use multiple conduits?

S

somedumbguy

Hi all,

When I migrated to Entourage, I had know idea about the limitations with
regard to syncing to the newer Palm devices (such as the Tungsten E). Losing
calendar categories is a real problem for me, and I'm very disappointed. One
possible workaround would be to maintain my contacts and todos in Entourage
(I'm not using any of the affected fields for those apps) while keeping my
calendar in Palm. Does anyone know if it's possible to have the Entourage
conduit enabled, with the calendar set to do nothing, while at the same time
having the Palm calendar conduit enabled to take care of the calendar?

This certainly isn't the one app solution that I was looking for, but it's
much closer than having to maintain multiple address books (Palm and Eudora)
and, hopefully, the conduit will be improved with the first service release
of 2004. I've sent feedback about this, have you??? Thanks!

John
 
C

Chris Ridd

Hi all,

When I migrated to Entourage, I had know idea about the limitations with
regard to syncing to the newer Palm devices (such as the Tungsten E). Losing
Click to expand...

Are these limitations described anywhere?
calendar categories is a real problem for me, and I'm very disappointed. One
possible workaround would be to maintain my contacts and todos in Entourage
(I'm not using any of the affected fields for those apps) while keeping my
calendar in Palm. Does anyone know if it's possible to have the Entourage
conduit enabled, with the calendar set to do nothing, while at the same time
having the Palm calendar conduit enabled to take care of the calendar?
Click to expand...

You can configure the Entourage conduit's handling of each database
separately, and you can configure each database to Not Sync, Palm Overwrites
Mac, Mac Overwrites Palm, or Synchronize. In short, it can do what you want.

Cheers,

Chris
 
W

Walt Basil

Hi all,

When I migrated to Entourage, I had know idea about the limitations with
regard to syncing to the newer Palm devices (such as the Tungsten E). Losing
calendar categories is a real problem for me, and I'm very disappointed. One
possible workaround would be to maintain my contacts and todos in Entourage
(I'm not using any of the affected fields for those apps) while keeping my
calendar in Palm. Does anyone know if it's possible to have the Entourage
conduit enabled, with the calendar set to do nothing, while at the same time
having the Palm calendar conduit enabled to take care of the calendar?

This certainly isn't the one app solution that I was looking for, but it's
much closer than having to maintain multiple address books (Palm and Eudora)
and, hopefully, the conduit will be improved with the first service release
of 2004. I've sent feedback about this, have you??? Thanks!

John
Click to expand...

You can configure each part of the Entourage separately, and even choose not
to sync the Calendar. But that doesn't really help you because the conduit
itself won't let you have the Palm Calendar conduit installed at the same
time as the Entourage Calendar (for obvious reasons).

You could write a script that would move the Entourage Conduit out and the
Palm conduit in, do another sync, and run another script to put it all back
to the original configuration. Or you could just try to get along with the
Palm solution or the Entourage solution.
 
S

somedumbguy

When I migrated to Entourage, I had know idea about the limitations with
Are these limitations described anywhere?
Click to expand...

Yes, go here:

You can configure the Entourage conduit's handling of each database
separately, and you can configure each database to Not Sync, Palm Overwrites
Mac, Mac Overwrites Palm, or Synchronize. In short, it can do what you want.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the issue at hand is whether or not I can have the two conduit
types (Entourage and Palm) installed at the same time. Assuming that I
disabled the Entourage calendar sync, this shouldn't create any problems.
According to Walt Basil's followup, I can't.
 
S

somedumbguy

the conduit itself won't let you have the Palm Calendar conduit installed at
the same time as the Entourage Calendar (for obvious reasons)
Click to expand...

I understand why they don't let you do it, but it would be nice if the
Entourage conduit was smart enough to disable the appropriate sync-type if
the corresponding Palm conduit was installed/active. This would allow you to
maintain different things in different programs. I can see why they don't do
this, though... Why go to the trouble of adding features that would allow
someone to use a software package other than Entourage...
Or you could just try to get along with the
Palm solution or the Entourage solution.
Click to expand...

But I want it all!!! Actually, I was afraid that was going to be the
answer... Given the options of (a) maintaining multiple programs, (b) giving
up on calendar categories, or (c) writing a script to do the conduit
shuffle, I will likely choose (b) and just get used to it. I hate this two
steps forward, one step back crap, though. Thanks.
 
W

Walt Basil

I understand why they don't let you do it, but it would be nice if the
Entourage conduit was smart enough to disable the appropriate sync-type if
the corresponding Palm conduit was installed/active. This would allow you to
maintain different things in different programs. I can see why they don't do
this, though... Why go to the trouble of adding features that would allow
someone to use a software package other than Entourage...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I see where that could be pretty useful.
But I want it all!!! Actually, I was afraid that was going to be the
answer... Given the options of (a) maintaining multiple programs, (b) giving
up on calendar categories, or (c) writing a script to do the conduit
shuffle, I will likely choose (b) and just get used to it. I hate this two
steps forward, one step back crap, though. Thanks.
Click to expand...

And don't forget about email syncing. That could be pretty useful, and done
right by them.
 
B

BB

I too have seen this problem. Before the recent update of Palm Desktop and
HotSync it was possible to mix conduits. I used exactly the set up that John
asked for here. Entourage handled contacts and Palm Desktop the rest of it.
All I did was to disable the Address conduit for Palm Desktop, and the
databases in the Entourage conduit. (Just by using the settings, not by
moving any conduit.)

Again, I think we are suffering from the fact that when the new Tungsten
conduits were relased, the Mac BU didn't know about it. There are changes to
the HotSync functionality that suddenly makes it impossible to combine
conduits. It's the same with iSync.

My guess is that each conduit "tells" HotSync what databases it can handle.
Entourage (and iSync) happily says yes to all databases it can support
regardless of the sync being enabled or not in the conduit settings.
HotSync, however, seems to require a more restrictive response where the
conduit only should say yes if sync of that particular database is
activated.

Next release maybe...

Meanwhile it would be quite nice with a Palm Desktop to Entourage sync
script. We could let Palm Desktop do the actual talking to the Palm device
(including the new fields in Tungsten T3), and then sync everything to and
from Entourage. I've looked into this possibility for contacts and it seems
that it can be done from an AppleScript point of view. As to the actual sync
algorithms I haven't got a clear picture of how to keep track of changes and
do the syncing correct.

/Bo
 
Top