ActiveSync Support

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

what do you think about a feature that enables Open-Xchange to support ActiveSync enabled smartphones such as Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and most Symbian devices? This would allow synchronization over a de-facto standard protocol without the need to install 3rd party client software at the device (except blackberry mail). The solution would be a server-side implementation of the EAS Protocol (Exchange ActiveSync) that is packaged as a Open-Xchange plugin and enables the Server to speak native ActiveSync based on the users Open-Xchange data such as E-Mail, Calendars, Addressbooks and Task lists including folder hierarchies. We already have a working implementation and it makes huge progress day by day in terms of client specific optimizations.

What do you think about it? What would you expect from such a feature? What devices or platforms are important to be supported to you?

[mnu]

sounds great,

how long until there will be a testable alpha version?
i would be (especially) interested in support for blackberry and nokia smartfones.
ist there anything someone who is not a java-guru could contribute? (testing etc.)

best regards,
mnu

p.s.: it seems that the poll was rather forseeable *g*.

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

there is already a testable version available, but we're checking it internally right now. Personally i feel we should have something really testable and working out in a few weeks. Testing on different devices would be a superior contribution due to the fact that we don't own thousands of devices. I'm gonna contact you or others when we're starting a public beta.

Greetings

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

just a quick status update on internal testing
* iPhone (firmware 2.0 and 3.0) is working very good, all features (calendar/tasks/contacts/mail) working natively
* Windows Mobile support has made huge progress, since there are many different versions that are customized by some handset makers we need a bit more testing on this one. We're currently supporting all WinMob features natively.
* Nokia S60 devices are also making progress. Since there is no built-in EAS client we currently prefer using the Nokia "Mail for Exchange" software from Nokia. This client also synchronizes all services to the native applications.
* BlackBerry is also looking good, we're evaluating the AstraSync client which covers calendar/contacts (natively) and E-Mail as an addon client for those who don't have BES/BIS services available

All in all the project has made huge progress. There are some things to do before starting an external beta - for example integrating the whole plugin to the Open-Xchange environment and knocking out some issues. I've a great feeling about this plugin, we really want this extension to rock before releasing.

Stay tuned!

[Martin Heiland]

Just installed the first package to integrate ActiveSync support to OX 6.10 (before we had a standalone EAS server), works beautiful

[Martin Heiland]

Just slaying some platform specific differences of the EAS implementation of some devices. Looks good so far, just Nokia S60 seems to be a bit more different than the others...

[KlausA]

Any news on public beta? :-)

[Martin Heiland]

I'm not sure if there will be a public free-for-all beta since implementing ActiveSync the "clean way" requires some license arrangements with Microsoft. We aim start a beta with some partners tomorrow and will use this feedback for further improvements towards a final release. Especially feedback about device support would be very appreciated. I guess ActiveSync will also be available at http://ox.io/ when it is launched for beta.

Greetings

[Martin Heiland]

Just launched the partner beta...

[Martin Heiland]

Small update:
* Added support for appointment series and exceptions
* Optimized E-Mail handling for larger mailboxes
* Added command line switches to activate or deactivate USM and/or EAS separately
* Suppressing invitation E-Mails from winmob/iphone devices (invitations are sent by the ox server)
* Many many improvements in all sections

It's looking pretty good, we're preparing the second wave of beta now.

[crankintheburn]

Hi,

just a quick status update on internal testing
* iPhone (firmware 2.0 and 3.0) is working very good, all features (calendar/tasks/contacts/mail) working natively

Stay tuned!

... which is awesome!!! Why not make at least the iphone sync capability public yet? Can't wait to implement this feature!

So... I'm staying tuned
crank

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

there is no such thing like an "iphone sync capability". Open-Xchange Server implements the ActiveSync protocol which is used by a vast amount of Smartphones including the iPhone. There is no client side software or something like that. The protocol itself is IP of Microsoft so we can't make it available as source code or put it out for free.

[wjlabs]

Still testing

The addition of Active Sync is a great feature and really helps make OX more competitive with other solutions that already support integration with mobile devices.

We've tested with a Blackberry using Astra sync and so far it has been working pretty smoothly. Initially we had several issues getting Astra Sync to connect to the server or once it connected, it'd crash.
We've also tested with a couple of Windows Mobile phones (don't have the models handy). We've noticed that in email synchronization some emails don't show up in the phone. I'm not sure if someone else has noticed it and has been able to figure out why.

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

note that most devices only sync most recent mails by default. If you find a specific mail that cannot be synchronized, please open a bug report. Thanks!

[Guy]

Hello,

I'm new to open-xchange and really interested in ActiveSync support. I've been looking for a calendaring solution which is not microsoft and supports my mobile devices.

Is there any time frames when I might be able to get a copy of the activeSync module to perform some tests in my environment?

Cheers,
--Guy