Contact Synchronization Progress

So a small update with regards to the progress of the contacts sync framework I have been working on.

Background

Couple of weeks back I decided that I wanted to write a smallish frame work that will allow people to synchronize their outlook contacts with their Google contacts. I did this knowing full well that there are many such applications that do this already. I just wanted to see how hard is it and what would it entail.

Current Status

I have built most of the frame work that will allow users to sync contacts between outlook and Gmail as well as a few other add-ons. First I have added an export to vCard l, so that the user can export all current contacts from Google/outlook or both to a single vCard file. This file may also be generated remotely so that it may be accessed by means of a cell phone or other remote device. During this time I have acquired the help of my good friend Ewoudt who helped write the Event Management part of the framework. The event management basically allows a user/programmer to listen to different changes in the state of the application. This is the same as every other event system and I have to say works well.

What to do now

After having a chat with Matt Benic, he recommended that I take a look at SyncML when trying to do syncing with a phone. After look at SyncML a whole new world open up to me and I came across the awesome Funambol application/Server. This server basically does everything what I wanted in terms of syncing data. I have experimented with it a bit on Linux and windows and have to say that it works very nicely. Even though I feel that I should stop the development on my current sync frame work since Funambol does it extremely well, I have decided to continue and work on it anyway as it has been a great learning experience.

Updated : The project is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/gcontactssync/ , have a look and let me know what you think

As always if there are any changes I will keep you informed.

~stalkerh