CalDAV conflict management

asked 2014-11-18 11:25:54 +0200

ralooyar gravatar image

I think, CalDAV synchronization could need better conflict management.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. create an event in a CalDAV synchronized calendar
  2. sync this calendar with the server
  3. sync another application (e.g. thunderbird with lightning) with this calendar
  4. edit this event on your jolla phone
  5. edit this event in thunderbird (with default settings, this will sync your changes to the server immediately)
  6. sync your jolla phone with the CalDAV calendar on the server

Expected behaviour:

The CalDAV sync app should detect a conflict (event changed on the server since last sync, while changed on jolla phone, too) and ask the user to:

  • dismiss the local changes and load the event from the server
  • overwrite the event on the server with the local one

(Thats the way, it is handled in thunderbird.)

An ultimate pro feature would be to provide a diff, to see what data conflicts in detail. ;) (But that is not even provided by thunderbird.)

Actual behaviour:

With 1.0.8.21 (Tahkalampi), CalDAV seems to always drop local changes on the jolla phone, in case of a conflict.

Use case:

Let's say I share with my partner a common CalDAV calendar. At the weekend, we plan a big shopping trip and write stuff, we want to by in the description field of the calendar event. If my partner adds another point, which came to mind at work, and I add one point, one of those points might get silently dropped. And we miss to buy this item. :(

This is no reliable behaviour. And I think everyone of us, would like to have a reliable jolla phone! :)

Priority:

I guess, this is not a top priority CalDAV TODO, since it won't happen very often and there other synchronization problems, which need fixing sooner. But since the actual behaviour does silently delete user information (= dropping local changes), since should be fixed in end, too.

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