opensync-users — The place to get help for the OpenSync project

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

Glad you're on this list, Pawel! 

Glad people think this is a good idea. I'm fine with converting to XML
in the plugin, that should be very easy (especially in Python) , and
I'll look at the code David suggested for the API. 

Sadly, I've got exams at Imperial College, London over the next few
weeks so I'm unlikely to get started on it right away - if anyone else
is enthused, by all means go ahead and report to the list!

I had a thought about merging. Obviously it is a complete nightmare
trying to get the specific capabilities of each device, but perhaps
that's something that you could leave to the user, say by getting them
to configure the plugin via an XML file or the GUI as to which fields
their device can handle? For the Gnokii plugin, this problem is
simplified - the restriction is not so much the phones themselves as the
gnokii application, so you could provide the users for presets
(Gnokii-series 60, Gnokii-series 40 etc.). These could be updated on the
plugin side as Gnokii development progressed. This is one more advantage
of the server/client architecture rather than dealing with the phone
directly - you are given predictable output.

But, I can well imagine that it's a big coding job - good luck with the
SyncML plugin, I think that you Opensync developers are making something
really good. The decision to start something completely new and
ambitious (rather than sticking with Multisync 0.8x) is really starting
to pay off, I think.

Best wishes,
Matt
--
M.Sc. Computer Science student       
Imperial College, London          

256a Archway Road,
London,
N6 5AX

tel       07717 204242

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Pawel K. <pk...@be...>]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005, David Eriksson wrote:

> On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 18:53 +0100, Matthew Kay wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've written some Python code to help me back up my addressbook from my
>> phone, using gnokii. I'd love to help Opensync by augmenting this into
>> an Opensync plugin. However, there are a few preliminary things I wanted
>> to raise.
>>
>> Firstly, the best thing is presumably to convert the information from
>> gnokii into your XML format. However, I haven't been able to find the
>> documentation on this format - could you direct me to it?
>
> I also think you should use the XML format. For contacts it is basically
> the vCard properties but in XML, but using the XML format will make you
> independent of vCard parsing and such.
>
> The best documentation is the xml-vcard.c source code ... :-)

Extending gnokii with xml output for vcal/vcard should be a fairly easy 
thing.

take care,
pkot
-- 
p k o t a t b e z s e n s u d o t p l
http://www.gnokii.org/

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Pawel K. <pk...@be...>]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Matthew Kay wrote:

Hi,

> Typically, you get this sort of info from a gnokii plugin:
>
> 159. Name: Kay Matt
> Number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Group id: 5
> Preferred number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Cellular number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Email address: m_...@fa...
> Business number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Home number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Notes: blabla
>
> The number at the top (here, 159) is the memory location in the phone
> where the entry is stored. This is needed when you want to overwrite an
> entry in the phone - you can't just direct it by name. The group ID is
> something specific to the phone and wouldn't need to be synchronised -
> it's the friends/family thing.

I think it may be usable as well -- eg. when you want to synchronize 
between the phones and keep the caller groups remain.

As we already talked on gnokii-ml, the gnokii structure is a subject to be 
extended.

pkot
-- 
p k o t a t b e z s e n s u d o t p l
http://www.gnokii.org/

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[David E. <tw...@us...>]

On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 18:53 +0100, Matthew Kay wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've written some Python code to help me back up my addressbook from my
> phone, using gnokii. I'd love to help Opensync by augmenting this into
> an Opensync plugin. However, there are a few preliminary things I wanted
> to raise.
> 
> Firstly, the best thing is presumably to convert the information from
> gnokii into your XML format. However, I haven't been able to find the
> documentation on this format - could you direct me to it?

I also think you should use the XML format. For contacts it is basically
the vCard properties but in XML, but using the XML format will make you
independent of vCard parsing and such.

The best documentation is the xml-vcard.c source code ... :-)

-- 
Regards,
               -\- David Eriksson -/-

        SynCE - http://synce.sourceforge.net
      ScummVM - http://scummvm.sourceforge.net
     Desquirr - http://desquirr.sourceforge.net

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Matthew Kay wrote:

>Thanks for all your comments and help, Eduardo.
>
>
>  
>
>>Do you know which protocol does gnokii implement, to access your phone?
>>    
>>
>
>It uses a serial protocol to communicate with the phone directly, I
>think. This can be over Bluetooth, Infrared or cable. See
>http://www.gnokii.org/ for more details.
>
>My motivation is that I want to synchronise my Nokia 6670 phone over
>bluetooth. This requires a TCP/IP connection with the phone, though -
>see
>http://multisync.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?Nokia6600Instructions
>for a description of the overall process. Setting up a TCP/IP connection
>over bluetooth with modern Nokia Series 60 phones (see 6600, 6620, 7610,
>6670, 6260, 3230, 6630, 6680) requires a bit of messing around with a
>piece of software called Gnubox which you need to install on the phone
>in order to set up a suitable access point (the phone software is
>intentionally crippled so you can't do this, presumably to encourage
>users to use GSM/CDMA internet access rather than connecting to
>something cheaper over bluetooth).
>
>I had no success with this. Apparently people have got it to work. See
>the gnubox website (http://gnubox.dnsalias.org/gnubox/) and fora
>(http://www.symbianos.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2). However, it's a
>messy business since the authors have to make changes for each new phone
>that comes out, and requires you to manually initiate a sync even when
>it does work.
>
>The gnokii approach, on the other hand, is to have a server-client
>architecture. Their Symbian .sis file is called GNAPPLET and can be run
>on any of the Nokia Series 60 phones, for which a consistent API is
>provided (so they update it for new features they've implemented, not
>compatibility with new phones). Recent development means you can simply
>run it in the background on your phone (no timeout) and make remote
>requests to it. Since I rarely turn my phone off, this is perfect for
>me. I can make requests from my laptop like 'gnokii --getphonebook ME 1
>end -v' which gets all contact entries from the phone and dumps them out
>into a VCARD. Without that -v switch, it gives the output I gave earlier
>in the thread. And I can script these for daily backups, for instance. 
>
>  
>
Would it be possible to get the information in your python plugin in a 
vcard as well? Then you would have any problem with formats. You could 
just report the data as a vcard and your done.

