[Q] [APP/Q] location based email fetching - Android Software Development

with my SGS and android 2.2.1 i am happy in general but what i am missing is
a scheduling mechanism that can interpret if it has to fetch mail based on time and location (cell. not GPS).
let's say you don't want the phone to fetch mail when you are at home/work or otherwise you don't want it to do when you are not within a specific cell.
for the accounts that can be received from AccountManager this is no problem, but i can't get access to that ones that are stored in the emailer (POP/IMAP). (unfortunately what i am using most is POP and IMAP...)
also i'd love to have a "refresh all" button that can fetch mails from all the accounts immediately.
first of all:
does this kind of app/service already exist?
if not:
is it possible to get access to the accounts from the emailer via the API?
and if not:
where and how does the emailer store its data? is it readable anyhow?
edit: yes it is readable
providers are stored here: /data/data/com.android.email/databases/EmailProvider.db
passwords are stored in plain text!
edit: one way for accessing via AccountManager would be to implement Sync-Adapters for POP/IMAP
http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/SampleSyncAdapter/index.html
bennson

Related

EMOZE screwed up my bill!

Hey,
I recently installed emoze for push email and then i ditched it. I jsut want to know, how does it work exactly? Is it genuinly push email or does it check for emials ever so often?
I"m asking this because i have about $300 of Internet usage (overages) on my account. I mainly used my internet for emails and i can't udnerstnad how i went over.
Also, how does Microsoft push email work? is it possible that was the problem?
I only receive about 10 emails a week anyway. please let me know
Thanks.
Short review about emoze
Hello all,
I'll start by saying that I'm part of emoze team.
emoze is a FREE push email & PIM solution for Pocket PCs, Symbain, Smartphones and other devices.
emoze synchronizes the Outlook's Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks with full support of attachments. With emoze you have a wide range of configuration possibilities for every folder you choose emoze to synchronize.
Concerning the data package, with emoze as long as data is not being transferred you are not being charged for data. We suggest you review with your providers to understand your data plans.
Furthermore, you can use a sleep mode, which will connect the internet every few minutes. The only data emoze will transfer is the emails and PIM.
If you have anymore questions about emoze please fill free to connect our support: [email protected]
For conclution please remember one thing, emoze is the easiest & most secure push email solution available.
Regards and good day,
Oren.
I suggest you to get an unilimted data plan if you want to get online.
If you decide not to get one, then I recommend you to use SPB GPRS Monitor to keep a eye on your data consumption. Not that your carrier will take that information as valid, but at least you can be alerted when you reach a certain configurable limit.
Cheers!
Rayan
Hello. I tried emoze, and after a few tried it finally worked. I must say, there should be a detailed instruction on how to set it up. I mean from the very beginning.
ALso, while setting it up on my iPhone, there were pop up windows that says "cannot verified" or something. 2-3 times. I didn't know you have to keep on pressing continue. The instruction doesn't say anything about that.
ANyway, I finally got it to work, well sort of.
I can send email from my iPhone, but cannot receive.
Here's what I've done so far.
(1) I donwloaded emoze software.
(2) I have username/pw. I registered it with my gamil email (this is what I want to be pushed to my iPhone)
(3) I setup my GMAIL email account to my MS Outlook 2007.
(4) I clicked EDIT on emoze, and selected INBOX.
(5) When I send/receive email on iPhone, I can see that the icon on emoze changes, meaning it syncs.
(6) I also truend off SSL on iPhone according to other users.
Still can't receive email. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
emozeoren said:
Hello all,
I'll start by saying that I'm part of emoze team.
emoze is a FREE push email & PIM solution for Pocket PCs, Symbain, Smartphones and other devices.
emoze synchronizes the Outlook's Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks with full support of attachments. With emoze you have a wide range of configuration possibilities for every folder you choose emoze to synchronize.
Concerning the data package, with emoze as long as data is not being transferred you are not being charged for data. We suggest you review with your providers to understand your data plans.
Furthermore, you can use a sleep mode, which will connect the internet every few minutes. The only data emoze will transfer is the emails and PIM.
If you have anymore questions about emoze please fill free to connect our support: [email protected]
For conclution please remember one thing, emoze is the easiest & most secure push email solution available.
Regards and good day,
Oren.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DirectPush (and similarly Emoze and most other 'Push' e-mail technologies) work by simulating true Push communications.
Because server-initiated communication isn't strictly possible over GPRS, the cell data network, these Push e-mail solutions work by sending requests (called pings) to a server at regular intervals. If no new e-mails are waiting, the server simply acknowledges the ping. Otherwise, it instructs the device to retrieve the new e-mails.
The advantages over pure-pull technology (i.e. setting Outlook to check for e-mails every 15 minutes) lie in the smaller amount of the ping-packets compared with the packets exchanged when checking e-mail over pure Exchange/POP/IMAP. This, in turn, uses less bandwidth, enabling the checks to be done more frequently and in the background without significant use of bandwidth or resources.
Unfortunately, this does create data traffic, costing you money. I wouldn't reccomend having any type of 'always-on' solution, such as these 'push' e-mail simulations, unless you're on an unlimited data plan.
A few true Push e-mail schemes do exist for the HTC Wizard; these utilize cell-network messages (usually SMS-based) to initialize communications on the server-side. These messages are then intercepted in the notification que, instructing your device to check for new e-mails. These do not use data except for when the e-mails themselves are downloaded.
T-Mobile offers one such solution with their 'My E-Mail Triggers', and I believe AT&T/Cingular offers a similar solution.
For more information on DirectPush's simulated push technology, a good article is available on the MSDN here.
Nice to see you here RAYAN
In poderPDA dont answers...
En poder PDA no contestan...
reed you soon man!
Te leeo despues!
thank you for this useful clarification !!!!!!

