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Bug 403903 - Appointments created in evolution don't display in Windows Mobile 5
Appointments created in evolution don't display in Windows Mobile 5
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: Evolution Exchange
Classification: Deprecated
Component: Connector
2.10.x
Other All
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Connector Maintainer
Ximian Connector QA
: 476638 567534 573105 631439 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2007-02-03 12:02 UTC by Stewart Hardie
Modified: 2010-10-06 04:03 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.17/2.18


Attachments
Probable fix (954 bytes, patch)
2008-08-13 13:03 UTC, Veerapuram Varadhan
reviewed Details | Review
iCal and vCal files (2.50 KB, application/octet-stream)
2008-08-15 11:25 UTC, Jakub Novák
  Details
difference of the properties after edit in outlook (3.43 KB, text/plain)
2008-08-15 18:03 UTC, Milan Crha
  Details
Patch to translate CLASS:PUBLIC to CLASS: before posting events to OWA (1.37 KB, patch)
2009-11-09 19:24 UTC, peter
reviewed Details | Review
eex patch (1.32 KB, text/plain)
2010-04-29 19:08 UTC, Milan Crha
  Details

Description Stewart Hardie 2007-02-03 12:02:04 UTC
Please describe the problem:
I set up an email account to a Microsoft Exchange server as per normal, and therefore also have access to creating contacts, calendar events (appointments) and tasks on the exchange server as part of the account. I create an appointment in evolution in the exchange calendar, and then go to Outlook Web Access (OWA) using a web browser. The evolution appointment created has been set up on exchange as expected. Using OWA, I create a second appointment on the same day.

On a I-mate Jamin PDA (windows mobile 5), I run ActiveSync connecting to the exchange server over an internet SSL connection. Two calendar events are synced to the PDA. However, when I open the PDA calendar app, only the OWA created appointment is visible. I expected the evolution created appointment to be also visible.

Also, when I go back to evolution and change the time of the OWA created appointment, another check in OWA shows the evolution has successfully shifted the appointment as expected. However, after another ActiveSync on the PDA, this appointment has not moved on the PDA.

It is as though any appointment created or modified by evolution will successfully update on the exchange server (according to OWA), but some part of the appointment code generated by evolution is not successfully interpreted by the calendar app on the PDA and therefore does not display. Remember, the ActiveSync details says the calendar events are being synced onto the PDA, they just don't display.


Steps to reproduce:
1. Connect to exchange server using evo.
2. Create an appointment in evo, and check that it is on exchange server by using OWA.
3. Use a WM5 PDA with ActiveSync to connect to exchange server and sync the appointment. Use the basic PDA calendar app (or another PDA calendar app, it doesn't matter), and try to view the synced appointment.



Actual results:
The appointment does not appear on the WM5 PDA.


Expected results:
The appointment does appear.

Does this happen every time?
Yes

Other information:
Comment 1 Sebastian Marsching 2007-09-09 15:38:20 UTC
The same applies to Windows Mobile 6 devices (tested with o2 XDA trion).

The problem seems to be related to the format, Evolution is using to save the appointment on the server: If you edit the event created with Evolution using OWA (e.g. change the location), after the edit the appointment will successfully display on the mobile device.
Comment 2 Stewart Hardie 2007-09-12 04:02:23 UTC
Further to this, the problem still occurs in Evo 2.10.3 in Fedora 7.

However, a work around is to set the Evo created appointment to 'Private' when using evolution-connector, and then the appointment will show up on the WM5 PDA. This obviously is a problem for group shared appointments which need to be 'Public', but that situation may not apply to everyone.

See the following link for info about the workaround:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=443908&highlight=evolution+wm5

Comment 3 g11024342@trbvm.com 2007-10-22 08:58:09 UTC
This is confirmed with Evolution 2.12. I have the same problem when I sync my SonyEricsson P1i with ActiveSync 2.14.

I think this is a very serious problem which should have a higher priority?
Comment 4 Holger Mauermann 2008-04-20 22:49:50 UTC
Any news on this bug? I can confirm this with Evolution 2.12 syncing via OWA to Windows Mobile 6. It seems that the appointment is copied to the WM6 device, but it doesn't appear in the calendar.

The workaround in comment #2 doesn't work for me.
Comment 5 Knut Omang 2008-04-30 07:38:23 UTC
I did some experimenting here, and it seems Outlook (web access (OWA) at least)
uses an empty CLASS: field if CLASS: is supposed to be PUBLIC.
and that this is what gets stored internally in exchange - But if I save such a calendar event (created by OWA) by saving a message with a forwarded event in, I get an explicit CLASS:PUBLIC - it is not clear to me whether this is done by Evolution or if the PUBLIC word is added by Evolution - I found no way of getting the event text out of OWA) 

However, the following test I presume is good enough to verify that using an empty CLASS: for PUBLIC is solving the problem(?) :