>I forget that the server/client business and can interact with my phone
>very naturally without manually initiating anything on the phone side.
>It would be amazing if I could use this method to synchronise - the
>benefits of automation are obvious. The downside is that this is not an
>actual syncing protocol, but the Opensync architecture looked like it
>might be able to accomodate the Gnokii style of doing things, since
>Opensync does so much synchronisation itself.
>
>
>  
>
Thats indeed very interesting. It would be possible to keep running 
opensync on a (maybe headless) machine and everytime your phone gets 
into the reach of the bluetooth connection it would get synchronized 
automatically.

>>It should work. But currently, the only problem is: if you change the data
>>on your phone, additional fields on the other device (i.e. on evolution),
>>will be dropped and your item on evolution will be replaced by the
>>"less rich" version from your phone.
>>
>>To avoid this, we need to implement a feature called "merging", that is
>>not supported by opensync, yet.
>>    
>>
>
>This is really important, I think. It would be a shame to lose any
>information. Especially since Gnokii interfaces not just with Nokia
>Series 60 phones, but also with more basic phones such as the Nokia
>Series 30 (e.g. 3210) and Series 40 (e.g. 6100) phones, which are less
>feature-rich than the Series 60 phones. 
>
>This presents many problems, some of which need to be fixed on the
>Gnokii side. The Gnokii project is rooted in the less modern phones
>rather than the Series 60 'smartphones', so there is not yet support for
>(e.g.) end dates in appointments, which screws things up as far as
>Evolution goes, since it will throw a wobbly at an appointment without
>an End date, and it's a bit pointless to assign an arbitrary one.
>
>However, the contact information is rich enough - this would be a good
>starting point.
>
>
>  
>
>>The number at the top would be the UID your plugin would report. 
>>    
>>
>
>Makes sense!
>
>  
>
>>The group id could be translated to a category, when converting the data to
>>a known format.
>>    
>>
>
>Likewise, makes sense.
>
>
>Hope that info has been of use - good luck with the merging stuff. I
>think that the utility of this plugin is contingent on that working, but
>I'll get working on what I can in the meantime. Are you planning that
>for the Beta release, by the way?
>
>  
>
The problem with merging is that it is _really_ complicated :) We first 
have to get the capabilities of each device so we know which fields are 
delete and which were just not supported. Then we have merge these 
information together with the data reported by the devices to 
distinguish which field of which device should be taken for the result. 
I think the real difficulty here is to find a way to describe the 
capabilities of the device in a efficient way.

I dont give an ETA for this feature yet, since the current top priority 
is the syncml plugin so we can finally get opensync to do something 
usefull :)

>Best wishes,
>Matt
>
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide
>Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users.
>Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now.
>http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click
>_______________________________________________
>Opensync-users mailing list
>Ope...@li...
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/opensync-users
>  
>

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Eduardo Pereira Habkost wrote:

>On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 06:53:22PM +0100, Matthew Kay wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi all,
>>    
>>
>
>Hi, Matthew,
>
>  
>
>>I've written some Python code to help me back up my addressbook from my
>>phone, using gnokii. I'd love to help Opensync by augmenting this into
>>an Opensync plugin. However, there are a few preliminary things I wanted
>>to raise.
>>    
>>
>
>Do you know which protocol does gnokii implement, to access your phone?
>
>  
>
>>Firstly, the best thing is presumably to convert the information from
>>gnokii into your XML format. However, I haven't been able to find the
>>documentation on this format - could you direct me to it?
>>    
>>
>
>Not necessarily. You tell opensync on which format the data you reported
>is. You can use the existing formats (e.g. "vcard"), or write a plugin
>for your own format. The xml format is mostly used internally, as it
>isn't even reported as plain xml, but a libxml2 xmlDoc object on memory.
>
>If you plan to write your plugin in python (and test our brand new
>[untested] python plugin support code  :), the better option would be just
>report the data as vcard, because it wouldn't be possible to report
>the xml format, as it is expected to be a C struct.
>  
>
Actually thats not completely true. While the xml format does use the 
libxml c struct and cannot be accessed easily by a python plugin, it 
would _very_ easy to write a new format "xml plain" which is the same 
xml but saved into a string. The converter to do this would be a simple 
xmlParse to go from plain to xml and a xmlDumpMemory to go from xml to 
plain. The plain xml could then easily be created by the python plugin 
(its just a string after all)

