Lotus Notes 8.5 sync with Google Calendar on Ubuntu
I am looking for a solution to Sync Lotus Notes 8.5 on Ubuntu with Google Calendar. It only needs to be an one way sync from Notes to Google Calendar.
I have searched the Interwebs but have not found a suitable solution. Have found some stuff for Windows but not for Ubuntu or even Linux in general.
Advice will be much appreciated.
Technorati Tags: notes, ubuntu, google calendar, sync, ibm
I’m still on Notes 7 (sadly), but I’ve found this http://www.lndcentral.com/article.php/20060503111031179 to be semi-helpful. However it exports events one-by-one.
I extracted the code and created a semi-working VB6 application that creates one .ics file for all your events. I still have to manually upload it to Google Calendar though. Wanted to automate it using Google Calendar API, but haven’t got round to it.
I can send you the code, but since you’re on Ubuntu, I don’t know what you’re going to do with VB6 code. I used VB6 because Notes script is basically identical to BASIC.
Let me know if you’re interested… you have my email address.
Look at http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/notesmacforum.nsf/Customer/9f564f13aa02e62f8525743a005d580a?OpenDocument also.
Maybe it’s best to do that Local Agent thing they suggest and write your own script that puts the .ics file on a public web server, and subscribe to it with Google Calendar? I’d like to hear your results.
Francois
You should really try Notes 8.5 .. you can download a trial version from ibm.com.
You’re correct, the VB stuff will not help and I can get it manually into Google Calendar .. in 8.5 I can export it to an .ical file and the upload it to a server but this is a manual process. I will have a chat to some Domino/Notes developers we have and see what they can come up with.
Hi all, i’m interested too. i already installed Notes 8.5 with access to my google calendar but now i would sync my notes calendar appointments with my google calendar.
I am trying the same with notes 8.5 and google calendar to iphone. I found this pay software but would like to find something free if possible.
http://www.companionlink.com/products/companionlinkforgoogle.html
One thought was using something like the service Dropbox and set the cal file as one of the exported/external files. Not sure how all this would work but a thought.
Thanks for stopping by Brent. I believe syncing to iPhone, Blackberry and even Nokia is fairly easy with thing build into Notes 8.5 .. have not tried.
The Notes to Google Cal is another story .. I have an agent in Notes that generate an iCal file but then need some fudging to get it into gCal .
Unfortunately, Companionlink for Google is flaky and won’t consistently sync all of your calendar entries from Notes. It works flawlessly with Outlook, but it’s pretty lousy for Notes. I, personally, have a problem with recurring meetings getting dropped, appointments not showing up and events with too many attendees not showing up. It’s a problem that prevented me from using CL to sync Notes and Windows Mobile many years ago and it appears that they still haven’t got the issues resolved.
On Windows, you can kludge your way around it by using the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Domino and then just using Google Sync to sync Outlook to Google. But to run it in Ubuntu would be really messy.
From CompanionLink tech support:
“Thank you for your inquiry. You should be aware that we do not
synchronize all Lotus Notes calendar items. The two types of items we do not synchronize are calendar items that you cannot edit in Lotus Notes (typically meeting requests), and some recurring activities.”
Thanks Johnny for posting response from CompanionLink.
Ok…this thread started me digging again and I found a surprise. The one product that actually did sync Notes with my old Windows mobile actually supports Google as well. Sybase’s XTNDConnect 7.0 works with Google. There isn’t a Linux version, but you may be able to kick it off under WINE or some other Win4Linux environment. As of last night, I’m using it (under Windows) to sync Notes to Google and then I’m syncing my iPhone with Google. The sync works flawlessly (so far) both ways. So thanks for the question, it was the poke that I needed to find the answer to my own problems.
There’s a trial that you can play with that will sync a limited number of records. But it will prove out the concept and then you can decide whether to buy the full version.
http://www.sybase.com/products/allproductsa-z/xtndconnectpc
Drop me a note and let me know how it works out for you.
As an FYI, the first sync can take an insanely long time (I had ~500 entries and it took about 4 hours to choke through the multiMB attachments, 100+ attendees lists, etc. I cancelled it multiple times before I finally just let it run unattended). Subsequent updates are almost instantaneous. Also, if you have corrupted calendar entries or contacts, it can kill the sync. It’s rare, but frustrating. Just turn on logging and you’ll see the offending entry at the end of the log. Sybase support is also decent and responsive.
you can use http://www.openntf.org goocalsync.ntf to sync your calender to google calender. This is free. Just register in the website and search for it.
Thanks for the tip, Anna. Unfortunately, goocalsync is manual and it still has some bugs to work through (the show stoppers for me are that it doesn’t seem to handle recurring entries properly and it’s completely messes up entries that come from different time zones). I’ll be watching this, though. It looks like it has potential.
Have a look at the below application I am currently developing. Automatic/Scheduling is coming with beta 0.4
hope this helps.
Shin
Thanks Shin.. the application Shin is talking about can be found here: http://lngooglecalsync.sourceforge.net/