Question about Email forwarding

So I work for a Company and we use email pretty regularly to communicate.
I am a store manager and the company is really **** about letting us set up to recieve emails to our phones. We use Microsoft outlook and it is an intranet bassed email service (I cant email my store or other stores from an outside email, it has to be from a store location). I have tried to creat a rule to have them forwarded but they dont forward.
I figured this is were some of the greatest and able bodies are, anybody have a solution? I'm just trying to get the stores email forwarded to my gmail account so I dont miss stuff on my days off. Anybody have any ideas??
Hope this is the correct forum for this
Well if your using outlook at your store, why don't you create a new account in your pocket outlook with your account info. You can find all of it in your settings, then set it to recieve at certain times only.
OR
There is an option to forward an email to an account once recieved. I'm using Outlook '07 so my setup may be a bit different but most outlook versions should have the same options. If you still can't find the rule setup for it just let me know.
mrmikemcguire said:
So I work for a Company and we use email pretty regularly to communicate.
I am a store manager and the company is really **** about letting us set up to recieve emails to our phones. We use Microsoft outlook and it is an intranet bassed email service (I cant email my store or other stores from an outside email, it has to be from a store location). I have tried to creat a rule to have them forwarded but they dont forward.
I figured this is were some of the greatest and able bodies are, anybody have a solution? I'm just trying to get the stores email forwarded to my gmail account so I dont miss stuff on my days off. Anybody have any ideas??
Hope this is the correct forum for this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there are a few things that come to mind.....
I am a District Manager for a restaurant chain so my first response is to say enjoy our time off
Second, I will probably sound like a jerk but there are reasons that companies limit email access to the physical location of a business, it is much more secure.
Knowing all of that, I personally forward all of my work mail to gmail and use the IMAP access so I do not have to remember if I have checked it or not. I generally get between 30-60 emails a day.
Your email may not be able to be forwarded due to how it is set up. I worked at a place where we did that and the email server we used would not allow an email from the units to be sent to any other domain other than our internal one.
My last thought it that if you are unable to find the email server settings on your own and set your email program on your phone up then you probably should not be messing with it. They are pretty easy to find but you do open your work network up to potential infection of malware or a virus. I know I would get pissed if one of my managers did something like that and caused us to have issues. Beware that they can and do track which IP addresses connect to the email server though.
-asb
Thanks guys,
I appreciate the help. I have put a rule in outlook to forward them to my gmail but it doesnt work.
Believe me, i understand the reason for limiting the location to the stores for email access. I do know that its definately possible because a couple area managers and my DM have it to their phone. I'm honestly not trying to deceitful, and I do enjoy my time off, but I have issues where i dont get important emails so i just wanted to forward them..
I didnt think about setting it up in the phone, i'm going to look into that. Where would i find the settings at in outlook? I know that I using it through my INTRANET and i use outlook through web access, so there isnt a "tools" tab that i can go into to get settings.
I'm going to play around with it.
Thanks again
Well.. some thoughts about the access...
If you you use web access then you know the server address already.
I would start off using the url as the pop3 access.
I'm replying from my phone but I will put up a mini guide later.
-asb
mrmikemcguire said:
Thanks guys,
I appreciate the help. I have put a rule in outlook to forward them to my gmail but it doesnt work.
Believe me, i understand the reason for limiting the location to the stores for email access. I do know that its definately possible because a couple area managers and my DM have it to their phone. I'm honestly not trying to deceitful, and I do enjoy my time off, but I have issues where i dont get important emails so i just wanted to forward them..
I didnt think about setting it up in the phone, i'm going to look into that. Where would i find the settings at in outlook? I know that I using it through my INTRANET and i use outlook through web access, so there isnt a "tools" tab that i can go into to get settings.
I'm going to play around with it.
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you create and send a new email to the Gmail account you are trying to forward these messages to? If you cannot then you must first find out if your network is blocking Gmail or if it is a routing issue. If you can successfully send an email to the Gmail account then the problem is merely in the settings of outlook (insert any email client here).
Almost always the outlook application must remain running for the rules to be honored. Creating and managing rules can be tricky. Make sure there are no stop processing rules entries prior to the forward all email rule you created. Also make sure there is not a stop rule in the forwarding rule or any after it will fail as well.
Ok, you said that you use outlook web access to check your email in your location. I would take a look at the url in the address bar. That will most likely be your access point that you will use later.
If you are on an intranet though you might be out of luck.
For example, one company I worked for had things set up like this:
Intranet with everyone having an ip address of 10.10.10.***.
We had an internal DNS server to resolve our intranet based web site and our email server.
Our email server was 10.10.10.101
Our internal web server was 10.10.10.102
Now, for outside access, we had an external IP that was something like 12.225.125.188.
If you only access your email from on the intranet (not INTERNET) then you need to find out the external IP address. You might be able to get it from a higher up but most likely you will be shot down.
Now, for simplicity sake, how about either letting the people at your location check email and call you if something major is going on email wise or just call them a few times each day?
Without the magic numbers (external IP) you won't be able to get access no matter what you try. There is also the remote possibility that the higher ups with access on their phones are using blackberries and the service associated with that or a VPN solution to get on the work intranet.
With out physically looking at the numbers and the set up it would be hard to figure out all of the details so my post is just full of WAG (wild ass guesses).
Just to finish it up, think about this...
Deliberately trying to circumvent your networks protections even accessing email against your companies policies can put you in not only work related trouble but also legal trouble.
-asb
Appreciate the help. I figured if the process wasnt to intracate I would set it up. Appears that it's more trouble than what it's worth.