>I don't know if the xml format is documented, somewhere. I am used to
>look at the sources to check which fields should be set. Armin may give
>you more information.
>
>So, you have two choices:
>
>- Convert the data to vcard or the xml format before reporting it
>  to opensync. This is the "quick" way, as you just need to write
>  your plugin and not care about making a format-plugin
>
>- Report the data in the format that is reported by your device, or
>  by gnokii, and write a format-plugin to handle this format and and
>  provide functions convert it from/to an already supported format. Then
>  the gnokii-plugin would report the data on this format, and the
>  conversion code on opensync will convert it to the right format when
>  writing it to other devices. This is the preferred way of handling
>  data on other formats, but has the additional work of writing the
>  format plugin, and then write your gnokii plugin. But it shouldn't
>  be so complex, as for the previous approach, you'll need to write
>  a conversion function from gnokii to a know format, anyway
>
>Again, if you plan to write your plugin in python, you'll need to choose
>the first approach, because format-plugins in python aren't supported,
>currently.
>
>  
>
>>Also, the information you get from gnokii is much less rich than the
>>information you get from evolution, for instance. For example, there's
>>no birthday field from gnokii. How does that sort of consideration
>>affect a plugin?
>>    
>>
>
>It should work. But currently, the only problem is: if you change the data
>on your phone, additional fields on the other device (i.e. on evolution),
>will be dropped and your item on evolution will be replaced by the
>"less rich" version from your phone.
>
>To avoid this, we need to implement a feature called "merging", that is
>not supported by opensync, yet.
>
>  
>
>>Typically, you get this sort of info from a gnokii plugin:
>>
>>159. Name: Kay Matt
>>Number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
>>Group id: 5
>>Preferred number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
>>Cellular number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
>>Email address: m_...@fa...
>>Business number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>Home number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>Notes: blabla
>>
>>The number at the top (here, 159) is the memory location in the phone
>>where the entry is stored. This is needed when you want to overwrite an
>>entry in the phone - you can't just direct it by name. The group ID is
>>something specific to the phone and wouldn't need to be synchronised -
>>it's the friends/family thing.
>>    
>>
>
>The number at the top would be the UID your plugin would report. The
>group id could be translated to a category, when converting the data to
>a known format.
>
>  
>
>>Do you think it's feasible to do this? I might need a bit of helpful
>>advice with writing the plugin, but would be happy to give it a go.
>>    
>>
>
>I think it is really feasible. But I guess it would be better to write a
>plugin for the protocol your phone uses. But I am not sure what would be
>better, as I don't know how gnokii works, and which protocols it supports.
>
>  
>
>>Best wishes,
>>Matt
>>
>>    
>>
>
>  
>

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

Thanks for all your comments and help, Eduardo.


> Do you know which protocol does gnokii implement, to access your phone?

It uses a serial protocol to communicate with the phone directly, I
think. This can be over Bluetooth, Infrared or cable. See
http://www.gnokii.org/ for more details.

My motivation is that I want to synchronise my Nokia 6670 phone over
bluetooth. This requires a TCP/IP connection with the phone, though -
see
http://multisync.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?Nokia6600Instructions
for a description of the overall process. Setting up a TCP/IP connection
over bluetooth with modern Nokia Series 60 phones (see 6600, 6620, 7610,
6670, 6260, 3230, 6630, 6680) requires a bit of messing around with a
piece of software called Gnubox which you need to install on the phone
in order to set up a suitable access point (the phone software is
intentionally crippled so you can't do this, presumably to encourage
users to use GSM/CDMA internet access rather than connecting to
something cheaper over bluetooth).

I had no success with this. Apparently people have got it to work. See
the gnubox website (http://gnubox.dnsalias.org/gnubox/) and fora
(http://www.symbianos.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2). However, it's a
messy business since the authors have to make changes for each new phone
that comes out, and requires you to manually initiate a sync even when
it does work.

The gnokii approach, on the other hand, is to have a server-client
architecture. Their Symbian .sis file is called GNAPPLET and can be run
on any of the Nokia Series 60 phones, for which a consistent API is
provided (so they update it for new features they've implemented, not
compatibility with new phones). Recent development means you can simply
run it in the background on your phone (no timeout) and make remote
requests to it. Since I rarely turn my phone off, this is perfect for
me. I can make requests from my laptop like 'gnokii --getphonebook ME 1
end -v' which gets all contact entries from the phone and dumps them out
into a VCARD. Without that -v switch, it gives the output I gave earlier
in the thread. And I can script these for daily backups, for instance. 

I forget that the server/client business and can interact with my phone
very naturally without manually initiating anything on the phone side.
It would be amazing if I could use this method to synchronise - the
benefits of automation are obvious. The downside is that this is not an
actual syncing protocol, but the Opensync architecture looked like it
might be able to accomodate the Gnokii style of doing things, since
Opensync does so much synchronisation itself.


