Bug 310437

Summary:	Wish for a ActiveSync resource in akonadi for full Exchange compatibility
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] Akonadi	Reporter:	Kanwar Plaha <Kanwar.Plaha>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	bo, dvratil, martin.brugger, Mathias.Homann, simonandric5
Priority:	NOR
Version:	4.9
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Kanwar Plaha 2012-11-21 11:01:00 UTC

ActiveSync provides full exchange compatibility on all platforms except Linux where one has to resort to either clumsy davmail to get the same functionality. 

An akonadi resource that offers mail, contacts and calendar via ActiveSync makes kontact (and KDE) that much more attractive to use in work environments (such as mine).

ActiveSync functionality is open-source (for example davmail) so for the brilliant KDE devs it should be a piece-of-cake to implement.

We've come a really long way as far as desktop functionality goes in KDE. Maybe its time MS products compatibility is taken up so KDE can be used for more than just development or casual use.

Thank you.

Comment 1 Mathias Homann 2013-05-30 18:52:04 UTC

seconded. Right now I'm in the process of switching my mail/calendar/addressbook to thunderbird with lightning and the SOGO connector, because guess what, my employer uses exchange. And I'd rather use one mail app, not two.

Comment 2 Mathias Homann 2013-05-30 18:52:53 UTC

and speaking of thunderbird, there are two not all that large addons, that let TB access all that is under exchange...

Comment 3 Kanwar Plaha 2013-05-30 21:30:15 UTC

So, does tb use IMAP for exchange emails or true exchange interrace a la
achieve sync? If its the latter, I might migrate to it too - much as I hate
to leave kontact.  Full interactivity with Microsoft protocols will help
KDE on windows too .... but anyway.

Sent from my Nexus 4
On 31/05/2013 4:52 AM, "Mathias Homann" <Mathias.Homann@opensuse.org> wrote:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=310437
>
> --- Comment #2 from Mathias Homann <Mathias.Homann@opensuse.org> ---
> and speaking of thunderbird, there are two not all that large addons, that
> let
> TB access all that is under exchange...
>
> --
> You are receiving this mail because:
> You reported the bug.
>

Comment 4 Christoph Feck 2014-04-29 22:54:22 UTC

*** Bug 324366 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5 Christoph Feck 2014-04-29 22:58:03 UTC

*** Bug 328339 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6 Christoph Feck 2014-04-29 23:03:07 UTC

Not sure if Exchange support via "ActiveSync" is the same as supporting Exchange via "MAPI" protocol. If it is, this is a duplicate of bug 227672 / bug 78629.

Comment 7 Mathias Homann 2014-04-30 05:52:48 UTC

no, "ActiveSync" and "MAPI" are not the same. Mapi only lets you access email on an exchange server, ActiveSync actually synchronises mail, calendar, addressbook and tasklist between your device and the exchange server.
For a reference implementation see the activesync part in android.

Comment 8 Thomas Fischer 2016-02-17 14:30:55 UTC

*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

Comment 9 Bo Simonsen 2016-09-14 16:01:50 UTC

The ActiveSync protocol is covered by Microsoft patents. However, are anybody aware which part of the protocol covered by patents? 

In the android implementation there is a disclaimer:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Exchange/+/master/src/com/android/exchange/patent_disclaimer.txt
As well of the Evolution ActiveSync module:
https://github.com/GNOME/evolution-activesync/blob/master/README

But none states exactly what is covered by the patents, so pretty hard to do a patent-free implementation.

Comment 10 Daniel Vrátil 2018-08-27 22:49:27 UTC

We now have a native EWS resource. It's not perfect, but I think it's already better than nothing :)