When can we get PIM functionality on par with N9

Question

51

When can we get PIM functionality on par with N9

sync
pim

asked 2014-06-14 01:05:29 +0300

cfgardiner

2468 ●21 ●28 ●32

updated 2014-10-30 16:31:43 +0300

chemist
41469 ●392 ●542 ●615

moderator

http://talk.maemo.org/

I'm surprised not to see more requests for this, but to me the PIM (Contacts, Calender,Mail) functionality seems to be one of the most neglected features of the Jolla. Except for Mail, the others are really not usable as business apps at all.

Calender : If you open the calender you see the calender sheet but absolutely no clue as to month and year. You even have to pull down to see which day of the week is on which column. This gets really annoying after you have flicked left/right a few times, been briefly distracted and now have no clue what month you are left looking at. Also, how about another active item below 'today' (or even a pulley item) where you can quickly select a year and month. My use case? I provide trainings. Sometimes I have to plan this half a year in advance ...

Contacts: OK this has improved slightly with the last release. At least my screwed up random aliases for entries without first/last names (e.g. restaurants, pubs, barbers, garages, companies .....) is now fixed since Saapunki/1.0.7.16. But it does not sync automatically with Microsoft Exchange (Zarafa). I left it on my desk all day today and not a single resync. I can't even find a way to do a manual resync. A typical use case for me is to enter a new contact in my Zarafa web interface, sync the phone and then head out to a customer. Could we have at least as many fields as the N9? This was a great app.

Rumour has it some of the Jolla guys/girls worked on the N9. I am still using this, this is the absolute reference design. Please, please get these fundamental smart-phone apps usable as soon as possible. You've done it before!

I for one couldn't care less about the Android apps. I will never use them. If I had wanted an Android phone I would have bought a Samsung or whatever. What I wanted was a worthy heir to the N9. I realise Android support is probably a good sales argument but it's frustrating to see all effort going here with more fundamental issues being almost completely neglected.

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Comments

13

I agree, I am still missing the many features of the N9 on Jolla

immo ( 2014-06-14 01:12:39 +0300 )edit

@cfgardiner: you can manually trigger a sync for an account from the Settings app. Go to 'Accounts', select the account you wish to sync, then 'Save' (you don't need to make any changes). A new sync will be triggered.

MattVogt ( 2014-06-14 05:08:55 +0300 )edit

5

I concur, apparently PIM functionality is not 'sexy' enough :)

rod ( 2014-06-14 11:51:42 +0300 )edit

1

I totally agree on this. The Jolla generic applications must improve. However I would not compare Jolla with legacy N9. Its a different product and should improve better and in an unlike way.

Nekron ( 2014-06-14 12:57:00 +0300 )edit

2

@MattVogt: Yes, I read this on one of the other entries. But it doesn't work for me. I've tried it multiple times since. My Exchange server is not really MS, it's Zarafa (another bit of unlike). But after I upgraded to Saapunki/1.0.7.16, I deleted my Exchange account on the Jolla and set it up again. The first sync worked ok but since then I have not seen any. At the risk of being repetitive, N9 handles this just fine.

cfgardiner ( 2014-06-14 13:05:51 +0300 )edit

1

I miss some PIM funcionality too. Note filed, categories for contacts, etc: (see other requests). I think there are essential!

MichaelSD ( 2014-06-14 13:44:21 +0300 )edit

1

@Nekron: Yes, being unlike is good. But from the user interface perspective, at the moment I feel Jolla is concentrating too much on the 'sexy' apps as rod put it, i.e. those related to Farcebook, Gurgle and Thither/Hither ecosystems ;). I understand fully that Jolla is a small creative team which has taken on a mammoth task. Jolla is a company which has to make money eventually and encroaching on Android was a great idea to widen the customer base.

What I personally find frustrating is that I can't take my Jolla with me to my customers or the conferences I visit and get a few oohs and aahs. Without a business class PIM the only thing 'unlike' about the PIM is that it doesn't work or is not usable! I still get a few oohs and aahs for my N9 by the way, but the killer question is always 'can you still get updates or apps for that?' Saapunki/1.0.7.16 was a very good release by the way so I'm still optimistic: it now syncs perfectly with my car satnav (Blue&me in AlfaRomeo which must be one of the shittiest satnavs you can get in a car of this class, so well done there. But, looking into mirror, people who don't chose Jolla for the the Android support probably don't chose Alfa for the satnav either) and I'd upgrade contacts from 'screwed up' to 'not usable'. WLAN tethering looks promising too, just haven't tried it yet.

