I really do not know whether the problem is in Kontact or in Google, but for some reason the bug has been known for some time, somewhere back in 2010 is the first reference to it that I have seen.

I only use two cloud things, and that is yahoo for my throwaway stuff and google for the personal and important stuff.

I use google calendar to sync with calendar on my Android and that is where all the important stuff happens.

I can go back and forth with google calendar on the web and on the phone but to work on Kubuntu computers I have to import/expoert an ical.

So, that is why I was fiddling with it.

But your comment is probably a very important clue in that you said that SyncEvolution does not n"need" Evolution "to work". so that would maybe mean that the situation is not with Kontact but within Google Calendar itself.

Don't know, it is way above my pay grade!

**SteveRiley** · Dec 09, 2011, 02:37 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

It's been many months, so my memory may be incorrect, but I seem to recall getting CalDAV to work, including multiple calendars, by following the documented steps for CalDAV with Mozilla products. The important bit here is the formatting shown in step 4, slightly edited from the original publishing style:

1. Open the Sunbird application and select File > New Calendar.

2. Select On the Network and click Next.

3. Select the CalDAV format option.

4. In the Location field, enter https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/your_Google_Calendar_ID/events and click Next.

Your Google Calendar ID for your primary calendar is just your email address, but for all other calendars the Calendar ID will be in the form of long_string_of_characters@group.calendar.google.com.

You can get the Calendar ID by clicking the down arrow next to your calendar at calendar.google.com and selecting 'Calendar Settings'.

Be sure to use https in your URL, as an http address will not work.

5. Enter a name and select a color for your calendar.

6. In the pop-up screen, enter the following information:

Username: This is the complete email address you use with Google Calendar (including the part after the @ sign). If you're using Google Apps, be sure to enter your Google Apps email address.

Password: This is the password you use to sign in to Google Calendar

7. Click OK.

**kubicle** · Dec 09, 2011, 02:51 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

SteveRiley beat me to it, but CalDav (Dav groupware resource akonadi agent) should work with kontact, even if the akonadi googledata resource doesn't.

Additional instructions (the information in SteveRiley's post still stands, except you want to add a new calendar with kontact rather than sunbird) with a screenshot here:
http://thinkmoult.com/2011/02/21/syn...-with-android/
(just scroll down to the caldav part skipping the google calendar resource part)

Google is not available as a preselect resource in the dropdown for setting up a caldav resource, so you have to add the details manually (see SteveRiley's post)

**woodsmoke** · Dec 09, 2011, 03:40 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Hi guys
thanks for the two posts
a) i tried to add caldav though Kontact and it didn't work the menu systems are not the same for Sunbird and Kontact but I cherry picked places and tried anyway.
The second post I have seen before but didn't understand what it was wanting.
so I tried again and.
b) I did the caldave through nepomuk and it "seemed to take", it said that it was talking to Google says that it is fetching but it stays at 0%.

So, I'll keep fiddling with it.

woodsmoke

**kubicle** · Dec 09, 2011, 04:01 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

In kontact/korganizer you can add a new calendar by right-clicking on the available calendars window (bottom left in the sidebar)...you can also add your caldav resource directly with akonadiconsole (which you may need to install) in the agents-tab>add (if you add it with akonadiconsole, korganizer should pick it up automagically once it is setup. (I'd sort of recommend using akonadiconsole since it will tell you if there are any errors with the resource setup)

Step by step instructions:
1a. Kontact/Korganizer right-click on available calendars choose add calendar
1b. Akonadiconsole Agents-tab, click add

2. Choose "DAV groupware resource"

3. Window pops up, asking for username/password, click cancel

4. A new window will popup, enter name to show for the calendar, refresh interval and click add.

5. Choose caldav, enter account information:
Remote address: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/your.mailaddress@gmail.com/events
Username: your.mailaddress@gmail.com
Password: your gmail password
(in the remote address, this will sync with your primary gmail calendar, if you have multiple calendars, see steveriley's post for finding out the address to use with other calendars)

6. click fetch, this should find your gmail calendar

7. click ok to accept

8 if you're using akonadiconsole, you can then check the newly added Dav resource in the agents tab (if it shows "Ready" you should be done).