1) Create a public event in the exchange calendar using evolution
2) Sync your mobile device - the event does NOT show up.
3) Delete the event
4) create a forward mail with that event and save the mail to disk
5) edit the mail removing everything except the calendar event itself
6) Edit the class field - remove PUBLIC to leave it empty
7) Import the file as a calendar (.ics) file using the evolution import feature
8) sync your mobile device again - voila - the event shows up..
Comment 6 mf 2008-05-17 12:08:15 UTC
Same problem on EVO 2.22.1, WM6. Using Ubuntu 8.04. 
Workaround of comment #2 does not work for me either.
Comment 7 yansolo74 2008-07-02 11:26:53 UTC
I have the same issue with Evolution 2.22.2, evolution-exchange 2.22.2.1 and a symbian p1i using activesync.
Workaround of comment #2 does not work for me either.
Comment 8 Veerapuram Varadhan 2008-08-13 13:03:18 UTC
Created attachment 116497 [details] [review]
Probable fix

Set Classification to PUBLIC, if none exists
Comment 9 Jakub Novák 2008-08-15 11:25:51 UTC
Created attachment 116656 [details]
iCal and vCal files

first part of filenames is application from which the file was exported, second part is name of application that sent appointment to exchange originally.
(exchange is exchange's web interface).
Comment 10 Milan Crha 2008-08-15 17:53:13 UTC
*** Bug 476638 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Milan Crha 2008-08-15 18:03:27 UTC
Created attachment 116687 [details]
difference of the properties after edit in outlook

We tried some steps to debug this a bit more:
a) create event in evolution, close evo
b) edit event in owa interface (change summary only), close owa
c) open evo.

We know that the editing of the event on the owa is sufficient to let it visible on the WM5 device, thus this simple test.
The namespaces are these:
<a:multistatus
xmlns:a="DAV:"
xmlns:b="urn:uuid:c2f41010-65b3-11d1-a29f-00aa00c14882/"
xmlns:c="xml:"
xmlns:d="urn:schemas:calendar:"
xmlns:e="urn:schemas:httpmail:"
xmlns:f="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/"
xmlns:g="urn:schemas:contacts:"
xmlns:h="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:exch-data:"
xmlns:i="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
xmlns:j="urn:schemas:mailheader:"
xmlns:k="http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/">

As far as I can tell, all changes are expectable (we changed the summary), they only added e:textdescription with the new line character, and e:htmldescription with some generated text and empty d:location. We should probably investigate even more whether any from these changes will do what we want or not.
Comment 12 Jakub Novák 2008-08-15 18:12:12 UTC
I add to the issue following findings for reference:
- on wm6.1 device (htc touch diamond) the bug persists, events created or edited by evolution on exchange server, synced to the device don't show up (although it seems they get downloaded)
- changing class doesn't help me on wm6.1
- when I edit event created by evolution in owa or outlook and only for example change subject, the event then shows up on wm6.1 device.

More info for the attachments I added before:
- I set up 4 clients to single exchange server - wm6.1 device, evolution, ewa and outlook
- In each of them, I added a single event. For outlook it was called 'test - outlook', for wm6.1 device 'test - wm6.1' and so on
- Then, in wm6.1 device, evolution and outlook, I exported those events as iCal/vCal files. For example test event created in outlook exported from wm6.1 would be called wm6.1-outlook.

With mcrha's great help, we tried many stuff (changing the iCal files/importing/syncing patchng sources to send raw data as exported from outlook and so on) and couldn't still make it work. Then we tried approach as he described above.

Btw. correction to his comment - he said WM5, I tried in WM6.1, just a mistake.

I have environment set up and can try patches.
Comment 13 Milan Crha 2009-01-12 15:53:27 UTC
Is anyone from here able to test this with applied patch from attachment #119412 [details] (the eex patch) in bug #360813? Just a wild guess. Thanks in advance.
Comment 14 Milan Crha 2009-01-12 15:57:03 UTC
Oh, I forgot to mention, just apply patch, modify some event in Evolution and try to sync, whether you'll see it in your device or not.
Comment 15 Gregor Hlawacek 2009-07-22 07:12:20 UTC
Hi!

Any progress with this bug? I am using 2.26 and the bug still exists. Any thing I could do to help solving it?

Gregor
Comment 16 Milan Crha 2009-07-22 09:14:33 UTC
Hi Gregor, thanks for the offer. If I recall correctly, the stage where this bug is in now is to identify what is evolution doing incorrectly in order to let your mobile recognize the event as new or changed when syncing. Thus some sort of debugging, either how the mobile asks for changed/new events or how the other application changes the event that it is finally recognized as changed, is a thing to be done. Bad thing with all the guessing is that the investigation might require some test patches to be applied to sources, thus one should be able to compile binaries on its machine, in the best. Unfortunately compiling evolution-data-server, evolution and evolution-exchange locally is not as that easy.
Comment 17 Jakub Novák 2009-07-22 17:42:38 UTC
(In reply to comment #15)
> Hi!
> 
> Any progress with this bug? I am using 2.26 and the bug still exists. Any thing
> I could do to help solving it?
> 
> Gregor
> 

Hello, I was originally trying to help with this but I don't have neither a windows mobile device nor exchange anymore, we switched to open source software. (Neo Freerunner/egroupware). I'm sorry, I think I won't be much help at this point.
Comment 18 Colin Simpson 2009-09-17 10:51:30 UTC
Unless changes have been applied to later Evolution versions, this is still an issue on the 2.26 I'm using. 

