maemo.org - Talk - [Announce] Erminig-NG: two-way synchronization Google Calendar <-> Fremantle Calendar

A new version of Erminig-NG is available! More information in this post

The new version sports an easy-to use GUI and is ready for a more widespread testing, since it's now available in extras-devel. Please follow the link above to get more information!

This now obsolete post will stay here for historical purposes, but the old version of Erminig-NG is not available for download anymore.
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Hi all,

I'm pleased to announce the first public (and very alpha) version of Erminig-NG, a tool that allows you to perform two-way synchronization between Fremantle Calendar and Google Calendar.

BIG FAT WARNING: this is still alpha-quality software, so it's not really for those people who are afraid to lose events in their calendars!

Currently Erminig-NG is a command-line only tool (a GUI will follow), and no .deb file is available. At the end of this post there's a .tar.gz that you can download and unpack on your device if you are brave enough to try Erminig-NG.

Please first try it on non-important calendars (or better yet, create ad-hoc calendars for the tests), since a screw-up in Erminig-NG may trash your calendars!

Software dependencies: python-gdata (available in Extras). By installing it (I won't give out the instruction about how to install python-gdata, in order to restrict a little bit the audience of crazy people wanting to try Erminig-NG), it will pull all the necessary dependencies (namely Python2.5)

How to install Erminig-NG
Download and unpack the archive file somewhere on your device
Open the file erminig_conf.py and change the first two variables (they represent your Google username and password)

How to run Erminig-NG

For the first run:

Code:

% python2.5 erminig-ng --sync-calendars

This will ask you which calendar (both local and remote) you want to keep in sync

WARNING: For the moment it is important to run Erminig-NG for the first time with the --sync-calendars option, otherwise it will miss old events to import (known bug). Similarly, adding calendars to sync after the first real sync will miss old events (only new events from the time of the last sync will be synced in the the new calendar). Uhm, this is quite convoluted as an explanation...I hope that you will get the essence of this warning though :)

Code:

% python2.5 erminig-ng

This will perform the bulk of the work and keep in sync the calendars. This is the command you want to run when you wish to synchronize your calendars.

If you added a local or Google calendar, you may want to rerun Erminig-NG with the --sync-calendars, so that it will ask you if you want to sync the newly discovered calendars (with the gotcha mentioned above!)

Important: I won't take any responsibility for trashed calendars, so if you missed a date with your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband/whatever, or you missed your flight, or any kind other kind of event related to calendar due to mis-synchronization I can only be sorry (and I apologize, sincerely), but it cannot go further than that.

UFAQ (Upcoming FAQ ;)))

There's a bug, what should I do?
Two options:

- report it in this thread, if possible by providing accurate step-by-step instructions
- Contact me by mail: lorelei@garage.maemo.org (again with accurate instructions)

In the future I will open a bugs.maemo.org component for Erminig-NG, in order to keep track of everything, but first I want to see how it is received within the community before investing resources that are not mine (i.e. maemo.org's bugzilla)
Should I synchronize the local calendars called "cal_ti_calendar_synced" and "cal_ti_calendar_private"?
No idea. I think that those are the built-in default calendars, but I've never tried to sync them.
I would like to reset Erminig-NG to a known state (i.e. a state where it doesn't know anything about calendars relationships)
Remove the file ~/.erminig.db
This will make Erminig-NG going back to "factory settings"
Please note that this may generate duplicate events in Google or Fremantle Calendar if you perform a resync on calendar previously synced.
What is the stability status of Erminig-NG ?
It's in early alpha stage. I'm just starting to pin down the basic functionalities before moving on the the GUI part
What about sync conflicts (modification of an event both on Google and on the local calendar)?
There's no explicit handling of conflicting updates for the moment. This will be addressed in a future version
Why no .deb package (or why not in Extras-devel)?
Erminig-NG is still in early development phase, so by publishing only the .tar.gz I will try to "scare away" people who is not comfortable with command-line. This is for your own good. Don't blame me (or maybe yes). Proper packaging will come in its own time.
What works, what doesn't work?
So far, I can tell for sure that recurrent events don't work. It's not a bug (yet): it's simply not implemented yet. This will be supported in the future.
How does this relate to Erminig (not -NG?)
I'm also maintaining Erminig (two-way sync between GPE calendar and Google Calendar), and Erminig-NG will eventually replace it. It is planned to support both GPE and "Fremantle-Calendar". By rewriting Erminig from scratch I will be able to eliminate a lot of unused code in Erminig, and this will allow me to understand more in details how Google Calendar works (please remember that I'm not the original author of Erminig, I just picked up the development. Erminig-NG on the other hand will be essentially a clean-room reimplementation of Erminig)
Code is ugly (not really a question, I know).
hum. Yes. I won't deny it. It's just the first draft. It will get cleaned.

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with that said, enjoy and please report any bug you may find!