**woodsmoke** · Dec 09, 2011, 04:29 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Kubicle that post is just STUNNING!!!

Two items:

a) On the many threads that I have read that are littered across the net most, if not all, said do not get to Akonadi or anything else by going THROUGH Kontact, meaning set up DAV and Akonadi in settings not starting in Kontact itself. So...I never did that...I did the "setup" in settings and it appeared in Kontact...and didn't work.

b) I worked through that method for probably several hours repeating and going back and changing, but...

never ONCE did I ever click "cancel".

So....it is now working!!! and after only a few minutes setup!!!

So ....

i)
How come you knew how to do that (click cancel) and the hundreds of other posts across the net a) were all giving basically the same instructions which were wrong and b) why is all of this situation still considered a "bug" instead of the devs or somebody else just saying in an influential place...oh...do this and it will work?
ii)
I, personally, think that Kubicle's post should be placed PERMANENTLY in it's own spot of honour at the top of the how to's thread and there should be a BIG SIGN....ON THE WEBSITE.... to wit:

Kubicle of Kubuntu fame has posted a simple howto on how to sync contact with google so.....
COME ON IN AND SEEE!!!!

again...

this is just amazing, and I want to express my UNBOUNDED appreciation because,....

I have spent, probably fifty hours on this over the last few months and just this afternoon, I had come back to the forum to say that, basically, I was going to have to consider Sunbird or Thunderbird because my life is getting so complicated that I really DO NEED a fully functional PIM...

So....again....THANK YOU!!!!

woodsmoke

**kubicle** · Dec 09, 2011, 05:45 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Originally posted by woodsmoke

How come you knew how to do that (click cancel)

It does say "However when it asks for you to pick the groupware server, click Cancel." in the link I posted.

It was a bit vague, so I just tried to see how it goes (I don't use Google calendar, but set one up to see whether it works...so I can't tell how it performs in the long run, but seemed to work while I tested it)

**SteveRiley** · Dec 09, 2011, 05:49 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Originally posted by woodsmoke

How come you knew how to do that (click cancel) and the hundreds of other posts across the net a) were all giving basically the same instructions which were wrong

As much as I love KDE overall, KDE-PIM belies something of a single-minded approach to how people use computers. The whole suite seems to assume that it will be used in a groupware-like setting inside an office. The notion that a lot of people might be using third parties for email and calendaring appears to be an afterthought.

If you had a local calendar server and if it understood CalDAV, then the ID/password prompt dialog box would be useful. That is the proper sequence for configuring a local CalDAV client to chat with a local CalDAV server. But when the CalDAV server is remote, the client needs to be explicitly told what the entry point URL is and has to contact the server to learn what sorts of authentication it supports to determine whether an ID/password pair is required.

It amazes me how, in the 21st century, online calendaring is still a royal pain in the ass. There are too many protocols, they're almost similar but differ enough to cause compatibility problems, and truly reliable synchronization eludes us still.

Originally posted by woodsmoke

I, personally, think that Kubicle's post should be placed PERMANENTLY in it's own spot of honour at the top of the how to's thread

Stickying (hmm, now why does the spell checker think that's a word?) this thread wouldn't make much sense. kubicle -- if you wouldn't mind starting a thread in the howto section, I'll sticky it. You provided the better set of instructions, the thread should show you as the owner.

**kubicle** · Dec 10, 2011, 06:28 AM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Originally posted by SteveRiley

kubicle -- if you wouldn't mind starting a thread in the howto section, I'll sticky it.

I'm generally better at answering questions than writing generic documentation/howtos, but I guess I could do one on online calendaring once/if I get inspired. The insructions need only small modifications to work with yahoo calendar, for example...so that could be added to make a more generic howto (not just google).

