Check out this new feature from Google Calendar. I noticed it the last time I logged into my account.

Looks like Google is syncing with Outlook now. It looks like a desktop version of the Google Sync for Blackberries and it has the sync options I was looking for in the blackberry client with 2way and 1way settings.

While I love the idea of Google Sync (GS) for Blackberry, I’m just not that into it … at this time. I tried it out for a few months and found it had some quirks that I couldn’t deal with. Here’s my list.

My Equipment

• Lotus Notes 8.0 client w/ 8.0 template (upgraded to 8.0.1 after I uninstalled GS)
• Blackberry 8800 with latest AT&T OS 4.2.1.79 (WHERE ARE YOU FABLED VERSION 4.5!!!)
• Thinkpad T61 Running Vista (SPK 1 RC at the time)
• Google Calendar beta
• Google Sync 0.4.2

My Issues w/ GS

• Uploaded my business (Lotus Notes) entries to Google Calendar. I was looking for a one way sync just Google Calender to my Lotus Notes. I’m hoping that a future version will have an option to select what should be synched. That said, I could live with this since Google has some security and I the entries weren’t made public.
• Can’t specify if you want the Google Calendar entries to be created as private entries. It would have been great if the entries could all have been marked as private since I was importing personal entries to my business calendar. Again, I could live with this.
• Corrupted repeating entries and sent out cancellation notices for repeating meetings. This was the deal breaker. I had setup sever repeating meeting entries and was confused when one of the meeting instances came up and no one attended my meeting. I called an attendee and they said “Didn’t you cancel the meeting? I received a cancellation notice.” Well I hadn’t canceled the meeting and it was still in my calendar. Upon further investigation noticed that my entry was last modified by my blackberry server. Also the Parent notice had been disassociated with the child (repeating entries). I had to delete the entries one by one so that I could recreate the repeating meeting. Before I did that I ran a few tests to confirm that GS was at fault. I created a couple repeating meetings, synced with GS, and sure enough, the entries were corrupted again. I uninstalled the software and haven’t had problems since.

I think Google Sync is a great idea and will be a great tool. It just needs a little more time in development before I try it again.  In the meantime I’ll settle for a Google Gadget embedded as a widget in my 8.0.1 client.

Export your Google Calendar to an .ics file

1. From your Google Calendar click on “Manage calendars”
2. Click on the calendar you want to export
3. At the bottom, in the private address section, click on “ICAL”
4. Click on the link provided and save the file to your hard drive

Import an .ics file into Lotus Notes 8

1. Open your Notes Calendar and click on “More | Manage Imported Calendars”
2. Click on “Import Calendar”, change the file type to .ics, and find the file you saved to your hard drive
3. A pop up will appear that will let you rename and preview the calendar. You can also mark all the entries as Private, Available, or enable notification.

Not knowing when the Notes 8 version of DUCs will be released, I had to find a way to use the existing version 1.2.3 client.

Method #1 – Don’t uninstall DUCs and reinstall Notes 8 into the same directory as your previous Notes installation. You will have to add EXTMGR_ADDINS=ucclient to the Notes.ini.

Method #2 : For Clean Notes 8 Installs – You can edit the registry.


HKLM\Software\Lotus\Notes\7.0 (new key)

Then add two String value entries: Path and DataPath

• Path - your Notes 8 program folder
• DataPath - your Notes 8 data folder

I’ve been looking for a way to sync my Google calendar (that I share with my wife) and my Notes calendar (that I use for work) and have on my Blackberry. The manage imported calendars feature in Notes 8 worked well for a while but required me to manually request an ICS file from Google, download it, and import it into Notes anytime there were updates.

Yesterday I came across a tool from Google called Sync for Mobile.

http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/index.html

This application will sync my Google calendar entries with my Blackberry calendar. Since my Blackberry calendar is connected to my Notes calendar, the entries also appear there. The best part is that I don’t have to remember manually import updates, it just does it for me. I’m not sure if there are any drawbacks since I’ve only been using it for a couple days. But so far so good.