> It should work. But currently, the only problem is: if you change the data
> on your phone, additional fields on the other device (i.e. on evolution),
> will be dropped and your item on evolution will be replaced by the
> "less rich" version from your phone.
> 
> To avoid this, we need to implement a feature called "merging", that is
> not supported by opensync, yet.

This is really important, I think. It would be a shame to lose any
information. Especially since Gnokii interfaces not just with Nokia
Series 60 phones, but also with more basic phones such as the Nokia
Series 30 (e.g. 3210) and Series 40 (e.g. 6100) phones, which are less
feature-rich than the Series 60 phones. 

This presents many problems, some of which need to be fixed on the
Gnokii side. The Gnokii project is rooted in the less modern phones
rather than the Series 60 'smartphones', so there is not yet support for
(e.g.) end dates in appointments, which screws things up as far as
Evolution goes, since it will throw a wobbly at an appointment without
an End date, and it's a bit pointless to assign an arbitrary one.

However, the contact information is rich enough - this would be a good
starting point.


> The number at the top would be the UID your plugin would report. 

Makes sense!

> The group id could be translated to a category, when converting the data to
> a known format.

Likewise, makes sense.


Hope that info has been of use - good luck with the merging stuff. I
think that the utility of this plugin is contingent on that working, but
I'll get working on what I can in the meantime. Are you planning that
for the Beta release, by the way?


Best wishes,
Matt

Re: [Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Eduardo P. H. <eha...@co...>]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 06:53:22PM +0100, Matthew Kay wrote:
> Hi all,

Hi, Matthew,

>=20
> I've written some Python code to help me back up my addressbook from my
> phone, using gnokii. I'd love to help Opensync by augmenting this into
> an Opensync plugin. However, there are a few preliminary things I wanted
> to raise.

Do you know which protocol does gnokii implement, to access your phone?

>=20
> Firstly, the best thing is presumably to convert the information from
> gnokii into your XML format. However, I haven't been able to find the
> documentation on this format - could you direct me to it?

Not necessarily. You tell opensync on which format the data you reported
is. You can use the existing formats (e.g. "vcard"), or write a plugin
for your own format. The xml format is mostly used internally, as it
isn't even reported as plain xml, but a libxml2 xmlDoc object on memory.

If you plan to write your plugin in python (and test our brand new
[untested] python plugin support code  :), the better option would be just
report the data as vcard, because it wouldn't be possible to report
the xml format, as it is expected to be a C struct.

I don't know if the xml format is documented, somewhere. I am used to
look at the sources to check which fields should be set. Armin may give
you more information.

So, you have two choices:

- Convert the data to vcard or the xml format before reporting it
  to opensync. This is the "quick" way, as you just need to write
  your plugin and not care about making a format-plugin

- Report the data in the format that is reported by your device, or
  by gnokii, and write a format-plugin to handle this format and and
  provide functions convert it from/to an already supported format. Then
  the gnokii-plugin would report the data on this format, and the
  conversion code on opensync will convert it to the right format when
  writing it to other devices. This is the preferred way of handling
  data on other formats, but has the additional work of writing the
  format plugin, and then write your gnokii plugin. But it shouldn't
  be so complex, as for the previous approach, you'll need to write
  a conversion function from gnokii to a know format, anyway

Again, if you plan to write your plugin in python, you'll need to choose
the first approach, because format-plugins in python aren't supported,
currently.

>=20
> Also, the information you get from gnokii is much less rich than the
> information you get from evolution, for instance. For example, there's
> no birthday field from gnokii. How does that sort of consideration
> affect a plugin?

It should work. But currently, the only problem is: if you change the data
on your phone, additional fields on the other device (i.e. on evolution),
will be dropped and your item on evolution will be replaced by the
"less rich" version from your phone.

To avoid this, we need to implement a feature called "merging", that is
not supported by opensync, yet.

>=20
> Typically, you get this sort of info from a gnokii plugin:
>=20
> 159. Name: Kay Matt
> Number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Group id: 5
> Preferred number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Cellular number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
> Email address: m_...@fa...
> Business number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Home number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Notes: blabla
>=20
> The number at the top (here, 159) is the memory location in the phone
> where the entry is stored. This is needed when you want to overwrite an
> entry in the phone - you can't just direct it by name. The group ID is
> something specific to the phone and wouldn't need to be synchronised -
> it's the friends/family thing.

The number at the top would be the UID your plugin would report. The
group id could be translated to a category, when converting the data to
a known format.

>=20
> Do you think it's feasible to do this? I might need a bit of helpful
> advice with writing the plugin, but would be happy to give it a go.

I think it is really feasible. But I guess it would be better to write a
plugin for the protocol your phone uses. But I am not sure what would be
better, as I don't know how gnokii works, and which protocols it supports.

>=20
> Best wishes,
> Matt
>=20

--=20
Eduardo

[Opensync-users] Plugin for gnokii

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

Hi all,

I've written some Python code to help me back up my addressbook from my
phone, using gnokii. I'd love to help Opensync by augmenting this into
an Opensync plugin. However, there are a few preliminary things I wanted
to raise.

Firstly, the best thing is presumably to convert the information from
gnokii into your XML format. However, I haven't been able to find the
documentation on this format - could you direct me to it?

