New OTA FREE way to Sync your BB without Exchange Server

[barjohn]

Seems like an open source project (funambol) has developed software that you can place on a Windows or Linux box with numerous clients including a BlackBerry client. The client will allow you to sync your contacts and calendar. It provides free push email for Windows Mobile devices too. You really need to check this one out. Here is the link: http://www.funambol.com/opensource/downloads.html

It appears that you can treat your PC as a server.

Funambol Overview

http://www.funambol.com/images/olsite/3levels_synch-1.gif
The world is mobile, but most people still don’t have email on their phones.

Over 750 million mobile phones and wireless devices were sold last year, and there will be more than a billion phones capable of wireless email this year. Yet most carriers offer mobile email only on expensive, proprietary devices. Why? Because up to now, there’s not been a standard way to get corporate email sent to low-cost phones.

Until now. The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has created a global standard protocol for sending and receiving email messages with “push” notification, plus synchronizing calendars, contact lists, and other PIM information. Most mobile phones support this standard for PIM today, and new phones are starting to support push email.

Funambol has created the first open source server that supports the latest OMA standards, so that you can provide email and PIM synchronization on low-cost wireless computing devices. The Funambol server connects to your existing email and calendar servers, providing two-way updates of messages and PIM data. Funambol client plug-ins provide OMA protocol support to the software that’s already embedded in your phones.

Enjoy!

[corporate]

Hello hello, that's plain ol' bloody nice to see!

[kurichan]

Sounds like this might be a dream come true...

[HaTaX]

Just checked it out, looks like it could be pretty solid! I'll give it a try with my roomies blackberry as he doesn't have access to a BES server...

Now think of WHEN someone comes out with a J2ME or a MIDP version of this for moto phoens that can interact with the datebook and addressbook on the phones?? I'd have to believe that can't be too far off.

[Slammed]

This sounds cool and I just read that this may be the work around that RIM was talking about

[ScottE22]

Anyone gotten this up and running yet? For me, without a BES (or the desire to pay $20+ per month for access to one) the ability to sync wirelessly is the one missing piece that would make the BB perfect.

[dozment]

Search here for sync4j. http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=11315&page=1&pp=40&highlight=sync4j

That's what this is. I think it has promise, but is not quiet ready for prime time.

[johnfromphilly]

Search here for sync4j. http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=11315&page=1&pp=40&highlight=sync4j

That's what this is. I think it has promise, but is not quiet ready for prime time.


Actually, that is not correct. They just released a new version.

That is what Barjohn is referring to.

I am hoping this is a good solution for a small business (just me).
I am checking it out but I am not a computer pro, I am going to take it slow.

[dozment]

Actually, that is not correct. They just released a new version.

That is what Barjohn is referring to.

Then, I stand corrected, and that is very good news! Is the new release 2.3 or is it the 3.0? I will definently give it a try.

[johnfromphilly]

Then, I stand corrected, and that is very good news! Is the new release 2.3 or is it the 3.0? I will definently give it a try.


name change info (http://www.funambol.com/opensource/namechange.html)

press release (http://www.funambol.com/docs/FunambolV3final.pdf)

[KonTiki]

I hope this one works, I have tried this in the past about four different times when the news gets around of a new and improved version and it has never worked.

[dozment]

I played around with a couple of versions syncing with scheduleworld.com. For some reason calendar sync was removed from the blackberry client some time back, and it appears that it is still missing. Last time I tried a sync with scheduleworld even the address book failed. I just tried with the new 3.0 blackberry client and the address sync was successful.

Now, I wish we could have calendar sync added back in!

[alakon]

It's hard to get SyncML working for the BB - the documentation is terrible. I'm thinking about creating a tutorial. Is there any demand?

[tru2life]

I would be very interested in a tutorial.

[Camarones]

I got funambol free / sync4j working yesterday in a test environment.
I'm using Scalix (very nice!) as my mailserver right now but BB desktop sync does not work with its Outlook connector, so I've been unable to sync PIM with my BB.

So I installed the Funambol free 2.3 windows bundle (my Linux servers are all busy doing other stuff on its default port 8080). I installed the Sync4j 1.1.5 client on my OS 4.1 8700g, and the 2.3 Outlook client on the desktop. After setting up my firewall and DNS to make the funambol free server available on the LAN and in the internet by DNS name, I was able to configure it and get it to sync calendar and contacts between my BB and Outlook, by way of the sync4j server.