gmail drive for windows mobile?

It is known that gmail account can be simulated as a new drive on your PC by an application called "GMail Drive shell extension". http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
For Symbian there is also a program "GSpaceMobile" which can do that job. https://www.ibomobi.com/home/gspacemobile_free
So I wonder if there is such a tool for WM system which can simulate a gmail account as a network disk or some guy is willing to develop one ?
Thanks.
Bump.
This is actually a really good idea.
sounds like a neat idea, I might try to see what this would take.
Bump.
With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness I wait for those more skilled than I take on this task.
Seems like a great idea.
Sounds like a Really useful thing to have please have a go someone
Wow! This does sound very interesting.....
i had the same idea!
but it is forbidden in the term of use of gmail...
My account has been locked
If we detect abnormal usage that may indicate that your account has been compromised, we may temporarily disable access. It will take between one minute and 24 hours for access to be reinstated, depending on the behavior detected by our system.
Unusual account activity includes, but is not limited to:
1. Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP or IMAP in a short period of time. If you're getting the error message, 'Lockdown in Sector 4,' you should be able to access Gmail again after waiting 24 hours.
2. Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back).
3. Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third party software that automatically logs in to your account.
4. Leaving multiple instances of Gmail open.
5. Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continually reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it's probably a browser issue, and it may be necessary to clear your browser's cache and cookies.
If you feel that you have been using your Gmail address according to the Gmail Terms of Use, please contact us.
idsk said:
i had the same idea!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have the skill to code a gmail drive, how about this much simpler idea- an app which automatically e-mails your pictures to a g-mail account, and another app on your desktop which automatically downloads the pictures to your desktop and deletes them.
The advantage of using gmail in the middle is that the process becomes asynchronous - your pc does not have to be on to work and neither does your phone have to be contactable for your pc to download the photos.
Surur
idsk said:
i had the same idea!
.....
3. Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third party software that automatically logs in to your account.
.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't that include pretty much any and all automated checking, such as push mail polling and thunderbird (imap / pop) clients ?
That's pretty restrictive wording.. much like the snafu with the Chrome release, where they stated "anything you enter via forms in the browser online is now copyright google" - they had to fix that after a large public outcry.
surur said:
If you have the skill to code a gmail drive, how about this much simpler idea- an app which automatically e-mails your pictures to a g-mail account, and another app on your desktop which automatically downloads the pictures to your desktop and deletes them.
The advantage of using gmail in the middle is that the process becomes asynchronous - your pc does not have to be on to work and neither does your phone have to be contactable for your pc to download the photos.
Surur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out PocketPicasa which does just that. Well it gets them as far as Google anyway, then use Picasa 3 on the desktop to retrieve them.
deedee said:
Check out PocketPicasa which does just that. Well it gets them as far as Google anyway, then use Picasa 3 on the desktop to retrieve them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Picassa is a heavy client, and from my checking does not do automated downloads. I would not want to have it running in the background on my desktop all the time.
Actually I have already found a VBA script for outlook that will automatically save picture attachments from an e-mail folder to my desktop, so all I really need is the windows mobile side to automatically e-mail the pictures (although a special purpose dedicated pair would be even better)
Surur
Great idea, bump.
and...
idsk said:
i had the same idea!
but it is forbidden in the term of use of gmail...
My account has been locked
If we detect abnormal usage that may indicate that your account has been compromised, we may temporarily disable access. It will take between one minute and 24 hours for access to be reinstated, depending on the behavior detected by our system.
Unusual account activity includes, but is not limited to:
1. Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP or IMAP in a short period of time. If you're getting the error message, 'Lockdown in Sector 4,' you should be able to access Gmail again after waiting 24 hours.
2. Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back).
3. Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third party software that automatically logs in to your account.
4. Leaving multiple instances of Gmail open.
5. Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continually reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it's probably a browser issue, and it may be necessary to clear your browser's cache and cookies.
If you feel that you have been using your Gmail address according to the Gmail Terms of Use, please contact us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That hardly seems like a problem. Create a second account to use with your cell. If they lock it then its a lot less troubling. Besides, they don't monitor this kind of stuff. I've been using the same concept on my pc for a long time. Being able to have a network hdd on my phone and pc would be supurb!
bumping for the greatness of the idea
Doesn't anyone with developing skills see a use for this?
I have scoured everywhere for a wm solution to gmail drive. gonna keep watch on this, hopefully someone makes it happen.
The Idea is widespread
The idea's popped up in other places as well:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=433913
Also, I am recalling that I looked into this concept years back using Xdrive by AOL. From what I remember they released an experimental mobile version but have since shut it down. Maybe we can find a way to tap into either of these valuable resources.
I can't think of a solution for Gmail but I have been using Microsofts Live Mesh on my computers and mobile. It syncs up between your desktops and you can also access it thru the mobile browser. I don't think there is a dedicated mobile app though.
It's still a tech preview, but it should work for what you are describing.
Windows Live Mesh
skyegalen said:
It's still a tech preview, but it should work for what you are describing.
Windows Live Mesh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Not yet available for mobile."
The words: "Soon to be available" + the words: "Microsoft" in the same sentence = uncontrollable laughter then disinterest.
...sorry, can't help it.

[Q] Does email reside on the tablet?

