Last change 16/03/2017
SyncKolab was written to add kolab functionality to thunderbird. It reads a selected Imap folder and synchronizes it with the local address book and calendar.
Version 1.0 had 61 prereleases and 83 nightly releases with over 100 bugs fixed and is known to work nicely with Thunderbird 2 and Lightning 0.8.
Even with this extensive testing, there might still occur problems in combination with other extensions, operating systems, thunderbird versions and/or special characters in your contacts/tasks/calendar entries .
Because of this, you should make a backup of all your relevant data (server side or your profile directory) before doing your first sync. If seomthing happens because of a bug you can then easily restore your data afterward.
If you find any bugs please check the synckolab github on: https://github.com/corinis/synckolab/issues
What is Kolab/SyncKolab?
The idea behind this is, that you can now have your contacts+calendar entries stored on the imap server. so you can actually have the same addresses on more than one computer. The kolab project has a groupware server that uses imap to exchange calendar entries and vcards. But you can also setup simple sharing in your office if you have f.e. cyrus by symlinking shared folders.
Status/Roadmap
The extension is already pretty mature. There are still a few bugs to streighten out and a few features missing (ie. sync of lists) but for the most part it works really stable. Also the support to sync with other clietns has improved greatly over the last months.
It is still a good idea to have a backup ready before working with synckolab - especially if you have large number of contacts/calendar entries and also if you have a complicated setup.
Known Issues
If you find any bugs please check https://github.com/corinis/synckolab/issues
Make sure to include your thunderbird/lightning/synckolab version and operating system. Also check out the error console for any errors.
For most problems check out the: FAQ section
Planned features
- mailing list support
- Sync-with file-system folder option
- better conflict resolution for tasks/calendar entries
- support for new thunderird address book feature (sync with mac adress book)
Sync With Android
A partner project to sync with android is available @ http://code.google.com/p/kolab-android/
Latest Release - 2.0.1
bugs fixed:
- Problematic variable assignment(mozdev issue)
- all jsLint issues resolved
- runs from the address window as well
- id column is now growing when changing the window
- mailing list support readded, fixed and tested
- rewrite of Event/Task integration
- #24845
correctly check if lightning is installed
- #24850
calendar refresh
- #24848
caching messages locally
- #24202
conflict resolution without local sync db
- wrong folder was used in new layout (missed account name)
- cache was not deleted on config change
- #24859 fix recurrence parsing (now even supports more than one day for weekly)
- #24904 fix problem with task field parsing and alarm sync
- #24905 fix problem with entries not writing back to imap
new features:
- listener: synckolab binds itself to changed mail and address books. If enabled, you do not have to sync any more (except maybe on data corruption or at the very start). Synckolab will be notified on any change in the address book or on the imap server and update the data accordingly.
- better contact db storage: the contacts are now stored as json objects. This allows for a much quicker sync process.
- new configuration: you now have a more straight foreward configuration tree that allows the creation of multiple configs per account/sync type. This simplifies configuration.
- The internal structure has changed quite a bit allowing for much less code. this should also allow for more performance.
- The configuration changes are now recognized directly. You only need a restartif you enable listener because the service binds itself only at the beginning (avoids double-binds).