Appendix H: Oracle Calendar Mobile Data Sync (SyncML)

There are now two ways to sync UICal over the Web:

With Smartphones or PDAs: Oracle Mobile Data Sync, OMA-DS (Open Mobile Alliance - Data Synchronization, formerly known as the SyncML)

This service allows you to sync your mobile phone or PDA with a wireless connection directly with the UIC UICalendar server, without connecting it to a PC or Mac and without using your phone or PDA's Web browser. It does require OMA-DS/SyncML support on your mobile phone or PDA -- either built-in or through purchased software. In this case, you enter a specialized URL into SyncML client software. The SyncML client uses the URL to talk to the UICal server and syncs both ways, to the phone or PDA and back to UICal.

If you have a compatible PDA or smartphone, this is definitely the way to go for syncing. It works much better than a wired sync client and doesn't tie you down to syncing with one personal computer, whether Mac or Windows. In fact, you can sync from anywhere you can get a suitable wireless connection.

This way of syncing with UICalendar is described in this page.

iCal Web Links

You can now use the UICalendar Web Utility to create an iCal Web URL allows you to import a "snapshot" copy your UICalendar agenda into other calendar programs, such as Mac iCal and Web calendars such as Google Calendar and Yahoo Calendar, and now iCal on the iPhone. This Web link also uses Oracle Mobile Data Sync. When you or your calendar software go to this URL, it returns your UICal data, as it is at that very moment, in iCal format. iCal format is the most widely used import format for calendar data.

Note that this copy is one way: UICalendar into iCal, Google Calendar, or whatever, though when you "import" the URL into your other calendar software, the other software will automatically go back to the UICal Web link on a regular basis to get a new, updated copy of your UICal calendar. We do not have the ability now to bring changes made in the other calendar program back into UICalendar using the UICal iCal Web link.

Using the UICal iCal Web link is described in UICalendar Utilities: iCal Web Links.

• Will your phone or PDA work?
• -- Do you have a Blackberry?
• -- How about an Apple iPhone?
• How To Set Up the OMA-DS/SyncML Connection (Information for all manner of phones or PDAs)
• -- How to accept or decline meetings
• -- How to customize conflict resolution
• -- Other Info You Need Before You Start
• More Information

Yes, it will if it (1) supports OMA-DS/SyncML natively or (2) there is commercial SyncML client software available for it.

The answer to this question is on the Oracle page: Oracle Mobile Data Sync.

There are a number of cell phones that support SyncML services natively. For Palm, Windows Mobile, PocketPC, and SmartPhone devices, either wireless PDAs or cell phones, there is third-party SyncML software by a company called Synthesis AG. We've successfully tested a Windows Mobile phone and a Palm PDA with a wireless network connection using the $25 Synthesis SyncML Client STD. For Blackberries, there is a SyncML client called SyncJe from Nexthaus.

Synthesis SyncML Client STD: http://www.synthesis.ch/
You want the For Mobile Device Users section. There is a $25 one time charge for this software, but it has a 30-day free trial offer so you can try before you buy.

Be certain you are downloading the client that matches your phone or PDA. Choosing the right client can be tricky with Microsoft products, which has rebranded its operating system several times. Some clarity can be found at the Wikipedia entry on Windows Mobile.

The Synthesis SyncML client comes with a short PDF manual that explains how to set it up and use it.

Note about backing up your data when using Synthesis SyncML:

You can still back up your Palm device on your personal computer using HotSync.

However, Oracle does not recommend attempting to back up your Pocket PC using ActiveSync if you use Oracle Connector for Outlook. Doing so may result in unexpected behavior, including loss of data.

There is now a SyncML client that both Oracle and other universities say supports Blackberries: SyncJe from Nexthaus. Like SyncML, SyncJe has a trial period, 15 days, that you can use it without charge, before you have to purchase a license. For instructions on how to install it, please see Kansas State University's Syncing with your BlackBerry or Nexthaus's syncje for Blackberry.

Configuring the Blackberry for use with Oracle Mobile Data Sync, from Oracle's Oracle Mobile Data Sync.

