Funambol sync shifts reoccurring calendar event by one day

by **GoAlways** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:39 am

Hi,

I believe this issue is related to the Funambol client, not with Group Office sync process, but it is hard to be sure. Please read and post back if you can generate this issue, or if you know of a fix, or an alternative way to sync a Group Office user's Calendar with their Exchange account's Calendar.

We have the issue that within both Outlook and in Group Office, reoccurring appointments are changing the day from which they are set to, to the day before the appointment was first created. Not every reoccurring appointment shifts backward by one day, but >75% of the time they will.

That is if you create a reoccurring appointment for a Friday, then at some time in the future it will move to the Thursday. If it was created on the Monday, it will move the the Sunday. This appears to be only happening for reoccurring appointments, other types of appointments do not shift.

I have replicated this issue via Outlook, "New Reoccurring Appointment", accepted the default "Start:" time of "8:00 AM" and "Duration:" of "30 minutes", then selected a four day "Range of recurrence" by selecting an end date. It does not seem to mater if there is an end date or "No end date" the appointment can still shift.

Once I created an appointment and it shifted just as I saved it, so I checked the Funambol Sync Client and it was not due to sync for another 5 minutes, so I started to wonder if the issue is independent to the sync process, but just something about the Funambol Client running. Maybe I made a mistake during creating this test? :roll:

It is my believe that once the appointment date is corrected, then it will not change dates again, and that if the date has not shifted in the first day (maybe in the first hour) then the date will never shift.

I have checked Time Zones, etc, of the PC and the Group Office server and all is on the same time zone and is set correctly.

I upgraded the Funambol client to the latest (which was at the time of testing: 10.0.6, "Funambol Windows Sync Client"), and our Group Office Professional is Version: 3.7.29.

Sadly this has so greatly impacted our use of the Funambol client that we have had to cease using it :cry:

. Having correct dates in Calendar's is very important.

Example of a reoccurring appointment in Outlook;

Recurrence: Occurs every Friday effective 18/02/2012 until 22/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

by **GoAlways** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:25 am

This posting shows information about four Recurrence Appointments in Outlook shift which to the previous day after a Funambol sync. The entries are from Funambol's log file (when logging is set to Debug).

Funambol installed to a computer on which Outlook is running, and is configured to sync with Group Office but Funambol's "Scheduler" is not enabled so that no syncing will happen.

On the 20th of February I created four reoccurring appointments in Outlook;
2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012
2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until
2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until
2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012

Continuing checking these four reoccurring appointments shows that have not changed/shifted the day on which they are scheduled.

On the 21st Feb February at 10:30 am enable scheduling for every 30 minutes, and notes that the next scheduled sync is to occur at 10:58am
Extract from Sync Log from 10:58 (Outlook shows that appointments have not moved);

Code: Select all: 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Message sent 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Data sent successfully to server. Server responds OK 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - 'Content-Encoding' header NOT found: response is not compressed 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading response... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Content-length: 14496 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading 5000 bytes... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading 5000 bytes... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading 4496 bytes... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Response read: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE SyncML PUBLIC "-//SYNCML//DTD SyncML 1.1//EN" "http://www.syncml.org/docs/syncml_represent_v11_20020213.dtd"> <SyncML xmlns="SYNCML:SYNCML1.1"><SyncHdr><VerDTD>1.1</VerDTD><VerProto>SyncML/1.1</VerProto><SessionID>1329782282</SessionID><MsgID>1</MsgID><Target> . . . <CTCap><CTType>text/x-s4j-sifc</CTType><PropName>FirstName</PropName><PropName>MiddleName</PropName><PropName>LastName</PropName><PropName>Title</PropName><PropName>Birthday</PropName><PropName>Email1Address</PropName><PropName>Email2Address</PropName><PropName>Email3Address</PropName><PropName>Department</PropName><PropName>JobTitle</PropName><PropName>HomeTelephoneNumber</PropName><PropName>BusinessTelephoneNumber</PropName><PropName>HomeFaxNumber</PropName><PropName>BusinessFaxNumber</PropName><PropName>MobileTelephoneNumber</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressCountry</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressState</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressCity</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressPostalCode</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressStreet</PropName><PropName>HomeAddressStreet</PropName><PropName>Body</PropName></CTCap></DevInf></Data></Item></Results><Final></Final></SyncBody></SyncML> 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Server requested syncmode "two-way" for appointment. 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Checking for forced slow-sync... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment begin (mode "two-way") 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - beginSync of appointment source: opening Outlook session... 10:58:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading ALL appointments from folder '\\Mailbox - [USER-NAME]\Calendar' (63 found)... . . . 10:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until 26/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until 25/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved new appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved new appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until 26/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved new appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until 25/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved new appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modification message: estimated size 9892, allowed size 125000, real size 12886 / estimated size 9892 = 130% 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modifications sent. 10:58:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Send message:

Extract from Sync Log from 11:28 (Outlook shows that appointments have not moved);

Code: Select all: 11:28:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Server requested syncmode "two-way" for appointment. 11:28:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Checking for forced slow-sync... 11:28:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment begin (mode "two-way") 11:28:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - beginSync of appointment source: opening Outlook session... 11:28:02 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading ALL appointments from folder '\\Mailbox - [USER-NAME]\Calendar' (63 found)... . . . 11:28:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 11:28:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until 26/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 11:28:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until 25/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 11:28:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM." 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modification message: estimated size 0, allowed size 125000, real size 950 / estimated size 0 = 100% 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modifications sent. 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Send message: . . . 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment end (mode "two-way") 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment begin (mode "two-way") 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - extractFolder method: failed to get the folder. use the default 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012" 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on client (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EE0000, code 200) 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - extractFolder method: failed to get the folder. use the default 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until" 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on client (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614ED0000, code 200) 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - extractFolder method: failed to get the folder. use the default 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until" 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on client (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EC0000, code 200) 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - extractFolder method: failed to get the folder. use the default 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012" 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on client (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EB0000, code 200) 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment end (mode "two-way") 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Mapping 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Closing sync session. 11:28:04 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Send message:

At 11:46 created new appointments in Outlook for a later month.
2012-02-21-11-43-Occurs every Monday effective 4/06/2012 until 25/06/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.
2012-02-21-11-44-Occurs every Saturday effective 9/06/2012 until 30/06/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Synchronisation occurs at 11:46am and I now notice that Outlook has shows the first group of appointments have moved.
Appointment in Outlook:
2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012
is now showing that it is scheduled for:
Occurs every Monday effective 3/04/2012 until 25/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Appointment in Outlook:
2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until
is now showing that it is scheduled for:
Occurs every Tuesday effective 4/04/2012 until 26/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Appointment in Outlook:
2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until
is now showing that it is scheduled for:
Occurs every Wednesday effective 5/04/2012 until 27/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Appointment in Outlook:
2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012
is now showing that it is scheduled for:
Occurs every Thursday effective 6/04/2012 until 28/04/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Checking the Funambol Sync log this time (i.e. at 12:10pm, after the sync at 11:58:06am) shows;

Code: Select all: 11:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Server requested syncmode "two-way" for appointment. 11:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Checking for forced slow-sync... 11:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment begin (mode "two-way") 11:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - beginSync of appointment source: opening Outlook session... 11:58:03 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading ALL appointments from folder '\\Mailbox - [USER-NAME]\Calendar' (63 found)... . . . 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012" 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until" 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until" 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Reading item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012" 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved updated appointment item: "Power boards for Board Room - Executive Meeting" 11:58:05 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-51-Occurs every Friday effective 6/04/2012 until 27/04/2012" 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-50-Occurs every Thursday effective 5/04/2012 until" 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-49-Occurs every Wednesday effective 4/04/2012 until" 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [INFO] - Retrieved updated appointment item: "2012-02-20-03-47-Occurs every Tuesday effective 3/04/2012 until 24/04/2012" 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modification message: estimated size 5766, allowed size 125000, real size 7628 / estimated size 5766 = 132% 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Modifications sent. 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Send message: . . . 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on server (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614C80000, code 200) 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on server (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EE0000, code 200) 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on server (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614ED0000, code 200) 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on server (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EC0000, code 200) 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment item - Replace on server (key:0000000012A236203997214BAC2138A4BCBE6380070014BEEC445381B14A93326CEF1FFB656A00000024BEC0000070FEFFE8B54CF64490F3B5AC7E7DE7660000068614EB0000, code 200) 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment end (mode "two-way") 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment begin (mode "two-way") 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - appointment end (mode "two-way") 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Mapping 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Closing sync session. 11:58:06 GMT +10:00 [DEBUG] - Send message:

========================================================================
The above logs shows four Recurrence Appointments created in Outlook move after a Funambol sync with Group Office, but this only happened after a second set of Recurrence Appointments were created in Outlook, and a sync with Group Office completed.