You know, I'd hate to see Jolla being eventually overtaken on the 'unlike' lane by Samsung/Tizen or Amazon just because Jolla gets stuck in the Android forest. Never go so far into the woods that you can't find your way back out again.

cfgardiner ( 2014-06-14 13:54:30 +0300 )edit

1

Month and year in calendar app is hidden behind left/right peek, i do find this unnecessary, jolla could remove paddings between calender numbers and make it more compact to unhide month/year and weekday markings.

veeall ( 2014-06-14 20:40:40 +0300 )edit

I agree, I am still missing the many features of the N9 on Jolla
immo ( 2014-06-14 01:12:39 +0300 )edit
@cfgardiner: you can manually trigger a sync for an account from the Settings app. Go to 'Accounts', select the account you wish to sync, then 'Save' (you don't need to make any changes). A new sync will be triggered.
MattVogt ( 2014-06-14 05:08:55 +0300 )edit
I concur, apparently PIM functionality is not 'sexy' enough :)
rod ( 2014-06-14 11:51:42 +0300 )edit
I totally agree on this. The Jolla generic applications must improve. However I would not compare Jolla with legacy N9. Its a different product and should improve better and in an unlike way.
Nekron ( 2014-06-14 12:57:00 +0300 )edit
@MattVogt: Yes, I read this on one of the other entries. But it doesn't work for me. I've tried it multiple times since. My Exchange server is not really MS, it's Zarafa (another bit of unlike). But after I upgraded to Saapunki/1.0.7.16, I deleted my Exchange account on the Jolla and set it up again. The first sync worked ok but since then I have not seen any. At the risk of being repetitive, N9 handles this just fine.
cfgardiner ( 2014-06-14 13:05:51 +0300 )edit
I miss some PIM funcionality too. Note filed, categories for contacts, etc: (see other requests). I think there are essential!
MichaelSD ( 2014-06-14 13:44:21 +0300 )edit
@Nekron: Yes, being unlike is good. But from the user interface perspective, at the moment I feel Jolla is concentrating too much on the 'sexy' apps as rod put it, i.e. those related to Farcebook, Gurgle and Thither/Hither ecosystems ;). I understand fully that Jolla is a small creative team which has taken on a mammoth task. Jolla is a company which has to make money eventually and encroaching on Android was a great idea to widen the customer base.
What I personally find frustrating is that I can't take my Jolla with me to my customers or the conferences I visit and get a few oohs and aahs. Without a business class PIM the only thing 'unlike' about the PIM is that it doesn't work or is not usable! I still get a few oohs and aahs for my N9 by the way, but the killer question is always 'can you still get updates or apps for that?' Saapunki/1.0.7.16 was a very good release by the way so I'm still optimistic: it now syncs perfectly with my car satnav (Blue&me in AlfaRomeo which must be one of the shittiest satnavs you can get in a car of this class, so well done there. But, looking into mirror, people who don't chose Jolla for the the Android support probably don't chose Alfa for the satnav either) and I'd upgrade contacts from 'screwed up' to 'not usable'. WLAN tethering looks promising too, just haven't tried it yet.
You know, I'd hate to see Jolla being eventually overtaken on the 'unlike' lane by Samsung/Tizen or Amazon just because Jolla gets stuck in the Android forest. Never go so far into the woods that you can't find your way back out again.
cfgardiner ( 2014-06-14 13:54:30 +0300 )edit
Month and year in calendar app is hidden behind left/right peek, i do find this unnecessary, jolla could remove paddings between calender numbers and make it more compact to unhide month/year and weekday markings.
veeall ( 2014-06-14 20:40:40 +0300 )edit

Answer 1

1

answered 2016-11-12 10:42:11 +0300

deloptes

1366 ●36 ●66 ●62

Excuse me, but do you speak English and did you read my question?

I want to sync via Bluetooth, not via Cal/CardDav and cloud server. Why is everybody gone mad to send his PIM data around? Also I do not use Wireless or better to say I avoid using it, so its mostly turned off.

Again my question is how I can sync via bluetooth. I see

 hcitool scan
Scanning ...
        40:98:4E:90:56:E3       Nokia N9 16GB
        94:FD:2E:03:19:8D       Intex Aqua Fish

sdptool search --bdaddr 94:FD:2E:03:19:8D SYNCML
Searching for SYNCML on 94:FD:2E:03:19:8D ...
Service Name: SyncML Client
Service RecHandle: 0x10008
Service Class ID List:
  UUID 128: 00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002
Protocol Descriptor List:
  "L2CAP" (0x0100)
  "RFCOMM" (0x0003)
    Channel: 25
  "OBEX" (0x0008)
Profile Descriptor List:
  "" (0x00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002)
    Version: 0x0100

Thanks

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Answer 2

1

answered 2016-11-15 01:51:25 +0300

deloptes

1366 ●36 ●66 ●62

I appreciate your answers, but I do not hear any practical advice - where to read, where to look or who to ask.