Also, the information you get from gnokii is much less rich than the
information you get from evolution, for instance. For example, there's
no birthday field from gnokii. How does that sort of consideration
affect a plugin?

Typically, you get this sort of info from a gnokii plugin:

159. Name: Kay Matt
Number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
Group id: 5
Preferred number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
Cellular number: +44xxxxxxxxxxx
Email address: m_...@fa...
Business number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
Home number: +44xxxxxxxxxxxx
Notes: blabla

The number at the top (here, 159) is the memory location in the phone
where the entry is stored. This is needed when you want to overwrite an
entry in the phone - you can't just direct it by name. The group ID is
something specific to the phone and wouldn't need to be synchronised -
it's the friends/family thing.

Do you think it's feasible to do this? I might need a bit of helpful
advice with writing the plugin, but would be happy to give it a go.

Best wishes,
Matt

Re: [Opensync-users] synce plugin ?

[David E. <tw...@us...>]

On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 15:03 +0200, R=E9my Amouroux wrote:
> I just have a look at the opensync web site and se no synce pluin:
> http://www.opensync.org/browser/plugins/.
>=20
> I was wondering if someone is already developping one or planned to do
> so in a short while.

R=E9my,

See this page, I just uploaded it:

http://synce.sourceforge.net/synce/opensync.php

--=20
Regards,
               -\- David Eriksson -/-

        SynCE - http://synce.sourceforge.net
      ScummVM - http://scummvm.sourceforge.net
     Desquirr - http://desquirr.sourceforge.net

[Opensync-users] synce plugin ?

[A. <rem...@ke...>]

I just have a look at the opensync web site and se no synce pluin:
http://www.opensync.org/browser/plugins/.

I was wondering if someone is already developping one or planned to do
so in a short while.

Regards

	RemyA
-- 
E-mail : Rem...@ke...
Kelkoo Architecture (http://www.kelkoo.com/)
Yahoo Id: kelkooremya

[Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.17 released

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Hi,

I just released OpenSync 0.17. This version introduce some major new
features:

- Support for Mac OS X.

You can now use OpenSync on your shiny mac. There is a guide for this
here (both in english and in german): http://www.opensync.org/wiki/MacGuide
(Thanks to Oliver)

- Support for python plugins

Do you want to synchronize one of your devices or your favorite
application but you do not want to write code in c? Now you can!
OpenSync 0.17 has support for plugins written in python. Take a look at
this example plugin:
http://www.opensync.org/file/plugins/python-module/src/sample.py

To enable the python support in OpenSync you need to install the python
plugin from the download section. Support for other languages like Java,
Ruby etc is easy (as long as it is supported in swig).

- opensync can now be used with older glib versions (> 2.0)

- the python wrapper was moved from pyrex to swig

- Fixed some bugs regarding batch commits

- changed the api of the modules a bit.

- fixed a problem with the distribution of the example pluin

The example plugin can now be download separatly as a tarball from here:
http://www.opensync.org/wiki/doc

As always you can download the latest release from
http://www.opensync.org/wiki/download

Armin

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.16 released

[Pierre O. <drz...@dr...>]

Armin Bauer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I just released OpenSync 0.16.
> 
> The release has the following changes
> 
> - Support for building rpms from the plugins (Thanks to Pierre)
> 

Not quite. I just finished kdepim, but the other two (file and evo2) can
be turned into rpms. =)

> 
> - Improved support for gcc4 (Thanks to Pierre)

Again, not quite. kdepim is "fixed" in svn. There were some issues with
the KDE libraries.

Multisync should also build fine as a rpm so the entire OpenSync suite
is now fully rpm:ed.

Give me some notice when more plugins are reaching a buildable state and
I'll add rpm specs for those aswell.

Rgds
Pierre

[Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.16 released

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Hi,

I just released OpenSync 0.16.

The release has the following changes

- Support for building rpms from the plugins (Thanks to Pierre)

- Added unit tests to all plugins

- Fixed the problem with having to run autogen.sh before using the
tarball. It is now possible to run ./configure directly like it should work.

- Fixed some crashes when initializing plugins several times

- Improved support for gcc4 (Thanks to Pierre)

- fixed a bug when handling unknown vformat attributes (thanks to Paul)

- Greatly improved vnote comparison and conversion

- the evo2 plugin now detects evolution-data-server 1.2 correctly

- Plugins can now specify if they:
	- need no configuration (like kdepim)
	- have an optional configuration (like evo2)
	- have mandatory configuration (like file-sync)
This is used to decide if the configuration button on the gui is enabled
and if the users gets a error message if he doesnt configure a plugin at
all.

- Fixed some crashes

As always you can download the latest release from
http://www.opensync.org/wiki/download

I also added a new wikipage http://www.opensync.org/wiki/tracing that
shows how to turn in tracing and how to read the trace files to find
errors quickly.