[titetanium]

what about syncing email? Did that work or not?

[ncflashman]

We are on Scalix as well and I've had issues with Funambol and the calendar. Do you do anything special to get the calendar working?

[Liv]

Hmmm, this seems really cool! I am hoping that I can get it working, it looks very promising.

[eightwire]

A tutorial would be great...

[Camarones]

We are on Scalix as well and I've had issues with Funambol and the calendar. Do you do anything special to get the calendar working?

I did nothing special. But remember, I installed the "stable" version which is just the sync4j server project, so the funambol beta enhancements (such as email) are not included.

Every chance I get I put in a request to Scalix to work on a Scalix server to funambol connector, so I don't have to mess around at the (desktop) client side. For me, the problems have been on the BB client. Sometimes it times out, and it takes FOREVER to sync, even over EDGE. It seems like I get one successful sync a day, no more.

I decided to run the stable version to increase my chances of success on my first try. Now that it was successful, I might try the Funambol betas.

[The Bishop]

wow if it could sych with IMAP that would be poyfect!

[timmyc123]

I agree, we need a tutorial. I am so confused with this, can't get it to work!

[ncflashman]

I did nothing special. But remember, I installed the "stable" version which is just the sync4j server project, so the funambol beta enhancements (such as email) are not included.

Every chance I get I put in a request to Scalix to work on a Scalix server to funambol connector, so I don't have to mess around at the (desktop) client side. For me, the problems have been on the BB client. Sometimes it times out, and it takes FOREVER to sync, even over EDGE. It seems like I get one successful sync a day, no more.

I decided to run the stable version to increase my chances of success on my first try. Now that it was successful, I might try the Funambol betas.

Is the calendar working or just contacts?

[dozment]

I have the funambol version running on a linux box and the 1.2.4 Blackberry client. I was finally able to get a sync with Outlook, the GUI client, and (it appears) my Blackberry. The Blackberry sync is running very slowly, and it doesnt' have the option to sync calendar - contact only.

[dozment]

I spoke too soon. I can't do a complete sync of my address book. The sync process runs for a very long time (30 minutes to an hour), and the fails with either a timeout or some kind of "invalid data" message that I didn't catch.

[Camarones]

Calendar sync depends on the client version, not the server. If you run 1.1.5 instead of 1.2.4 you'll have calendar and contact sync. However, it has difficulty with all-day appointments and they chose the remove calendar from 1.2.4 instead of letting it out with this problem.

My sync was taking forever the first couple of days, but the last couple of days its been very fast.

[dozment]

I was using the 1.2.4 Blackberry client and the Funambol release of the server. I switched over to the 1.1.5 client and still had problems. I had the server set to log everything, so I know I was getting a connection.

Today I switced back to the stable sync4j server release, and I have been able to sync my calendar and contacts on Outlook and my Blackberry. It does take a long time, but based on what I'm seeing in the server logs it looks like the delay is part caused by duplicate entries that have to be merged.

[Camarones]

That could be it. I've noticed that the last 5 days or so my sync time have been reduced dramatically... to less than 30 seconds on 1.2.4 (just contacts). I upgraded to 4.1 Bharti last friday on my BB, so that may have something to do with it... I'm going to try 1.1.5 this morning so I can regain calendar sync.

[dozment]

Digging a little further... The slow syncs happen when it decides to do a "slow sync" (dump of the entire contact list and calendar) as opposed to a "fast sync" (only sync changes). It does that on the first sync of a device, and when some pointer loses track of when the device was last sync'd.

I was hoping to use my syncml server to sync my Blackberry, my calendar on my laptop, and a calendar on a machine at a client site. Apparently, that won't work. From what I read in the sync4j user mail archives if you syncing more than two devices forces it into slow-sync mode.

[Camarones]

Just an update from me...
I installed the Funambol 3 beta server and Outlook clients, and they work. I can sync Contacts with my BB8700 using the sync4j 1.2.4 client but I cannot get the Funambol Blackberry client to work, I keep getting Java errors (when the BB boots up, and when I try to launch the Funambol app).

The actual error is "Uncaught exception: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundException"

I REALLY don't want to reload my BB OS right now, but I may do so just to test (if I get bored)...