It amazes me how, in the 21st century, online calendaring is still a royal pain in the ass.

I hear you.

**woodsmoke** · Dec 10, 2011, 12:11 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

SR, and Kubicle.

SR I think that just having Kubicle's one reply stickied would be of great assistance to people, and possibly his reply about why he did the cancel thing. And, since others might be viewing this tread and begin "fiddling" with more knowledge than moi, a linky to this thread might be good also.

However, even though a lot of "old hands in Linux" have a multitude of ways to do things, it is just possible that "new" to Linux may just opt for the easy way out and use Gmail and Google calendar. That is the reason that I did it and I have yet to really find a problem on the Google end as it were, it syncs great with the Android phone and now, thanks to Kubicle they can sync Kontact with it, so I think a sticky of his post is a big win for the users of Google mail and the forum as a way to attract people to Kubuntu in general.

SR I agree that the approach is "one way" but it seems to me, and it is only MY opinion, that they are trying to do exactly that. That they want to develop a completely integrated system which includes "groupware" and "cloud" and that they probably figure that they will not "get everybody" by any stretch of the imagination, but for the people that it fits, it fits!

You may or may not know that I posted an article at Linux Forums about how I "look at" the whole Koffice paradigm as that...a paradigm.... and that the devs are trying to develop a "paradigm shift" in how people interact with an office type program.

I would fully expect, in the somewhat not to far off future, that it might be possible that the whole "koffice suite/kontact" becomes one gigantic vertically and horizontally integrated suite a la what MS has wanted for quite a while and really never "quite" got there without the expenditure of massive amounts of money on the part of the user. Just my OPINION and nothing more.

Kubicle

I think that if you could post some really easy to understand howtos on how to integrate Kontact with other cloud applications, that would be just peach keen for the users and the forum. I think that just your posting of how to integrate with Gmail/calendar is going to attract a lot of readers and possible new users of Kubu and Kontact. Just my thoughts.

again, a big thank you.

woodsmoke

**SteveRiley** · Dec 10, 2011, 02:10 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

Originally posted by woodsmoke

SR I think that just having Kubicle's one reply stickied would be of great assistance to people, and possibly his reply about why he did the cancel thing. And, since others might be viewing this tread and begin "fiddling" with more knowledge than moi, a linky to this thread might be good also.

It isn't possible to sticky a single post. I agree that the info here is quite valuable, precisely because so many other answers to the question are wrong or out-dated. Let me think a bit about how to increase its visibility and make it more generic.

Originally posted by woodsmoke

"new" to Linux may just opt for the easy way out and use Gmail and Google calendar

I worked for Amazon Web Services from July 2009 through December 2010. After observing what customers were doing with the service, I'm convinced that outsourced IT infrastructure is the future.

Originally posted by woodsmoke

I posted an article at Linux Forums about how I "look at" the whole Koffice paradigm

Link, please? I'd love to read it.

Originally posted by woodsmoke

the whole "koffice suite/kontact" becomes one gigantic vertically and horizontally integrated suite a la what MS has wanted for quite a while and really never "quite" got there without the expenditure of massive amounts of money on the part of the user

I've been researching the histories of various free office suites and the backgrounds of the splits, and the personalities involved. I'm not so sure the continual (re-)forking and the arbitrary hard stances ("I don't like HTML mail, so you can't have it.") are conducive to the nirvana that you describe. Microsoft Office (along with Exchange and SharePoint) does some things very well: shared calendars and document collaboration come to mind. Oh, and top-posting of email replies. Yes! What is up with those zealots who insist I must format my email in a certain way? Maybe they like to spend hours placing a digit on the page-down key as they continually re-read what they just read 15 minutes ago. I don't. (Okie, end rant, heh.)

**woodsmoke** · Dec 10, 2011, 05:35 PM

Re: SyncEvolution syncs stuff

You ask and I obey!

woodsmoke's not so good article about how Koffice/Kword presents a possible paradigm shift

woodsmoke

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