[Kolab-devel] Android client (Re: How to get involved?)

[Hermann Himmelbauer]

Am Dienstag 12 Januar 2010 09:50:46 schrieb Bernhard Reiter:
> Am Montag, 11. Januar 2010 22:49:17 schrieb Gunnar Wrobel:
> >   1) having a local Kolab client on the android
> >   2) using a web based Kolab client
> >   3) Synchronize the data with the server
> >
> > For 1) the easiest choice would be to look into Kontact: Can you  
> > compile it for the android and run it there? Which fixes might be  
> > needed to get it running? Kontact is by far the most tested and  
> > feature rich Kolab client out there.
>
> Am Dienstag, 12. Januar 2010 07:48:42 schrieb Sascha Deutschkron:
> >  Yes, I plan to write a local Kolab client for Android.
>
> So the technical subchoice is: Do you want to base it on KDE Kontact,
> which is the current leading Free Software Kolab client or do you want to
> base it on a different piece of software?
>
> If you aim for KDE Kontact, the next step is to see if you could get Qt
> ported to Android. So far I've heard (not confirmed my self) that this will
> be difficult, but not impossible, e.g. see
> http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/4070 . Android apparently uses a Java
> based GUI. It well may be too much for a single developer. But if you get
> Qt ported on Android for good, you are certainly almost done and have a
> good result. To go this road you would need to actively try to seek other
> people to take part of the load of porting Qt.

I wonder if that would "really be it": First, the question is if the Android 
hardware is capable of running Kontact in regards to RAM / CPU power. The 
second thing in question is the GUI: Kontact is designed for a desktop 
environment, not for a mobile phone with a touchscreen.

> The other road is to pick any capable IMAP email client which already is
> Free Software and more capable with the Android Java GUi and extend it.

This was also my first thought - I assume that there will be the following 
available in Android:

- An IMAP email client
- Some calendar application
- Some addressbook/contact application

If these applications are open-source, it should be possible to integrate them 
into Kolab:

- Any IMAP email client should work right away. Maybe it's necessary to tune 
the client in some way (shared folders and the like)

- For calendar/contacts the offline capabilities are mandatory, I think, while 
for E-Mails it's not. Therefore I can think of a synchronization approach via 
e.g. a specific IMAP connector, similar to Toltec / Konsec. I assume that 
there is some code available for this connector that can be cloned/translated 
into Java - maybe a side-effect could be some Java library that is reusable 
for other projects?

Btw., another approach for calendar/contacts+syncing would be to utilize an 
existing synchronization framework, e.g. Funambol: If someone writes a good 
connector for Kolab <-> Funambol, Android will be able to sync (I assume 
Funambol has sync capabilities for Android), moreover, this would enable any 
other mobile to sync via Funambol to Kolab.

Just my 2 cents...

Best Regards and Good Luck!

Hermann

-- 
hermann at qwer.tk
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