Armin

Re: [Opensync-users] Pb with Evo2/IRMC (T610) with contacts having picture

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Olivier Imbert wrote:
> I use MultiSync 0.8x (from CVS around 20/3/2005) on an Ubuntu Hoary
> system to sync my Evolution2 contacts, calendars and tasks with my T610
> phone thru IRmc/Bluetooth.
>
> Everything work like a charm.
>
> I also use GAIM and my contacts are sync with Evolution2 using
> Evolution2.2 feature. This sync imports my MSN/ICQ contacts pictures to
> Evolution addressbook.
>
> I notice that each contact having such a picture have now empty phone
> number on my phone ... :(
>
> I switch off the GAIM/Evo sync and removes all my contact picture and
> after a sync I get back my phone numbers in my T610 :)
>
> Is it a known issue in MultiSync 0.8x ? I cannot try running
> MultiSync/OpenSync because IRMc/Bluetooth is not supported yet AFAIK.
>

yes this is a known issue of 0.8X. And it is definetly fixed in opensync
so all we would need is to port the irmc plugin :)

> Olivier.
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide
> Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users.
> Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now.
> http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click
> _______________________________________________
> Opensync-users mailing list
> Ope...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/opensync-users

[Opensync-users] Pb with Evo2/IRMC (T610) with contacts having picture

[Olivier I. <oi...@fr...>]

I use MultiSync 0.8x (from CVS around 20/3/2005) on an Ubuntu Hoary
system to sync my Evolution2 contacts, calendars and tasks with my T610
phone thru IRmc/Bluetooth.

Everything work like a charm.

I also use GAIM and my contacts are sync with Evolution2 using
Evolution2.2 feature. This sync imports my MSN/ICQ contacts pictures to
Evolution addressbook.

I notice that each contact having such a picture have now empty phone
number on my phone ... :(

I switch off the GAIM/Evo sync and removes all my contact picture and
after a sync I get back my phone numbers in my T610 :)

Is it a known issue in MultiSync 0.8x ? I cannot try running
MultiSync/OpenSync because IRMc/Bluetooth is not supported yet AFAIK.

Olivier.

Re: [Opensync-users] python plugin

[Eduardo P. H. <eha...@co...>]

On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 01:48:29PM +0100, Matthew Kay wrote:
> Hi all,
>=20
> I see from svn that there is a python plugin - does this mean that we
> will sometime be able to code plugins in python rather than C? I would
> love to contribute, but to be honest my C isn't quite good enough, so
> obviously I'd be very interested in a python plugin.

Yes, that's it: support for OpenSync plugins written in python. It needs
some polishing, but it is near to be working. I just have to find more
time to finish it, as I am working on this stuff on my spare time.

>=20
> All the best,
> Matt

--=20
Eduardo

[Opensync-users] python plugin

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

Hi all,

I see from svn that there is a python plugin - does this mean that we
will sometime be able to code plugins in python rather than C? I would
love to contribute, but to be honest my C isn't quite good enough, so
obviously I'd be very interested in a python plugin.

All the best,
Matt

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

>    I can't compile it :-?

I get exactly the same output as Esteban - I definitely have dbus-dev
installed, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Sorry, I'm not much
good with makefiles...:-(

matt@mkay-t42:~/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15$ ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for strerror in -lcposix... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for g77... no
checking for f77... no
checking for xlf... no
checking for frt... no
checking for pgf77... no
checking for fort77... no
checking for fl32... no
checking for af77... no
checking for f90... no
checking for xlf90... no
checking for pgf90... no
checking for epcf90... no
checking for f95... no
checking for fort... no
checking for xlf95... no
checking for ifc... no
checking for efc... no
checking for pgf95... no
checking for lf95... no
checking for gfortran... no
checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... no
checking whether  accepts -g... no
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for ar... ar
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking if gcc static flag  works... yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared
libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
configure: creating libtool
appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared
libraries... yes
checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared
libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
checking for bison... no
checking for byacc... no
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking for libxml-2.0... yes
checking XML_CFLAGS... -I/usr/include/libxml2
checking XML_LIBS... -lxml2 -lpthread -lz -lm
checking check.h usability... no
checking check.h presence... no
checking for check.h... no
configure: Checking to see if we can build Python bindings
checking for a Python interpreter with version >= 2.2... python
checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking for python version... 2.3
checking for python platform... linux2
checking for python script directory...
${prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for python extension module directory...
${exec_prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for pyrexc... no
checking for headers required to compile python extensions... found
checking for glib-2.0 gmodule-2.0 gobject-2.0 gthread-2.0 sqlite3... yes
checking PACKAGE_CFLAGS... -pthread -I/usr/include/glib-2.0
-I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
checking PACKAGE_LIBS... -Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -lgmodule-2.0
-ldl -lgobject-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lsqlite3
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating opensync/Makefile
config.status: creating tools/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/Makefile
config.status: error: cannot find input file:
tests/mock-plugin/Makefile.in



matt@mkay-t42:~/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15$ make
cd . && /bin/sh ./config.status config.h
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/matt/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15'
Making all in opensync
make[2]: Entering directory
`/home/matt/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15/opensync'
Makefile:340: .deps/opensync_anchor.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:341: .deps/opensync_change.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:342: .deps/opensync_changecmds.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:343: .deps/opensync_context.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:344: .deps/opensync_convert.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:345: .deps/opensync_convreg.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:346: .deps/opensync_db.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:347: .deps/opensync_debug.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:348: .deps/opensync_env.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:349: .deps/opensync_error.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:350: .deps/opensync_filter.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:351: .deps/opensync_group.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:352: .deps/opensync_hashtable.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:353: .deps/opensync_member.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:354: .deps/opensync_plugin.Plo: No such file or directory
Makefile:355: .deps/opensync_user.Plo: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `.deps/opensync_user.Plo'.  Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory
`/home/matt/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15/opensync'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/matt/dev/osync/libopensync-0.15'
make: *** [all] Error 2


Best wishes,
Matt

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

you have to run ./autogen.sh before compiling. this bug (the missing
Makefile.in in the mock-plugin directory) will be fixed in the next release.

