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From: "Andreas Motl" <andreas.motl@ilo.de> |
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To: <gpe@handhelds.org> |
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Cc: <brentt@ill-logic.org>, |
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<alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>, |
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"su" <su@tunemedia.de>, |
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<janosch@ultrajan.de> |
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Subject: Re: SyncML |
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Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 20:55:43 +0100 |
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Brent Theisen <brentt@ill-logic.org> wrote: |
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> Quoting Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>: |
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> > > library/client/server/engine? The reference toolkit released by the |
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> > > SyncML Initiative appears to be licensed |
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> > >(http://www.syncml.org/php/licence.php3) |
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> > > under a BSD style license. If this sort of license is unacceptable, |
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> I have |
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> > I had a dig. Its under a BSD license because you have to license |
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> > patents to implement syncml and do so under as yet undecided terms. |
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> That is unfortunate. The "SyncML Intellectual Property/Patent Issues" |
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|
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I did a short glimpse at syncml.org too and I am concerned about the |
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patent issues as well. |
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The "SyncML Initiative IPR Policy and Declarations" papers |
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at http://www.syncml.org/syncml_ipr.html ff. mention two patents |
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having the following titles: |
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"Synchronization Process Negotiation for Computing Devices" |
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"System and Methods for Synchronizing Information Among |
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Disparate Datasets" |
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|
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[...] |
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> So now what? I don't feel like implementing a brand new synchronization |
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> protocol from scratch and then trying to get application developers to |
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> adopt it. |
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> However if this is what it will take to have a free synchronization |
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> solution |
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> for Linux then so be it, I'll try. |
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> Anybody have an idea how we can solve the synchronization problem? |
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|
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We are currently trying to hack something which aims to address some (all) |
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aspects of a synchronization process. I read the titles from the patent |
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paper |
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mentioned above *after* writing the core and believe it's exactly that what |
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Starfish / syncml.org requires a license for - the "Synchronization Process |
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Negotiation". |
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|
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Our thing is currently implemented using Perl and lives in |
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the Data::Transfer::Sync namespace. It's not (yet) on CPAN! |
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We will release the code under the GPL and/or Perl's Artistic License. |
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|
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Please let me know if you're interested to be informed in detail and/or |
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about future changes/enhancements regarding synchronization with |
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handheld devices. We just try to handle the "heavy stuff" first, that |
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are odbms, rdbms, flat files and structured files (csv, xml and stuff). |
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|
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Already in the queue (and in first pre-alpha stage) is a program called |
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'outlook2ldap' which tries to get address information off m$ outlook by |
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synchronizing MAPI Contact objects against LDAP objects in a generic way |
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handling all the important aspects needed (hierarchical containers, etc.). |
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|
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Any help - of course - is greatly appreciated, this got bigger than expected |
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and the number of "device-handlers" that could be written is countless i |
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believe. |
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That's the main aim of that module: Making it possible to span such a |
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synchronization process across *arbitrary* types of "storages". |
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This is accomplished using the Data::Storage module (also not on CPAN yet) |
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which "just adapts" other storage implementations available from there. |
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Working (syncable=1) handlers are by now: DBI, MAPI, LDAP, Tangram. |
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Directory, File, Files, XML are in preparation, please use rsync for the |
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former three instead. Any ideas for other more important storage-handlers? |
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|
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Pushing the scope of available storage-/device-handlers, we had planned |
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to address some PDAs and/or mobile phones soon. |
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Also interesting would be an attempt to talk to iSync: |
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please visit: http://www.confusticate.com/tech/isync/ |
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|
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Another nice feature is that the comparison algorithm itself can be |
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replaced. At the time we have implemented a generic ident/checksum |
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mechanism using md5 digests but an alternative to that would be |
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a more user-friendly algorithm using ident/timestamp pairs. |
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|
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We don't have released anything, the code still lives in the cvs for now |
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which |
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can be visited at http://cvs.netfrag.org/nfo/perl/libs/Data/Transfer/Sync/ |
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|
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Please also look at the autogenerated documentation (not very much) at: |
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http://netfrag.org/docs/topics/perl-libs/Data-Transfer-Sync.html |
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http://netfrag.org/docs/topics/perl-libs/Data-Storage.html |
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|
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and maybe (remember it's pre-alpha and most probably broken): |
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http://cvs.netfrag.org/nfo/perl/scripts/outlook2ldap |
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|
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|
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|
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regards, Andreas. |
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|
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p.s.: Do you see any possibility for me to look at some parts of the syncml- |
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specification without breaking anything related to patent stuff and the GPL? |
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I don't do this for now until i'm not completely sure about this, but |
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of course i would like to adapt the interface specs to enable feeding |
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of syncml documents to Data::Transfer::Sync.... Can you help? Please help! |
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Otherwise we would make up a new DTD for this purpose although we |
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currently do very well with 'sync.pl' together with mapping-metadata |
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supplied |
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by an additional Perl-module. (abstraction-level=medium) |
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Please also direct me to other mailing lists if i'm completely out of scope |
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here. |
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