1. Select SyncJe Client , then Settings... from the main menu.
2. Enter the following details:
   • The Server URL: http://uical.uic.edu/ocst-bin/ocas.fcgi
     Check this over carefully; we've had a number of people ask for help when the only thing they did wrong was type the URL incorrectly. It's very easy to do.
   • Your Userid and Password: your netid and ACCC common password
   • Contacts, Calendar and ToDos; see also the info in How To Set Up the Connection. Be sure to check the blue boxes to select the foldernames you enter.
     • Contacts Foldername: ./Contacts
     • Calendar Foldername: ./Calendar/Events
     • ToDo Foldername: ./Calendar/Tasks
   • After the initial sync, select AutoSync
     • Every nn
     • and select a unit -- hour, day, or month
   • After the initial sync, select Sync events between:
     • days before sync date: mm
     • days after sync date: ll
   • Communication protocol: The choices are WAP, MDS or BIS; we recommand using WAP.
     • If your carrier is Verizon, select WAP and leave the WAP gateway blank.
     • If you use another carrier then it may be necessary to set a specific gateway. Check out Nexthaus's SyncJe for Blackberry instructions page.
   • Leave HTTP User Name and HTTP Password blank.
   • Timeout, minutes: 3
   • Support Email: is set to Nexthaus by default
   • Select Skip saving attendees -- it is very important to check this with out new Calendar Server. If you don't, you will spam everyone in your event calendar.

Sending a mass of email out every night at midnight? Go back and make sure that you have Skip saving attendees selected. This is a Blackberry "feature" that became active with the new version of our calendar server. If you turn on Skip saving attendees and you are still sending out unwanted email, check out Rice University's Configuration Settings for Nexthaus SyncJE.

Confused about MDS, BIS, and WAP? Here's an explanation: "There is only one Browser application on the BlackBerry. How it behaves depends on which Service Books you have been sent by RIM or your BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server). Your browser can be MDS (BES), PMDS (BIS-B), and WAP (1.2, 1.2 secure, 2.0) but when you click an icon for any of these in the Ribbon, the BlackBerry will refer to a ServiceBook to see how to handle the data. For example, MDS goes to your BES and uses your company Internet connection, PMDS (BIS) goes through RIM's Internet connection, and WAP is supplied by the carrier." From "What exactly is the Blackberry Browser?" on PinStack.com, accessed 09-16-2008.

See ACCC services and the iPhone.

There are lots of ways to use UICal with the iPhone, including using the UICal Web client in Safari.

Other useful alternatives involve syncing iCal with the UICal iCal Web link.

New with iPhone Version 3.0 or higher, you can subscribe to the UICal iCal Web link directly on your iPhone. This is probably the best way so far to use UICal on the iPhone.

There are two SyncML clients available now, but both have problems.

There are two two-way syncs that work now.

• You can sync the iPhone with Outlook Connector and iTunes on Windows personal computers. I know of people that this has worked for, and it is much easier to set up now.
  
  
• You can sync iCal on a Mac two-ways with UICal using SyncJe for the Mac. Then use iTunes as usual to sync iCal on the Mac with iCal on the iPhone. This is easy to set up, but SyncJe for Mac OS only runs on Intel Macs running Leopard. There is a free 15-day trial of the software.
  
  
• Send email to uicalendar@uic.edu if you need help setting either of these up. We have some experience with both.

This is all explained in ACCC services and the iPhone.

Once you have SyncML available, you need to set it up to talk to the UICalendar Oracle Calendar server. This is the info that you need:

URL:

http://uical.uic.edu/ocst-bin/ocas.fcgi
If your device supports SSL -- Oracle page: Oracle Mobile Data Sync says whether your device does --
try: https://uical.uic.edu/ocst-bin/ocas.fcgi
Check this over carefully; we've had a number of people ask for help when the only thing they did wrong was type the URL incorrectly. It's very easy to do.

Contacts:

./Contacts

Events:

./Calendar/Events

Tasks (ToDo):

./Calendar/Tasks

Though sometimes Events and Tasks are synced together, and it's:

./Calendar

Notes:

I looked through all of the Oracle install information, and didn't see any paths for Notes; it appears that syncing Notes is not supported yet.

Userid and Password:

Your UIC netid and ACCC common password, as usual.

To specify the date range of the sync:

./Calendar?/dr(-7,14): Synchronizes events and tasks seven days in the past to 14 days in the future.
./Calendar/Events?/dr(-30,60): Synchronizes events 30 days in the past to 60 days in the future.

To specify whether events outside the date range are deleted:

./Calendar/Tasks?/dr(-30,60)/del(false): Synchronizes tasks from 30 days in the past to 60 days in the future, but does not remove tasks outside this range from the device
./Calendar/Events?/dr(-30,60)/del(true): Synchronizes events 30 days in the past to 60 days in the future, and removes events outside this range from the device.
We have had at least one person tell us that he decreased the sync range and it removed events outside the range by default. So if you are changing the sync range and don't want to lose the other events, put in del(false) just to be safe.