thanks

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Comments

4

Sync via Bluetooth isn't well supported at the moment. We allow importing contacts from another device, and adding capability to import calendars via Bluetooth is work-in-progress (see https://git.merproject.org/mer-core/buteo-sync-plugins/merge_requests/1 and MER#1222 for that), but true synchronisation via Bluetooth is significantly more difficult to achieve with the current stack.

chris.adams ( 2016-11-15 08:03:33 +0300 )edit

1

Hi Chris, thank you for the first meaningful update. I understand now why I was able to transfer only my contacts. Isn't syncevolution an option. I read in some other thread that one has used syncevolution with Jolla. On the other hand I was thinking Sailfish is continuing from where meego ended, but obviously not. I hope I'll have a time to have a look into the SDK and mer.

Appreciated once again, your update.

regards

deloptes ( 2016-11-15 11:35:17 +0300 )edit

1

Various people have used Syncevolution running on Sailfish OS, but it's not part of our platform. We have diverged from the MeeGo base substantially, for a variety of reasons, including differences in resourcing between what the MeeGo project had working on it, and what the Sailfish OS project is currently able to provide.

chris.adams ( 2016-11-16 03:05:02 +0300 )edit

Hi, perhaps chris.adams would read this and be so kind to answer. I was not able to find anywhere on the road map this item. Still I find it is substantial and should have a higher priority. So I looked at the merge request mentioned above. I am not familiar with their interface, but from what I understand it is still open - one year already!!! This must be a joke!!! Unfortunately I am not familiar with SFOS and ATM do not have time to work on any other project, but in theory it means chris.adams provided a patch and one could build buteo with calendar support and upload for the benefit of all - is this correct? If true, am I the one to do it, or there is someone else more experienced to do it. Last but not least - why is this patch not accepted by mer - it has been for one year and it sais 6 commits behind already.

deloptes ( 2017-02-01 01:14:59 +0300 )edit

1

It's a matter of testing and QA, mostly. We can't merge things to mainline which might cause significant regressions (e.g., duplication or destruction of user data), and unfortunately synchronisation is an area with great potential to cause issues - which means that every change needs to be tested extremely carefully. Currently, company priorities and resourcing means that synchronisation isn't able to be progressed much. If community members are able to take that PR into use, test it carefully, and file bug reports for the things it breaks, that would be a very useful step toward getting that PR merged.

chris.adams ( 2017-02-13 04:09:21 +0300 )edit

Answer 3

0

answered 2016-11-11 01:58:09 +0300

deloptes

1366 ●36 ●66 ●62

So how do I sync PIM with a PC via bluetooth ... not clear.

How can I create a new calendar?

I just got an Intex AquaFish and the whole of PIM is pretty important to me. I am a bit upset that I found a downgrade in this area compared to N9.

As I am new to SailFish any hint will be appreciated.

thank

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Comments

3

For sync (with my mac/linux) i use a small owncloud installation. So i always sync with my workstation for calendar and contacts without using google (,...). caldav/carddav is really nice :)

codeandcreate ( 2016-11-11 09:02:47 +0300 )edit

1

You could also use a simple Baikal server if you don't want to setup / use a whole owncloud instance.

ghling ( 2016-11-11 13:44:23 +0300 )edit

1

I am a bit upset that I found a downgrade in this area

You may encounter further disappointments, I'm afraid, if you are expecting Sailfish plus 'built-in' apps to compare favourably with Meego and its built-in apps.

strongm ( 2016-11-14 11:51:05 +0300 )edit

1

N9 is unbeatable.....

BonoNL ( 2016-11-15 01:40:24 +0300 )edit

I now bought Sony Xperia X and SailfishOS, flashed the phone and wanted to try this syncml thingie.

Downloaded and installed the SDK, also the buteo-sync-plugins, patched them with the calendar sync patch, built all of it and wanted to install, but I hit the wall:

[root@Sailfish Downloads]# pkcon install-local *

Installing files Waiting in queue Starting Resolving dependencies Fatal error: nothing provides blts-tools needed by buteo-sync-plugins-qt5-tests-0.8.23-1.armv7hl installed patterns-sailfish-mw-0.10.2-10.5.1.jolla.noarch obsoletes buteo-sync-plugins-qt5 provided by buteo-sync-plugins-qt5-0.8.23-1.armv7hl buteo-service-memotoo-0.8.23-1.armv7hl requires buteo-sync-plugins-qt5 = 0.8.23, but this requirement cannot be provided

I guess I've missed the train

deloptes ( 2017-10-21 23:37:27 +0300 )edit

When can we get PIM functionality on par with N9

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