Setting the classification to "Private" allows it to show up on my (Android) phone syncing via OWA ActiveSync.
Comment 19 Gregor Hlawacek 2009-09-17 11:12:40 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> Unless changes have been applied to later Evolution versions, this is still an
> issue on the 2.26 I'm using. 
> 
> Setting the classification to "Private" allows it to show up on my (Android)
> phone syncing via OWA ActiveSync.

This however, is not a very practical solution, isn't it. I wouldn't mind to have all my appointments set dot private by default. However, I don't know how to do that. So in the mean time I hope that I will not forget to change this for every single appointment I have :-(
Comment 20 Colin Simpson 2009-09-17 11:25:05 UTC
Completely agree it isn't practical or so very useful, and I'm hoping someone will fix this. It was just a workaround that I should have explained as such.
Comment 21 Arno Teigseth 2009-09-25 15:54:45 UTC
Solution in #2 works for me, too (Setting the Classification to Private)

I create an appointment in evolution and it shows up in OWA in my web browser.
However, it's not showing up in the PDA until I change it in the OWA (add a space or a dot or something) and save it there.

However I _CAN SEE_ an appointment being recieved on the mobile device - it just doesn't show up until edited with owa.

If I 
0) create an appointment in evolution
1) open the appointment and add a dot in the owa, then save
2) open the appointment again and remove the dot leaving the appointment as created in evolutiont, then save

3) sync the mobile device

it IS showing up


Maybe a very stupid question, but could this have something to do with cr+lf termination or something?
Comment 22 Milan Crha 2009-09-29 09:51:27 UTC
(In reply to comment #21)
> Maybe a very stupid question, but could this have something to do with cr+lf
> termination or something?

I believe no. All the clues around seems to me that Evolution is not setting some criteria properly, on which your PDA is searching for new/changed events. Editing the event in OWA makes the criteria value change properly, thus the PDA is finding them.

Knowing the exact criteria the PDA is searching on, we can focus on them. But the previous investigation didn't show anything when we were comparing events changed from the OWA. (Not that we couldn't overlook anything.)
Comment 23 peter 2009-11-09 19:24:04 UTC
Created attachment 147313 [details] [review]
Patch to translate CLASS:PUBLIC to CLASS: before posting events to OWA

[Solution inspired by and also posted to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution-exchange/+bug/115913]

I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), grabbed the evolution-exchange source package, made the change described by the attached patch, build the .deb and installed it.  I have not tested it except that I've been able to create and accept public appointments and meeting invitations in Evolution _and_ have them show up properly on my WM6 phone.

I believe but am not entirely sure that the patch is correct from an evolution-exchange or libical developer's standpoint, as I had never looked at either codebase until this morning.  If you try this, it may eat all your email, crash your hard drive, and generally make you have a bad day.

-peter
Comment 24 Derek Dolney 2010-01-25 21:47:35 UTC
peter's patch applied to evolution-exchange-2.28.2 works for me: without the patch, appointments created in evolution do not sync to my ipod calendar, but they do sync with the patch applied.

But if I create an appointment that recurs *until* a specified date, it still does not sync to the ipod calendar, even with the patch applied. I can create an appointment that recurs some number of times, and that appoint will sync fine. It is a recur *until* appointment that does not sync. I'm not sure if this problem is related, but without peter's patch I can't sync anything, so maybe it doesn't make sense to file a separate bug? (yet?).
Comment 25 Jeff Rizzo 2010-04-28 22:01:23 UTC
I can also confirm that peter's patch fixes things for me.  (I haven't tested recur until;  I don't need it)  Any chance it can be applied so sometime in the future this can work out of the box?
Comment 26 Milan Crha 2010-04-29 19:08:19 UTC
Created attachment 159936 [details]
eex patch

for evolution-exchange;

Thanks for testing this and reporting back. I'll commit this version, which is a merge of both pending patches. If you can revert the previous one and give it a try too, it'll be great. I'm committing this anyway, but it would be good to catch any error I would cause by the merge before next release.
Comment 27 Milan Crha 2010-04-29 19:10:22 UTC
Created commit 8388b7a in eex master (2.31.1+)
Created commit 2ecc00b in eex gnome-2-30 (2.30.2+)

Peter, thanks for the patch.
Comment 28 Milan Crha 2010-07-01 07:32:04 UTC
*** Bug 567534 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 29 Akhil Laddha 2010-10-06 04:03:33 UTC
*** Bug 573105 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 30 Akhil Laddha 2010-10-06 04:03:48 UTC
*** Bug 631439 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***