Synchronization

Group-Office supports two synchronization protocols. It supports Microsoft ActiveSync and SyncML.

ActiveSync

To use ActiveSync z-push must be installed. Read modules/sync/z-push/INSTALL.TXT for installation instructions. When z-push is installed at the server, phones can be configured to use ActiveSync very easily.

Use the hostname of your Group-Office installation as Exchange Server For example if your Group-Office URL is https://intermesh.group-office.com/groupoffice/ then the exchange server address is: intermesh.group-office.com. If your server supports https / SSL then you can enable encryption too. Use your Group-Office username and password.

Supported Devices:

1. iPhone
2. Nokia Mail for Exchange
3. Windows Mobile
4. Palm
5. Other phones that support ActiveSync

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with z-push then put a file called debug.txt in modules/z-push. Change the permissions to 666 so the webserver can write to it. Check this file for errors.

SyncML

Group-Office Professional has a SyncML server built in. There's no need to install a complicated server. Any mobile phone, PDA or software application that supports the SyncML protocol can synchronize data with Group-Office over the air. At the moment Group-Office can synchronize:

• Appointments
• Tasks
• Contacts

Supported devices and download links

• Nokia, Sony Ericsson with Symbian OS (SyncML client is built in)
• Windows Mobile/Pocket PC (Funambol or Synthesis client required)
• Blackberry (Funambol client)
• Palm OS (Synthesis client)
• Outlook (Funambol or Nexthaus client)
• Thunderbird (Experimental! with Funambol client 0.7, there are known issues with this client)

The following clients are available:

Device	Available clients	Recommended
Outlook	Funambol, Nexthaus	Funambol
Pocket PC	Funambol, Synthesis	Synthesis
Palm	Synthesis	Synthesis
Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Symbian	The SyncML client is already installed on these phones
Blackberry	Funambol, Nexthaus	Nexthaus
Iphone (Limited, read below])	Synthesis, Funambol, Nexthaus

You can get the clients here:

Synthesis AG clients: Order them at the software shop.(Try them 30 days free of charge)
Funambol Outlook client: http://www.funambol.com/opensource/downloads.php
Supported Symbian phones: http://www.symbian.com/phones/index.html
Nexthaus clients: http://www.nexthaus.com/

General synchronization client or device settings

Consult the client or device documentation on how to setup a synchronization profile. You need the following values to setup a synchronization profile:

SyncML Server Version: 1.1
SyncML server URL: http://<Enter the URL for your Group-Office>/sync.php (Look it up at Settings -> Synchronization in your Group-Office)
Port: 80
Username: Your Group-Office username
Password: Your Group-Office password

Datastores

Mostly the datastores are already set correctly by default. Below are the different settings for each client.

Database	Symbian (Nokia / Sony-Ericsson)	Funambol	Synthesis	Nexthaus	Funambol Mozilla
Calendar	calendar	scal	events	event	event
Tasks	none, tasks sync with calendar	stask	tasks	tasks	not supported
Contacts	contacts	scard	card	contacts	contacts

Group-Office synchronization settings

When you click the "Settings" button on the top right you'll find a synchronization tab in the settings window. Here you can control the addressbooks, tasklists and calendar to synchronize with. You can also enable the automatic deletion of events and tasks that are older then a configurable number of days. With this setting enabled all old events will be deleted from your phone but not from Group-Office. This way your phone stays clean and fast.

Deleting synchronization devices

In general you should never delete a device. It's only useful when you want to start over with a clean phone. So when you hard reset the device and reformat everything you should delete the device in Group-Office too so all information is gone there too.

When you delete it on Group-Office and don't reset the device you will get double entries because Group-Office does not know the relations anymore and it will resend all items to the phone.

iPhone SyncML client

Apple restricts it's API for third party developers. Therefore it's only possible to sync with the Apple contacts application. However, Synthesis developed it's own calendar and tasks application for the iPhone so that synchronization is possible.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.group-office.com/News/iPhone+sync

Troubleshooting

See the Troubleshooting page for more information.