I have been trying to figure out email as it runs on Honeycomb (prior to purchase, but this is an interesting question I hope). What I want to do is ditch my computer running windows Live Mail, where all the emails are saved to my computer, and replace with a slinky new tranformer. I realise that a tablet is mostly an online tool, but it has heaps of memory, and I travel too much and still need to access old emails.
But, I cant seem to locate good information regards how the email app operates. Or how others such as K-9 work. So the question is; Do the emails reside on the tablet, can I place into folders, backup locally etc more or less as I do on my PC?
To my knowledge the stock app stores them as entries in an SQL database. You can backup the whole lot, but probably not individually.
sassafras
Having set up my personal e-mail on my TF I've not been able to setup new folders with the default client, I can't find any option to do this. Also it appears as though a copy of your e-mails is downloaded onto the TF and stays on the server unless you enable the option to delete a message only when you delete it from the Inbox. It'll also only download the first 25 messages the first time round, you'll need to hit the 'load more conversations' button if you want to get more to display.
As for your existing e-mails I'm guessing that they are stored locally on your computer and are no longer available 'in the cloud', is that right? If so that will be a bit tricky to get them transferred over to your TF. If those messages are still in the cloud however you shouldn't run into any problems setting up your account on your TF.
By default POP3 email servers should keep the emails on the server (until it is too old by server's auto-delete definition) and you should be able to download your old emails on your transformer (unless you deleted them from your email app on PC, which will cause it to tell the server to delete it too). There's a reason why I started using Exchange instead of POP3.
So am I alone in wanting offline email, archiving etc? Really the only person desperate to replace notebook with tablet, but needing solid productivity from email?
alhart345 said:
So am I alone in wanting offline email, archiving etc? Really the only person desperate to replace notebook with tablet, but needing solid productivity from email?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you need to archive your emails? If you need to back the lot of them up, you can. Using a root explorer, you can browse to the /data/data folder on the device and copy the email client folders located within (I believe com.android.email and com.google.android.gmail) to whichever storage medium you like.
Unfortunately you cannot back up or copy individual emails.
sassafras
I run a business, when visiting customers, vendors or travelling I am often without internet access or it is too slow to be good for much. But I need to access old emails regularly, and email is the central tool for managing my workload. So I sort my old emails by activity in folders locally on my notebook and often refer in meetings to past actions, prices etc. Pretty typical business/corporate action. I may be asking too much of a tablet at this stage, seems most people use it to augment their PC, not replace.
I think storing much locally goes against how Google and Apple view tablet devices. They view storage as a cloud based resource. So emails and documents are stored on their (or your ISPs) servers and accessed from the mobile device. This ensures that your data is constantly backed up and accessible from any device you have, phone, tablet, netbook, etc.
The downside is that this data is in the cloud so access assumes that you have a connection.
alhart345 said:
I run a business, when visiting customers, vendors or travelling I am often without internet access or it is too slow to be good for much. But I need to access old emails regularly, and email is the central tool for managing my workload. So I sort my old emails by activity in folders locally on my notebook and often refer in meetings to past actions, prices etc. Pretty typical business/corporate action. I may be asking too much of a tablet at this stage, seems most people use it to augment their PC, not replace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect that part of your problem is that you are using your email folders as a "CRM" database, whereas you'd probably be better off if you could actually move to a true CRM solution. This may be easier said than done if the data volumes (i.e. your email "database" is large) but will probably provide a much better solution in the long run.
Regards,
Dave
I haven't used the stock Android email app since Android 2.0 and my OG Droid, but I'm rather sure that the GMail app will only locally store the most recent emails, either by date or by number, not sure which. My personal email only goes up until the 23rd before it has to 'load conversations', which I believe is grabbing them from the network.