[Camarones]

A further update. I resolved the java error. It turns out that I had somehow lost my APN setting on the BB so I set it again and the error is gone. However, I'm quite disappointed with the Funambol 3.0.0 Blackberry beta client. It doesn't include Calendar, Tasks or Notes sync. All it seems to add over sync4j 1.2.4 is the mail feature, which I'm not using.

[mrogers]

This looks really cool, but I'm confused about something here. If I want to get my Exchange (via Outlook) Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, etc synced with my BlackBerry OTA, but I don't run the Exchange server, can I do it with this software? I'm downloading the Server 3.0 Beta 5, and the BlackBerry client, but what else do I need? I'm trying hard to decipher all this...

EDIT: OK wow I really can't make heads or tails of this. Their documentation blows. If someone could provide a brief writeup of what to install and how the heck to use the Administration panel -- and how to install all these different modules and stuff -- it would be greatly appreciated. I hope this can do what I want it to do.

[Camarones]

I would think that what you're trying to do is possible. The Funambol (or Sync4j) Outlook client is just that, a plugin for outlook that accesses your PIM info through Outlook, whether it lives on a server like Exchange or Scalix or in a PST file. It then takes that PIM info and syncs it to a Funambol server. Your other clients (such as your Blackberry) then access the Funambol server.

So in this respect, Exchange is pretty much irrelevant.

[techman1]

Just a fast thought. does this mean the new bb8703e may have problems when it attempts to synch to Outlook?

[Camarones]

Just a fast thought. does this mean the new bb8703e may have problems when it attempts to synch to Outlook?

What do you mean? How is it different?

[Camarones]

Funambol Installation Guide.
This is by no means definitive, but since there have been so many requests for a tutorial I'm going to go over the basic installation steps and do a brain dump of anything else that comes to mind.
I would say to read the manual, but the manuals don't really help! However, the client software usually does have a manual available, so read over those!

First of all you need to select and download and install the following:


Funambol or Sync4j server (Windows and unix versions available)
Funambol or Sync4j Outlook client
Funambol or Sync4j device (Blackberry?) client


You are on your own to select the server version based on the requirements of your environment. I chose to use the Windows server because all my linux machines already have web application servers running on :8080

Now that you have the 3 software components, you need to perform some infrastructure tasks to make sure each client can contact the server.

A couple of notes:
You'll probably have to modify your firewall to enable Internet clients to access TCP port 8080 on the machine you installed the Funambol Server on. This is how the clients will connect to sync.
You might have to update your DNS host to make the Funambol server available by name from the Internet (if you care to do so). I made sync.mycompany.com point to my firewall, which then redirects to the internal host.


Lets get started...

Launch the Funambol server (in Windows, there is a status icon on the taskbar). From the start menu open up the Administration Tool. It is here that you'll need to set up the user accounts, and associations with devices, that will enable syncing.

Double-click on Funambol Administration Tool to open the Login window. I think it will default to the local machine's name and port 8080, so enter check to make sure that is correct and click Login. Now you will see an item in the tree representing your Funambol Server.
Click on the + to expand your server's item, and double click on Server Settings
Look for the Server URI value. It may be incomplete or missing. This is the URL by which clients will contact the server, and serves as a root (base folder) of operations. Funambol expects clients to connect to a URL in the form of: http://sync.yourcompany.com:8080/funambol/ds so you'll need to enter you server's IP or hostname in place of “sync.yourcompany.com”.
Double Click on the Users item. Add a user for testing (fill in username, password, and select type User)
Double Click on Devices. For now, you won't need to add a device, because both of the clients you will be using (assuming you're syncing Outlook with a Blackberry) already has devices defined in the default Funambol server.
Double Click on Principals. Principals are configuration objects that associate usernames or devices with sync clients. This way you must define a potential sync scenario to enable a user to use a particular client type.
Click on Add. You will see two sets of blank fields. Click on both Search buttons. Select the username you added earlier in the box on the left, and select sc-outlook-pim in the box the right, then click Add Principal. This will enable the username to connect using the Outlook client. Repeat the task for the sc-pim-blackberry and syncml-phone devices.
Go back to the Principals section again and click search, you should now see listed the default “guest” principals and three new principals for your username.
At this point you've basically done all you need to on the server to enable a single client to connect via Outlook, sync4j Blackberry client, and generic syncml-phone (which is how the Funambol Blackberry client identifies itself to the server!). You're ready to configure the clients and test.