If anyone can attempt a similar test for me, and let me know if you have the same issue, I would really appreciate that. :?:

========================================================================

by **GoAlways** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:56 am

Hi,

I found that the two new Recurrence Appointments that I created in June on as described by previous post to this topic also moved and that it shows that it is not the scheduled date that changes but the scheduled "day of the week", that is the date the Recurrence Appointments actual starts from, that is the "Effective from" date does not change, but the day of the week where the first appointment starts changes to the day of the week that is before the day of the week for which the Recurrence Appointment was originally created.

Hence in this example, the Effective date remains as "4/06/2012" but the Day of the week on which the appointments occur, changes from "Monday" to "Sunday" ;

2012-02-21-11-43-Occurs every Monday effective 4/06/2012 until 25/06/2012
moved to
Occurs every Sunday effective 4/06/2012 until 26/06/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

2012-02-21-11-44-Occurs every Saturday effective 9/06/2012 until
moved to
Occurs every Friday effective 9/06/2012 until 1/07/2012 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.

Is there a Group Office sync log that I should/could be checking ?

Is it possible that this error is with Group Office ?

It may be that some where in the sync process a numeric value is used for the day of the week, and one system is using Monday as the first day of the week and the other system is using Sunday as the first day of the week ?

$config['default_first_weekday']="1"; ' Default first day of the week 0=sunday 1=monday, Default is 1

Checking my Outlook settings and those of our Group Office settings (config.php), I found that both were set to have "Monday" as the "First day of the week", so it may not be possible for me to simply make a config change to solve this issue.

by **Intermesh** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:42 am

We're looking into this. Do you want to try it on GO 4.0 beta?

by **GoAlways** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:13 pm

Hi,

"Group Office 4.0" ? WOW, I had missed the news item.

We've been working very hard on Group-Office 4.0 in the past year. We're almost ready to release the first beta version!
The most important changes in 4.0 are under the hood. We completely rewrote the PHP framework using the Model View Controller approach.

I am quite keen to install a test version and try it out.

1) Do I install download and install it from
http://group-office.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/group-office/trunk/www.tar.gz?view=tar ?
You can also try the latest development version. Be warned, this version might be unstable.

2) Does it install the same way that Group Office 3.7 installs ?

3) Are there any new installation instructions ?

4) I guess no Professional version licence is required to run Funambol Sync ?

by **Intermesh** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:29 pm

You can install it from that URL just like the 3.7 version.

Sync is still onky supported in the pro version.

by **GoAlways** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:38 am

Hi,

Has anyone been able to replicate the issue that I reported in 3.7 ? and maybe prove that 4.x does not have this issue?

I do not know how to download beta 4.x, nor how to get it to work with our 3.7 professional license. I am willing to give the test a go if necessary. Maybe it is best to wait for 4.x to be released, then purchase 4.x Pro and test once again ?

At this stage I have moved to using Outlook's "Publish to the Internet" via WebDAV, using Group Office and the webdav server, until we can be confident that Funambol sync will not alter appointments.

We also have people in Outlook who have a repeating appointment, say over 12 months and then they delete several appointments in the series where public holidays or major meetings conflict, while Group-Office's calendar can also do this, I do not believe that the Funambol Sync is able to correctly manage "a repeating appointment with occasional, single appointments being removed. Please also test this when people are debugging Funambol sync with Group-Office.

by **GoAlways** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:22 am

Hi, did you know that "Redemption version 5.3.0.2696 has been released." I do not know if or when the Funambol client and/or Group Office will be updated to take into account the new features/bug fixes in the Redemption.dll, can anyone tell me?

See http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/history.htm?ref=mail for information about changes to the Redemption.dll

by **Intermesh** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:02 pm

I think you should ask the Funambol guys about the redemption.dll.

Contact us for a pro beta version to test with the ticket system.