Google calendar is a very popular calendar service and I think it
should be supported on the Calendar application for better and
complete user experience.
It seems that you can sync google calendar using Mail for
Exchange, but this support is limited. The limited support of
Google calendars in MfE will only allow synchronizing the first
calendar in your google calendars. Consider how limiting this is
in this example:
Let's say you have two calendars, a personal calendar and a
business calendar. With existing support, you can only
synchronize personal calendar and not the business calendar.
It makes the transparent syncing of Android very attractive in
comparison.
Brainstorm
Add support for Google calendar
Posted on 2009-12-07 14:03 UTC by Juanjo Marin. Status: Under consideration, Categories: Desktop, Internet & Networking, Office, User Experience.
Solutions for this brainstorm
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Solution #1: Fully support Google Calendars via MfE/ActiveSync
Posted on 2009-12-07 17:29 UTC by Erik Nygren.
Make Google Calendars a supported synchronization target for MfE/ActiveSync. This presumably involves fixing compatability issues on the maemo-side and testing.
Pros:
- Almost working now.
- This is one way this problem is solved on Symbian S60 phones.
Cons:
- May be harder to support multiple calendars.
- Need to ensure can sync both a business Exchange Calendar (via MfE) and personal Google calendars (which is likely a common use-case). Having multiple MfE accounts may result in issues.
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Solution #2: Maemo-community ports Erming to work against CCalendar DB.
Posted on 2009-12-07 17:44 UTC by Erik Nygren.
Given how Erming currently synchronizes GPE with Google Calendar, it
may be possible to adapt the device-side portion to directly update
the Maemo5 Calendar's sqlite DB.
Pros:
- Community-developed.
- Supports multiple calendars.
- Some code already exists.
Cons:
- Currently a stand-alone application (no auto-run), not well integrated int calendaring platform so harder for users to use.
- Violates abstraction barriers.
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Solution #4: Calendar synchronization client using Google Calendar APIs
Posted on 2009-12-08 04:48 UTC by Erik Nygren.
Similar to how Erming syncs Google Calendar with GPE, have a dedicated synchronization function integrated into the platform that synchronizes events with Google's Calendar APIs. It may make sense to do this as part of a plug-in API to allow new synchronization
engines to be added (and possibly entirely new calendar backends as well), allowing third-parties to extend calendar functionality.
Pros:
- Easier to support multiple calendars.
- Hopefully easy for users to configure properly.
- Better support for any google-specific calendaring extensions.
Cons:
- Significant new development (although potential to use Erming as a starting-point?)