Esteban Manchado Velázquez wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 02:02:53PM +0200, Armin Bauer wrote:
>
>>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>Hash: SHA1
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I just released OpenSync 0.15. This is the first release that has all
>>plugins split out completely from the framework.
>>[...]
>
>
>    I can't compile it :-?
>
> -------------------------------- 8< --------------------------------
> zoso@velutha:~/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15$ make
> cd . && /bin/bash ./config.status config.h
> config.status: creating config.h
> make  all-recursive
> make[1]: Entering directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15'
> Making all in opensync
> make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15/opensync'
> Makefile:340: .deps/opensync_anchor.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:341: .deps/opensync_change.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:342: .deps/opensync_changecmds.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:343: .deps/opensync_context.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:344: .deps/opensync_convert.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:345: .deps/opensync_convreg.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:346: .deps/opensync_db.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:347: .deps/opensync_debug.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:348: .deps/opensync_env.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:349: .deps/opensync_error.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:350: .deps/opensync_filter.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:351: .deps/opensync_group.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:352: .deps/opensync_hashtable.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:353: .deps/opensync_member.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:354: .deps/opensync_plugin.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> Makefile:355: .deps/opensync_user.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
> make[2]: *** No hay ninguna regla para construir el objetivo `.deps/opensync_user.Plo'.  Alto.
> make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15/opensync'
> make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15'
> make: *** [all] Error 2
> -------------------------------- >8 --------------------------------
>
> And, just in case it matters:
>
> -------------------------------- 8< --------------------------------
> zoso@velutha:~/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15$ ./configure
> checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
> checking whether build environment is sane... yes
> checking for gawk... gawk
> checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
> checking for style of include used by make... GNU
> [...]
> checking for glib-2.0 gmodule-2.0 gobject-2.0 gthread-2.0 sqlite3... yes
> checking PACKAGE_CFLAGS... -pthread -I/usr/include/glib-2.0
> -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
> checking PACKAGE_LIBS... -Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl
> -lgobject-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lsqlite3
> configure: creating ./config.status
> config.status: creating Makefile
> config.status: creating opensync/Makefile
> config.status: creating tools/Makefile
> config.status: creating tests/Makefile
> config.status: error: cannot find input file: tests/mock-plugin/Makefile.in
> -------------------------------- >8 --------------------------------
>
> There is only a Makefile.am and some mock_*.{c,h} in tests/mock-plugin/.
>

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Esteban M. <zo...@fo...>]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 02:02:53PM +0200, Armin Bauer wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>=20
> Hi,
>=20
> I just released OpenSync 0.15. This is the first release that has all
> plugins split out completely from the framework.
> [...]

   I can't compile it :-?

-------------------------------- 8< --------------------------------
zoso@velutha:~/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15$ make
cd . && /bin/bash ./config.status config.h
config.status: creating config.h
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15'
Making all in opensync
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15/ope=
nsync'
Makefile:340: .deps/opensync_anchor.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direct=
orio
Makefile:341: .deps/opensync_change.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direct=
orio
Makefile:342: .deps/opensync_changecmds.Plo: No existe el fichero o el di=
rectorio
Makefile:343: .deps/opensync_context.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direc=
torio
Makefile:344: .deps/opensync_convert.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direc=
torio
Makefile:345: .deps/opensync_convreg.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direc=
torio
Makefile:346: .deps/opensync_db.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directorio
Makefile:347: .deps/opensync_debug.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directo=
rio
Makefile:348: .deps/opensync_env.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directori=
o
Makefile:349: .deps/opensync_error.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directo=
rio
Makefile:350: .deps/opensync_filter.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direct=
orio
Makefile:351: .deps/opensync_group.Plo: No existe el fichero o el directo=
rio
Makefile:352: .deps/opensync_hashtable.Plo: No existe el fichero o el dir=
ectorio
Makefile:353: .deps/opensync_member.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direct=
orio
Makefile:354: .deps/opensync_plugin.Plo: No existe el fichero o el direct=
orio
Makefile:355: .deps/opensync_user.Plo: No existe el fichero o el director=
io
make[2]: *** No hay ninguna regla para construir el objetivo `.deps/opens=
ync_user.Plo'.  Alto.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15/open=
sync'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/zoso/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15'
make: *** [all] Error 2
-------------------------------- >8 --------------------------------

And, just in case it matters:

-------------------------------- 8< --------------------------------
zoso@velutha:~/src/opensync/libopensync-0.15$ ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
[...]
checking for glib-2.0 gmodule-2.0 gobject-2.0 gthread-2.0 sqlite3... yes
checking PACKAGE_CFLAGS... -pthread -I/usr/include/glib-2.0
-I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include =20
checking PACKAGE_LIBS... -Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl
-lgobject-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lsqlite3 =20
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating opensync/Makefile
config.status: creating tools/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/Makefile
config.status: error: cannot find input file: tests/mock-plugin/Makefile.=
in
-------------------------------- >8 --------------------------------

There is only a Makefile.am and some mock_*.{c,h} in tests/mock-plugin/.

