Synchronisation Bliss...

A problem I've been grappling with for a while now is how to synchronise my schedule data across Exchange, Google Calendar, and my cellphone. I've been caught out several times in the past by double booking appointments as a result of not having a unified view of my schedule. I was getting close to throwing in the towel and reverting to a tree-ware scheduler. Unfortunately my company relies heavily on Exchange scheduling and any solution I implement would need to work around this. Well today I finally found the answer and it all rests on SyncML solutions.

Previously I had been using a SyncML broker (Goosync) that exposes my GCal data to my K800i using a SyncML interface. This service works very well (so well in fact that I wouldn't be surprised to see these guys snapped up by the big G sooner or later). The missing link in this setup however is being able to merge my Exchange schedule data with GCal.

Enter ScheduleWorld...

These guys host an instance of the Funambol synchronisation server and enable you to hook up your ScheduleWorld PIM data with a GCal account. If you consider ScheduleWorld now to be the definitive source of calendar data, you can then add clients to this server which are able to conduct bidirectional synchronisation using SyncML. In my example, my first SyncML client is Outlook (using the Funambol Outlook plugin), and the secondary one is my K800i (using the SyncML client that comes bundled with my phone).

Step 1.

Google Calendar <--> ScheduleWorld

Step 2.

ScheduleWorld <--> Funambol Outlook Plugin <--> Outlook <--> Exchange

Step 3.

ScheduleWorld <--> K800i

Most of this is very well documented at this blog post, however the SyncML portion was slightly finicky. To set this up the relevant configuration details are:

Server: https://sync.scheduleworld.com/funambol/ds
Username: Your ScheduleWorld username
Password: Your ScheduleWorld password
Calendar DB: cal

The one limitation with the Outlook <-> ScheduleWorld synchronisation step is that it does require a desktop machine with Outlook running on it. I have not found any server-side Exchange SyncML clients, nor do I imagine many corporate IT departments being very keen on installing one. The Outlook plugin is a good way to circumvent IT and enable you to have your own schedule data on the devices where you need it.

But now I've gotten to the point where I can add/edit/delete schedule data from either Outlook, Google Calendar or my cellphone, and I know that I will be notified of the event wherever I happen to be. All happening automatically - no fuss, no stress.