Use SyncKolab to synchronize your Thunderbird Data

Stefan — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:27:21 +0000

If you happen to use an e-mail provider that’s offering an IMAP-server (or you are boosting your own (mail-)server), this might be for you, because chances are if you are using IMAP, you’re the “portable” type of user.

As some of the more regular readers may know, I’m all into the whole ‘portable’ thing, and am constantly looking for ways to use stealthy software, sync my data or access it wherever I go. So it’s not surprising I stumbled across the SyncKolab Thunderbird extension some time ago looking for a possibility to sync my contacts across different computers as easy as my bookmarks using Foxmarks. Didn’t turn out that time, I just couldn’t get it to work.

But now, you may have guessed it already where this is heading, version 1.0 is out and, what can I say, it works like a charm, and not only for my contacts, but for my lightning-powered to-do’s and calendar items as well!

The whole thing uses the Kolab ‘protocol’ (in lack for a better word), which uses iCals and E-Mails containing xml-files to, among other things, store the items in your IMAP-Folder.

There’s a pretty good tutorial how to set it up as well, but it’s principle is rather simple. Choose an IMAP-Account, the items you want to have synced (contacts, calendar and to-do; the latter two require lightning to be installed) and where to store the data in the IMAP folder structure. I used a new folder named Synckolab containing subfolders for each of the groups, though I don’t know if it’s necessary to split them up.

Conflicts are resolved by using a pre-defined setting (always use server-side or client-side), or by asking the user, which is always my personal weapon of choice.

The whole thing also works with a specialized server component as well as different clients such as KDE’s Kontact for instance. Check out the wikipedia-entry if you’re interested.

Tags: calendar, contacts, kolab, lightning, synchronize, syncKolab, thunderbird

Add a Calendar to Thunderbird

Martin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:59:16 +0000

A friend of mine is still using Outlook at home and I was wondering why he did not switch to a more secure email client such as Thunderbird. His response was that Thunderbird was missing a calendar and that this was a feature that he needed. I could not deny that there was no calendar in Thunderbird – until I found the Thunderbird extension Lightning. Lightning which is still in development adds calendar functionality (scheduling, tasks..) to Thunderbird.

The extension adds itself seamlessly into Thunderbird. The calendar uses the space beneath your inbox to display the current month and the latest upcoming events.

Clicking on a day loads the monthly view window displaying every day of the month and all the events that you already added to that month.

Right-clicking a day and selecting new event lets you add events to your calendar which can import and export the data into different clients. This is of course pretty useful if you have to use a different calendar at work or another workplace.

We have to use Outlook at work and I never thought of using Outlook at home as well. Lightning lets me use Thunderbird at home and sync the data of my works Outlook calendar easily.

Next to the monthly view window you can of course change to weekly or daily view to view a detailed view of those events.

Lightning for Thunderbird is a great extension that adds calendar functionality to Thunderbird. I would recommend it to everyone who missed that feature in Thunderbird.

Tags: calendar, Email, lightning, mozilla, thunderbird

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Use SyncKolab to synchronize your Thunderbird Data

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Add a Calendar to Thunderbird

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