There is a degree of offline email with these recent conversations, as I've typed up emails off-network and they send as soon as I hit Wifi (or 3G in the phone's case). But nothing like the Outlook-level of Offline email. There is GMail offline for PC, so it is possible Google will bring it to tabs eventually...who knows.
alhart345 said:
I run a business, when visiting customers, vendors or travelling I am often without internet access or it is too slow to be good for much. But I need to access old emails regularly, and email is the central tool for managing my workload. So I sort my old emails by activity in folders locally on my notebook and often refer in meetings to past actions, prices etc. Pretty typical business/corporate action. I may be asking too much of a tablet at this stage, seems most people use it to augment their PC, not replace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use the tablet for work that much, but I understand your situation. eMail is actually a pretty lousy tool for what you're doing. A good practice is to just delete mails as soon as they get to you, get read and the information is used. But, of course, there are times when you will need to keep some of the information a mail came with, but not the email itself. The reason is that email *is not always available*. You either store it on the servers or you store it locally. Being on the servers makes you dependant on an internet connection. Having them locally makes it more prone to database corruption, and simple things such as search, backup and restore are more complex (before I get bashed, I didn't say difficult or impossible, just complex).
I'm used to a Microsoft ecosystem for personal productivity which means that I have outlook and onenote. What I do is:
emails with attachments, where I need to keep the attachment for future reference: I save the attachment and delete the email
emails with information: I drag the email to Onenote and delete the email.
In a PC/Tablet environment there is no reason why you can't do something similar, although it might not be as streamlined as how Microsoft designed their own products.
But, what I picture you being able to use is:
- Mails with attachments - save them to dropbox or get some other PC-Android folder syncing solution. Get rid of the email.
- Mails with information - Save them to evernote or catchnotes and they automatically get synced to your tablet. I think the premium version of Evernote has offline access (i.e. local storage of notes) and Catch does it anyway.
Evernote has a nice feature where you can mail stuff to your evernote account and it will show up.
As you can see it involves that you change a bit how you work and manage information, but if you make this step you can be more productive.
Hi Ferparedes, thanks for the response, took me a while to get back to it. It may be possible to use a notetaker to do this, but I am pondering the steps needed to integrate as you suggest. I take about 100 emails a day, covering say 50 customers and 1-5 new projects per customer, plus ongoing business - folder structure is 3 and 4 deep. I guess, suck it and see is the final result. If working on the TF is so satisfying for everything else, then a way will be found...
Thanks again for the input.
Well, then again it could be that a tablet is not the best tool for your needs, right?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
For everything else, it is just right. But the email thing is a show stopper for me. I shall have to curb enthusiasm and wait for the software to come up. Or a windows tab
alhart345 said:
For everything else, it is just right. But the email thing is a show stopper for me. I shall have to curb enthusiasm and wait for the software to come up. Or a windows tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows tablets have been around for ages, no?
alhart345 said:
For everything else, it is just right. But the email thing is a show stopper for me. I shall have to curb enthusiasm and wait for the software to come up. Or a windows tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 8 tablets should appear in spring 2012.
alhart345 said:
For everything else, it is just right. But the email thing is a show stopper for me. I shall have to curb enthusiasm and wait for the software to come up. Or a windows tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems like the easy solution is to get internet access on the go. Why not just get a 3g hotspot from your provider? Or, if you have an android phone, set up the mobile access point?
if my experience can help...
Avoiding complex configuration setting up a mail server at home, I've the following config:
- the home pc access my accounts (isp, yahoo, gmail) through pop protocol, with accounts configured to leave messages on the server 15 days
- tablet has same accounts configured with imap access
This way all mails are anyway downloaded and backedup on my local pc, while still being accessible from the tablet.
Of course some diligence is required: if erasing a mail from the tablet while having the pc in standby, the mail will never be available on the pc (but I suppose this is not a big deal: mail has been read and judged to be erased).
My 2 cents

