Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Funambol Community Showcase #3: Google Android plug-in
Initially, I planned to have a Funambol Showcase per month, but I do not seem to be able to keep up with the load... Anyway, here is showcase #3, which is a very cool client built by Carlo, a very smart Funambol community member.
Funambol Android Plug-in
By Carlo Codega sazilla@gmail.comOverview
The Funambol Android Plug-in is an Android application which enables you to sync personal data between a Funambol server (such as myFunambol portal) and Google Android, an open source mobile phone platform, based on a Linux OS and developed by the OHA (Open Handset Alliance).The main objective of this project is to bring sync features on this new mobile platform. This should be the first application that you have to install on your Android phone for begin using it.
The Android SDK
The Google Team provided an SDK that you can use to develop your own Android application. It includes development and debugging tools, a set of libraries, a device emulator, sample projects, documentation, and more.Currently the Android emulator includes a simple contacts manager, no calendar managers or email clients are provided. It means that, at least for now, the plugin provides the contacts sync feature only.
Why develop a sync application for Android?
The idea of the Android project was born concurrently with the announcement of this new mobile phone platform. Android is open source, Funambol is open source too. What should be first thing to do? Porting the Funambol sync software to Android using a slightly modified version of the JavaME Funambol API.I started to develop for Funambol as a community member, with the Mozilla plugin, which became the object of my first level degree.
As soon as I saw the release of the first SDK, I’ve downloaded it and started working on it for verifying the possibility of porting the Funambol software over the Android platform. Now, since last December, I’m part of this project, that is included into the Code Sniper Program.
Interesting issues
After the announcement of this project, several interesting issues were born, regarding the cooperation of Funambol with Android to transform the mobile market. Funambol made available a position paper entitled: “How Google Android Stimulates the Mass Market for Mobile Email and how Funambol Mobile Open Source Monetizes It".Some issues against Android.
I don’t like its user interface so much (I prefer the iPhone one), and I don’t see a big participation of the developers, at least not what I expected.
It still lacks an efficient bug reporting tool, a unique discussion group I think is not enough.
Using the Android Plugin
Few steps are needed to get the plug-in running on the Android emulator:- Download the Android SDK.
- Download the Funambol Android Plug-in from Google Code.
- Install the Funambol Android Plug-in: run the emulator and install the application using the adb tool (run “adb install
- Run the application: go to the applications folder (All) and run Funambol.
The first step that is necessary for using the plug-in is to configure the communication settings. To do this go to Menu>Settings and set your preferences: username, password and the server url.
Now you can start to synchronize.
Future plans
Improve the contacts sync in terms of efficiency and reliability. Calendar/tasks sync and push email features will be added as soon as a stable email client and calendar/tasks manager will be provided. The Google Android PIM Plug-in is a community project, as such it can be developed and/or improved by anyone who participates to the Funambol Open Source Community, so please join our community and start to develop with us.References
The project homepage is http://code.google.com/p/funambol. Here you can download the application package and different source code snapshots. The plugin and API sources are available on the Funambol forge, you can get it via CVS.Posted by Fabrizio Capobianco at 16:36
12 Comments:
nabeelz6 said...
Pretty cool! Going to try it out soon! Hoping you add features soon! Thanks.
Comment Posted at 16:00
Great job so far but it needs work! Please fix the duplicate contacts syncing and add support for calendar, but mainly the contacts thing. Also the contacts fields sync weirdly from outlook so my contact James Frost displays as Frost,James in Android so to get to him i have to type Frost and cannot type James.
Comment Posted at 20:28
David said...
I get an error message that says to check my credentials. when I go to settings, I have no idea what username and password to put in. I tried my exchange server information, but that only made Funambol crash and I had to reinstall it.
Comment Posted at 09:53
Maffu said...
@david: you should put the credentials of the Syncml server you want to use. If you don't have your own Funambol server, you can create a demo account on http://my.funambol.com and put that combo username/password in the Funambol Client on your Android phone.
If you need more help please use the Funambol Forum on https://help.forge.funambol.org
/stef
Comment Posted at 10:17
Sasil John Gabriel said...
Hi all i am new to android .
i want to develop calendar application in android.
but i dont know how to start,if any one have examples related to android plz do mail me .
Thanks and Regards
john
Comment Posted at 01:59
Hi,
just stumbled accross funambol for syncing my Android phone with my linux pc. Works pretty well. However, what happened since April 2008. Seems there has been little progress since, no calendar and notes support yet. To be clear, this is not to criticize anyone, but to understand where the issues are.
So long,
Thomas
Comment Posted at 05:29
Fabri said...
Hi Thomas,
Funambol took the community code and now it is part of our commercial offering, so we are working to release it with our QA certification. We have done contacts and pictures, next is calendar. However, the calendar API is not public so there is some of Google in the middle... Stay tuned, we are actively working on it. It is high priority for us.
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 09:26
Hi there,
Android uses different kinds of contacts (telephone, google, sim-card). With funambol sync, there is a fourth type (funambol). Is this really necessary? I can't sync all my contacts, because all telephone contacts are not syncted, but will be added as a second contacts with the type funambol.
Comment Posted at 08:23
Fabrizio said...
Apparently, it is necessary to create a separate account for Funambol. The issue is that, if you already have phone numbers on the device (e.g coming from Google Contacts), they won't be synced to the Funambol server. We are reducing this issue by asking the user if s/he wants to import its contacts at installation (feature coming in the next release of the client).
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 09:33
Google android developer said...
ADT is a plug-in tool for the eclipse IDE to have a powerful, integrated environment for building android application.ADT also enhance the capability of eclipse for setting new android projects, creating applications and component based android framework.
Comment Posted at 08:11
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. Great blog! The Funambol SDKs provide powerful tools to develop new syncml clients, using C++ or Java and to extend the server capabilities developing new connectors. The packages contain also tutorial and sample code. But When will the Thuderbird Funambol add on be updated for ver 3.0+?
Sirena from Android Application Development
Comment Posted at 03:57
Fabrizio said...
Hello, the Thunderbird plug-in is something we do not have in our commercial edition, so it is completely up to our community (and the Funambol developers in their spare time, if they have some...) to finish it. Unfortunately, it does not seem like the community has step up to the plate yet, but I am optimistic.
fabrizio
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