[Leaplist] PIM data sharing - update on what's working so far

[Dan Cherry]

A few weeks ago, I tossed out some questions and got several ideas back from 
the list about sharing PIM data after a server migration.  I said I'd 'report' 
back with what worked best (for me).

Originally, I was sharing (with excellent success) address books, calendars 
and to-do lists by using the Kmail IMAP storage (with disconnected IMAP).  
Never lost any items, but I was very much locked into Kmail(Kontact).

I tried several storage and sharing vehicles, as well as several clients, and 
wound up with the following...

My email remains on an IMAP server (Postfix, Dovecot).  This is accessible 
from just about anywhere with almost any client.  Hard to go wrong with IMAP.

My address book is now stored in a single vcard file on a webDAV server 
running on  apache2 (https).  and accessible by Kmail, Evolution, Thunderbird 
(using an expanded ab plugin for import), and in a pinch, any browser that can 
display or download the vcard text file, since the format is easily human 
readable.  Note: one of the clients used individual vcard files, while the 
others use a single vcard file.  Both worked fine.

My calendar and to-do lists are now stored in a postgresql database front-
ended by daviCal.  Davical in turn is also running on apache2(https), and 
accessible directly by Kmail, Evolution, and Thunderbird/Lightning.  Note, 
each of these clients can in turn export to ical files if you need a common 
standard file for other purposes.

The address book has a couple hundred entries, and performance is excellent.  
Calendar performance is also excellent.  FWIW, I access the PIM data from four 
computers, so this is certainly NOT for large scale implementations.  

I REALIZE THAT THE ADDRESS BOOK HAS NO RECORD LOCKING, AND THERE'S A 
POSSIBILITY OF TWO PC'S OVERWRITING THE CHANGES IN THE VCARD FILE, BUT IT 
WORKS FOR ME AND THE WAY WE USE OUR ADDRESS BOOKS.  If there's a likelihood 
that you will make simultaneous AB changes, it's probably a good idea to set 
up the address book as read only for all but one 'primary' computer, then make 
centralized changes and additions from one point or change to read-write when 
you know there will be no other updates.

One last suggestion for anybody interested in playing with this stuff.  There 
are quite a few tutorials and how-to's out on the web.  Be very careful to get 
the latest, or at least ones that match the versions of the software you are 
using - there are a lot of configuration differences, especially in daviCal as 
newer versions emerged.  John Simpson's website is your friend if you try your 
hand at daviCal, but be sure to go through several how-to's to digest what is 
being done for different configurations.

Dan

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