--=20
Esteban Manchado Vel=E1zquez <zo...@fo...> - http://www.foton.es
EuropeSwPatentFree - http://EuropeSwPatentFree.hispalinux.es

[Opensync-users] Debian repository

[Matthew K. <m_...@fa...>]

I see that there are packages for Debian available on the homepage - any
chance of someone setting up a repository so we can apt-get these
packages? The instructions can be found here:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/repository-howto/repository-howto.html

Many thanks,
Matt
--
M.Sc. Computer Science student       
Imperial College, London          

256a Archway Road,
London,
N6 5AX

tel       07717 204242

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Helge H. <hel...@op...>]

On Mar 31, 2005, at 17:17, Armin Bauer wrote:
> ah i see. would it be possible to issue a query like "give me all 
> events that have been changes since the last sync"

No, this is SyncML ;-)

> or will this information have to be maintained locally (which would be 
> bad since we would need to transfer all items to calculate the hash)?

The synchronisation is based on HTTP etags. To calculate the set 
difference (added/delete/changed URLs) you need to retrieve the etag, 
not the actual content.
This is one of the PROPFIND queries you need to implement, its in 
section 5.1 of the draft-01:
   http://www.groupdav.org/draft-hess-groupdav-01.html

Yes, this only works well up to a certain size of a folder (depending 
on the speed of the connection). Fortunately WebDAV results compress 
very well (deflate content-transfer-encoding), so the response size is 
reasonable and the operation itself is fast on most/all servers.
It will work well for some 10.000 objects per collection, but certainly 
breaks if it contains 100.000. So its fine for about 28 years of 
calendaring data, which is OK for us ;-)

Another disadvantage is that the first sync between client and server 
will be rather slow (will issue a separate HTTP GET request per 
object). But since this is a once-per-client operation, we considered 
this reasonable too.

Greets,
   Helge
-- 
http://docs.opengroupware.org/Members/helge/
OpenGroupware.org

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Armin B. <arm...@de...>]

Helge Hess wrote:

> On Mar 31, 2005, at 16:52, Armin Bauer wrote:
>
>> What advantages does caldav have over groupdav?
>
>
> CalDAV specifies several queries on calendaring data, for example 
> "give me all events from 2004-03-12 to 2004-03-18". Such a query will 
> even expand recurrences etc if requested to do so.
> This is irrelevant for GroupDAV where such functionality is performed 
> by the local client on its local cache of the calendaring/contact data.
>
> GroupDAV is just a synchronisation protocol based on HTTP etags with 
> tiny bits of WebDAV to discover the resources of a collection.

ah i see. would it be possible to issue a query like "give me all events 
that have been changes since the last sync" or will this information 
have to be maintained locally (which would be bad since we would need to 
transfer all items to calculate the hash)?

>
>> Are there any special libraries necessary or can groupdav / caldav be 
>> used with the normal webdav libraries (like libneon)?
>
>
> You can use the normal WebDAV libraries. Kontact GroupDAV support uses 
> the regular KDE WebDAV resource and AFAIK the Noodle plugin for 
> Evolution uses libsoup.
>
> Using a complete WebDAV library might be unnecessary. A client only 
> needs to be able to parse two very specific PROPFIND result. A simple 
> SAX handler and a generic HTTP client lib would probably do for that.
>
> Greets,
>   Helge

Re: [Opensync-users] OpenSync 0.15 released

[Helge H. <hel...@op...>]

On Mar 31, 2005, at 16:52, Armin Bauer wrote:
> What advantages does caldav have over groupdav?

CalDAV specifies several queries on calendaring data, for example "give 
me all events from 2004-03-12 to 2004-03-18". Such a query will even 
expand recurrences etc if requested to do so.
This is irrelevant for GroupDAV where such functionality is performed 
by the local client on its local cache of the calendaring/contact data.

GroupDAV is just a synchronisation protocol based on HTTP etags with 
tiny bits of WebDAV to discover the resources of a collection.

> Are there any special libraries necessary or can groupdav / caldav be 
> used with the normal webdav libraries (like libneon)?

You can use the normal WebDAV libraries. Kontact GroupDAV support uses 
the regular KDE WebDAV resource and AFAIK the Noodle plugin for 
Evolution uses libsoup.

Using a complete WebDAV library might be unnecessary. A client only 
needs to be able to parse two very specific PROPFIND result. A simple 
SAX handler and a generic HTTP client lib would probably do for that.

Greets,
   Helge
-- 
http://docs.opengroupware.org/Members/helge/
OpenGroupware.org