[Kolab-devel] How to get involved?

Gunnar Wrobel wrobel at pardus.de
Tue Jan 12 09:38:43 CET 2010 

Hi Sascha,

Quoting Sascha Deutschkron <sascha at deutschkron.de>:

> Am Montag, 11. Januar 2010 22:49:17 schrieb Gunnar Wrobel:
>> Hi Sascha,
>>
>> Quoting Sascha Deutschkron <sascha at deutschkron.de>:
>> > Hi guys,
>> >
>> > I'm a senior software developer - with a new toy: an Android phone.
>> > I'm also using and administrating Kolab Groupware Server for a
>> > couple of years
>> > now and I just love it.
>> > Naturally, I want to combine those three passions of mine - software
>> > development, Android, Kolab.
>> >
>> > Therefore, I want to write Kolab clients (calendar, contacts, tasks etc.)
>> > for the Android system (since I couldn't find any ready solution out
>> > there).
>> >
>> > How can I get involved? What do I need? How's the process?
>>
>> Puh, broad question ... :) Let me give you my view as a client
>> developer (Kolab webclient / Horde):
>>
>> I'd start with choosing the technology you want to use. This is
>> probably no easy choice. I could imagine the following options:
>>
>>   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. So being able to use it with
>> minor modifications is the best way to go for a local client. Of
>> course you could also consider starting from scratch but in my opinion
>> coding a complete groupware client is extremely demanding. And for
>> Kolab you need all that Kolab Format reading, the IMAP caching and so
>> on and so on. Usually takes a lot of time.
>>
>> For 2) you check how good or bad the current Kolab web client looks on
>> the android. What does it need to look better or be more useable?
>>
>> For 3) you'd look into the different data exchange models the android
>> might support. Does it do SyncML or ActiveSync? Other forms of
>> synchronization available? Mind you: I consider synchronizing a lot
>> less effective than a real client. Synchronizing data usually
>> introduces another transport of data and as groupware data tends to be
>> complex each synchronization method usually comes with its own set of
>> problems.
>>
>> In all three areas you can expect to be ongoing work to support mobile
>> phones. Once you chose the technology check if you can join the effort.
>>
>> Hope that helps.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Gunnar
>>
>> > Thanks in advance!
>> >
>> > Kindest regards
>> > Sascha
>> >
>> > --
>> > Fear can hold you prisoner.
>> > Hope can set you free!
>> >
>>     >> Mail at ease - Rent a kolab groupware server at p at rdus <<
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
> Hi Gunnar,
>
> thanks for your answer. Yes, I plan to write a local Kolab client  
> for Android.
> Therefore I enlisted with this forum here because I thought that would be the
> correct place to start. But the more I think about it the more I get the
> impression that I will have to start a new open source project of my own.
> Intentionally I wanted to join an open source community to achieve my plans.
> And I thought kolab-devel would be a community to develop Kolab  
> clients. Was I
> wrong?
> If so, I will simply start my own little project.
>
> Sorry for asking maybe dumb questions but although I'm working with open
> source now for about 15 years, I never came around to join one community. And
> now that I finally find the time for it, it seems that I have to start my own
> community - right?

I hope I did not give you the impression that you asked a dumb  
question. Not at all and that would not have been my intention. I was  
not certain about the approach you'd like to choose and just tried to  
highlight the different options that I can imagine.

So if you want to code your own client then yes: you'd start kind of  
your own little community. However I would hope that this community  
has strong ties to the Kolab community.

Look at the current clients: The outlook connectors have their  
"Outlook environment", the Kontact client usually lives on Linux but  
is going to extend into the Windows and Mobile phone area, and Horde  
provides a web based client. These are very different environments  
which of course have different communities attached to them.  
Especially since each of the actual clients is a full groupware client  
and the Kolab connectivity is usually just a small part of the client.

But that Kolab part inevitably forms the link into the Kolab  
community. The connectivity to the Kolab server relies on the  
definition of the Kolab Format which is being worked on by the Kolab  
community. The clients usually connect to the free/busy system which  
also means that they have to talk to the server in specific fashion.

And of course the Kolab community is probably the best place to find  
people interested in joining your efforts.

And if you start from scratch then finding people to team up with  
might be the crucial factor. As I mentioned above under "1) having a  
local Kolab client on the android" coding a groupware client from  
scratch may be quite demanding. The current clients are somewhere in  
the area of 100 - 200 person years in coding effort (see ohloh.net).  
Of course these are rough estimates.

Cheers,

Gunnar

>
> Cheers
> Sascha
>
> --
> Fear can hold you prisoner.
> Hope can set you free!
>



-- 
______ http://kdab.com _______________ http://kolab-konsortium.com _

p at rdus Kolab work is funded in part by KDAB and the Kolab Konsortium

____ http://www.pardus.de _________________ http://gunnarwrobel.de _
E-mail : p at rdus.de                                 Dr. Gunnar Wrobel
Tel.   : +49 700 6245 0000                          Bundesstrasse 29
Fax    : +49 721 1513 52322                          D-20146 Hamburg
--------------------------------------------------------------------
    >> Mail at ease - Rent a kolab groupware server at p at rdus <<
--------------------------------------------------------------------

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