[TUTORIAL] Add native iCloud (IMAP, CardDAV, CalDav) support to WP8 GDR2 Devices!!

Hey guys,
I just tossed together a quick tutorial that will allow you to use the built-in IMAP, CalDav, and CardDav support in WP8 GDR2 to sync with Apple's iCloud services! This "hack" should work with any IMAP/CalDAv/CardDav accounts you may have.
*NOTE* For some reason the calendar entries are off by 5 hours (I am in the Eastern Time Zone) when compared between the windows phone and my Apple devices. Also, some ancient recurring entries in a shared calendar don't seem to come in properly for me for some reason. I am guessing the version of CalDAV on Windows Phone does not properly deal with Time Zones.
Instructions inspired by BlackBerry.com http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/...nisa.apps.common.BaseViewedDocsListHelperImpl
1. Go to Settings --> email +accounts --> and click "add an account"
2. Select "Google"
3. When prompted, enter a valid Gmail address and password. (we will fix this later)
4. Wait patiently for the initial sync to finish..(It may take up to 5 mins)
5. Locate the account that you created and tap on it to open the account settings...(It will be called Google, Google 2, etc).
6. Change the "Account Name" to something meaningful (I changed mine to iCloud)
7. Change the email address to the one you use for iCloud. *NOTE* If you don't use iCloud mail, enter a dummy email address here that is different from any other email address already on the device.
8. Set "download new content" to a value that you prefer. (Mine is set to every 15 mins)
9. Set "Download email from" to an appropriate value.
10. in the "content to sync" section, check which iCloud info you want to sync. (Email, Contacts, or Calendar)
11. in the "Your Name" field, enter your name.
12. If you will be using IMAP to sync with iCloud email, change the Incoming email server to "imap.mail.me.com:993", if not skip this step.
13. for the User Name, enter your iCloud user name. (Mine is my apple id because I never made an iCloud email account)
14. for the password enter your password.
15. If you will be using IMAP to sync with iCloud email, change the Outgoing email server to "smtp.mail.me.com:587", if not skip this step.
16. If you will be using IMAP to sync with iCloud email, make sure "Outgoing server requires authentication" is checked, if not skip this step.
17. For the "Contacts server (CardDAV)" enter "contacts.icloud.com".
18. for Calendar server (CalDAV)" enter "caldav.icloud.com".
19. Click the "Check" box to save your settings.
20. Check to see if things are syncing!
*NOTE* If the calendar sync is not working, it may be necessary to change you CalDAV server name to p0#-caldav.icloud.com, where # is represents the numbers 1-9. Example: p05-caldav.icloud.com or p04-caldav.icloud.com). If you don't want to experiment, there are instructions online on how to pull the right server name from Apple's Calendar app.
**EDIT** More Info on Time Zones:
1. When The Windows Phone sends the info about the event to the CalDav Server, the phone tells iCloud the event is in "Eastern Standard Time". (It should be "Eastern Direct Time" bc DST.) When the CalDAV Server correctly sends this data back to the phone, the phone processes as "Eastern Standard Time" and "bumps" the event forward an hour. The phone also doesn't send all the proper TimeZone info back to the server in the ICS file, resulting in a non-editable event in the iCloud calendar. If you Switch the displayed time zone from "Eastern Standard Time" to "Eastern Time" in the iCloud Calendar app, you can edit the event. When it comes back to the phone, it will be off by 4 hours due to the processing bug (see 2)