There is more information on this in Oracle Mobile Data Sync.

Your device uses several symbols to display the status of meetings. To change your status for a meeting, edit the meeting by changing the symbols listed below, then synchronize your device. Remember that once you decline a meeting and synchronize your device with the server, the declined meeting will be removed from your device.

[*]: This symbol may precede the ?, + and - symbols on your device and indicates a meeting you did not create. This symbol will not appear next to meetings you have created yourself.

[?]: This symbol indicates a meeting you have not accepted or declined.

[+]: This symbol indicates a meeting you have accepted.

[-]: This symbol indicates a meeting you have declined.

By default, if an entry has been modified on both the server and the device, the server entry overwrites the device entry. To configure your device to overwrite an entry on the server in the case of a conflict, append the text /cr(x) to the appropriate URI on your device. Set x to 2 to have the entry on the device prevail, or set x to 1 to have the entry on the server prevail. For example:

./Calendar?/cr(2)

Modified events or tasks on the device overwrite modified events or tasks on the server.

./Calendar/Events?/cr(1)

Modified events on the server overwrite modified events on the device.

./Calendar/Tasks?/cr(2)

Modified tasks on the device overwrite modified tasks on the server.

./Contacts?/cr(2)

Modified contacts on the device overwrite modified contacts on the server.

• This page has everything you need to know in general about Oracle Mobile Data Sync (SyncML) : Oracle Mobile Data Sync. I recommend you look it over before you begin use Oracle Mobile Data Sync. If you want to compare devices, this is the page you want. It also has instructions on how to set each device up.
  
  
• Understanding how devices handle different types of data: Explains how alarms, access levels, task priorities, and long descriptions are synchronized between various devices and Oracle Mobile Data Sync.
  
  
• Safely resetting data on your device: Occasionally, data on your device may become lost, duplicated, or corrupt. This explains how to safely reset your device to clean corrupt information resulting from technical difficulties or problems encountered when synchronizing in different time zones or after a Daylight Savings clock change.
  1. Delete the extra or incorrect data on your devic. In some cases, it is easier just to clear all data from the device. Obviously, this isn't necessary if you are just missing information.
  2. Perform a "slow" synchronization with the server. In a slow synchronization all records on the devise are synchronized. In a regular sync, only the records that have been changed are synced.
  This returns device data to a "clean" state.
  


• Traveling across time zones and working with Daylight Savings: Explains how to avoid problems that can occur when traveling across time zones or when a Daylight Savings clock change occurs.
  

Please see the Oracle pages for instructions for your type of PDA/cell phone.

• This page has everything you need to know in general about Oracle Mobile Data Sync (SyncML) : Oracle Mobile Data Sync. I recommend you look it over before you begin use Oracle Mobile Data Sync. If you want to compare devices, this is the page you want. It also has instructions on how to set each device up.
  
  
• And this page has more specific information about specific devices: Oracle Mobile Data Sync - Getting Started. Go to the Getting Started page, find your device, and look at the information for your device in the Review Device Limitations link. There are some significant restrictions in some instances. (For example, see the Warning below.)
  
  
  
• Be sure to make a backup of any existing data your PDA/Phone by whatever means possible (Hotsync, Activesync, specific phone-provider instructions, etc.) before attempting any type of sync with UICalendar.
  
  
• Warning for people using Synthesis SyncML clients:
  • Synchronization of monthly and yearly recurring events is not supported if the events were created in Oracle Connector for Outlook. And Synchronization of daily recurring weekdays is not supported. I have yearly day events that were created in Outlook Connector that were already on my Clie, and they are still on my Clie after syncing several times with Synthesis SyncML. See Oracle Mobile Data Sync; scroll down to "Devices using Synthesis SyncML clients".
  • If you are having problems with duplication with Synthesis SyncML, see General SyncML notes about duplicates. The gist of its advice is to avoid slow syncs. See also Other Info You Need Before You Start.
    
    
• Some of these phones specify Oracle Calendar version 10 ("new in 10.x.x"), which we now have installed.
  
  
• There is no way that the ACCC can test all of these phones, so you are pretty much on your own except that we can open a problem ticket with Oracle if a need arises. Send email to uicalendar@uic.edu if you've carefully followed the instructions and are still having problems. (Check to make sure you've typed the URL correctly and have entered the paths correctly.)
  
  
• See the Oracle Mobile Data Sync Troubleshooting and FAQ page for more information.