The Outlook client configuration is pretty basic.

Look for a Funambol or Sync4j item on the Outlook menu bar.
Go to Communication Settings and enter the full URL for the server (again it will be something like http://sync.yourcompany.com:8080/funambol/ds). Enter your username and password
Go to Syncronization Settings and select the PIM items you wish to sync with the server. I chose them all. Now, stop for a moment and get ready for some disappointment. Not all clients support all PIM items.
Click on Synchronize on the main menu. If it reports errors, view the error log through Help --> View Logs. That should provide you some insight as to why it didn't work.

Now for the Blackberry client...

Use the Blackberry Desktop Manager to install the Blackberry Client.
Configure the Blackberry client in the same way as the Outlook client, providing the server URL and selecting the PIM items you want to sync. What, you want to sync more than just Contacts? Sorry!
Ensure that you have set the APN in your Blackberry's TCP configuration screen. This varies by carrier. For t-mobile its “wap.voicestream.com”.
Save your settings and attempt to sync. If its going to be successful it will take a while to sync the first time, so be patient. You'll see the upload/download activity arrows in the upper right of your BB screen.
If it fails you must rely on the SERVER's error log to troubleshoot because you can't view the BB client's log.



That's about it. I tried to include pointers around all the minor issues that hung me up for a while. I spent hours examining the server logs to determine what needed to change, tweaking settings, and testing again in order to make it all work, so I hope this helps!

[pvantienen]

Fantastic! thanks!

[Camarones]

Glad to hear my afternoon writing that wasn't wasted! I should note that I've been testing some other clients as well. I've tried the following BB-specific clients so far, all with some success:


Sync4j 1.1.5 (syncs Calendar and Contacts)
Sync4j 1.2.4 (syncs Contacts)
Funambol 3.0.0 (Syncs Contacts + email (haven't tried the mail part)
SyncJe-BB (Syncs Contacts, Calendar and Tasks (I haven't gotten the task part to work yet but I just started trying yesterday) 15-day trial

SyncJe-BB is a commercial, generic syncML client for Blackberry. It appears to have much promise, as it supports "any SyncML server," which includes Funambol.

[Camarones]

A new Funambol Blackberry client (version 3.0.7 beta) has been released. It once again includes Calendar sync along with Contacts. Still no Notes or Tasks. You can find it on the downloads section of the Funambol website.

It seems to be working well for me on my 4.1 OS 8700g.

[The Bishop]

A new Funambol Blackberry client (version 3.0.7 beta) has been released. It once again includes Calendar sync along with Contacts. Still no Notes or Tasks. You can find it on the downloads section of the Funambol website.

It seems to be working well for me on my 4.1 OS 8700g.

Just curious as I've not tried it, but does it allow you to file mail into your subdirs of an IMAP account?

[Camarones]

I haven't tried the email component of the funambol client. I am using my Blackberry (on a BIS account) to connect to my IMAP mail account, which does rudimentary filing on the mail server (Inbox & Sent folders). Beyond that it does not file or even show other IMAP folders on the Blackberry.

I'm using Scalix as my mail server, but I don't think that is causing this behavior, I think its a limitation of the Blackberry OS IMAP client implementation. You may have better results from the Funambol client.

[timmyc123]

Anybody getting this error message during outlook sync?

22:13:02:235 [ERROR] - processItemStatus: server sent status 506 in SYNC
22:13:02:235 [ERROR] - Error #506 in source contact
22:13:02:235 [ERROR] - Error in syncing:

And how long is the blackberry sync supposed to take, it has been going for almost 5 hours...

[Camarones]

Is that error in your server log? I've never seen it before.

BB sync time would vary with the amount of contacts/appts you have. For 150 contacts and 180 calendar items it took about 10 minutes the first (slow) sync for me...

[timmyc123]

That was teh error in outlook sync. My contacts is around 250 and my calendar is about 120 and it was still going after about 8 hours yesterday so i uninstalled it because it was killing my battery.

[jstrzalko]

Anyone know if funambol's connector will support auto-sync when the 3.0 client comes out of beta? I want to start using a web-based crm/groupware and would love this functionality!

--Josh

[rgoodwin]

It appears the 3.0 stable Funambol doesn't include mail sync? (At least w/ the Outlook plugin..)?