2. CalDAV entries that are created in iCloud come back to the device with a time zone of "US/Eastern". I am guessing there is a parsing bug in the app so that when it sees the "/", it freaks out, stops processing the TimeZone data contained in the ics file, and leaves the entry as GMT.
A couple of ways that may fix the TimeZone issue with the calendars:
1. Turn on TimeZone Support vial iCloud.com or the Calendar app. Make all your entries in the "Floating" time zone. This forces all calendar entries to be set with the "Real" time on the server and strips out TimeZone calculation.
Thanks! I have a iCloud email that I don't use, but it seems that some people I know still email there, now I don't have to boot up a old iPod touch to check that
The "off by 5 hours" issue is because Windows stores local time, and apparently expects the same; iOS probably stores GMT and applies the offset itself. Or possibly the other way around for the phone; I don't know. Would depend which way it was off.
I figured as much...I know that if you are dual-booting a hackintosh, you have the same issue (with the System Date and Time)...Windows expects the BIOS time to be in local time and Linux/Unix/OSX expects the BIOS time as GMT.
There's a registry flag which supposedly "fixes" this behavior on Windows; it may work on WP8 too. The relevant key is present...
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
Value: RealTimeIsUniversal
Data: 1 (DWORD)
Reboot the phone after setting that, and if needed, fix the time (it should fix automatically if it has signal from a tower or GPS). See if that helps.
GoodDayToDie said:
There's a registry flag which supposedly "fixes" this behavior on Windows; it may work on WP8 too. The relevant key is present...
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
Value: RealTimeIsUniversal
Data: 1 (DWORD)
Reboot the phone after setting that, and if needed, fix the time (it should fix automatically if it has signal from a tower or GPS). See if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@GoodDayToDie
I figured out what is going on with the native Calendar app (Thanks, Fiddler!). See my OP for all the info. Do you know if there is a way to report this to Microsoft? Do they Care? I did install the preview build of GDR3 before trying this experiment, so it won't be fixed in GDR3.
Apple iCloud works perfectly now!
Great news! If you use Windows Phone 8.1, there is now a iCloud setting in 'email+accounts'... Easy peasy. Email, calendar and contacts work BUT still has annoying still has time issues with calendar entries!!!
It was the first thing I set up
I'm sure it's *possible* to send a report, but I don't know how to go about it. Um, this sounds kind of silly, but have you tried contacting the WP8 team on social media? Sometimes that works better than one might think. There's also UserVoice (which is more about feature requests, but not a bad place for bug reports if you don't need it fixed urgently).

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