[SyncEvolution] Activesync backend use of username property

[Patrick Ohly]

On Fri, 2014-02-21 at 18:54 +0000, Graham Cobb wrote:
> On 21/02/14 17:37, Graham Cobb wrote:
> > Of course, the reason is because we are abusing the username, which is a
> > sync property, to do the job of a source property (to specify the
> > account for activesyncd).  Should we change the eas backend to use (for
> > example) databaseUser to specify the account?
> > 
> > Or am I still confused (quite likely)?  
> 
> Further investigation has led me to discover that the carddav/caldav
> backends work the same way.  They use username and password (and also
> cannot be set when just configuring the source).

They can be set. WebDAV checks databaseUser/Password before it falls
back to the target-config setting in the context of the source.

> I also note that the current behaviour prevents running a SyncML client
> or server with either webdav or activesync as the backend database
> underneath.  But presumably that is not a design goal (only file, kde or
> evolution are allowed?).

No, all backends are meant to work also in a SyncML client or server.
For example, some people have used SyncEvolution as a transparent SyncML
frontend for a WebDAV server.

I have not comment further on your mail because Ove already explained
the concept correctly: the "target-config" contains properties that can
be shared by all sources in the same context. The goal was to avoid
redundancy in the configuration. Has that answered your questions?

I'd like to add that for credentials, SyncEvolution 1.4 also has the
possibility to set username/password once and then refer to that via
"id:" in the username property. From the 1.4 NEWS entry:

* config: enhanced password handling

  It is possible to configure a plain username/password combination
  once in SyncEvolution and then use references to it in other
  configurations, instead of having to set (and update) the
  credentials in different places. This is useful in particular with
  WebDAV, where credentials had to be repeated several times (target
  config, in each database when used as part of SyncML) or when using
  a service which requires several configs (Google via SyncML and
  CalDAV).

  To use this, create a sync config for a normal peer or a dedicated
  config just for the credentials, with "username/password/syncURL"
  set. The "syncURL" must be set to something identifying the peer if
  GNOME Keyring is used for the password storage.

  Then set "username", "databaseUser" and "proxyUser" properties to
  "id:<name of config with credentials>" and all read and write access
  to those properties will be redirected by SyncEvolution into that
  other configuration. This even works in the GTK UI.

  For user names which contain colons, the new "user:<user name>" format
  must be used. Strings without colons are assumed to be normal user
  names, so most old configurations should continue to work.

This only covers credentials and can be used in addition or instead of
sharing via target-config. At least with WebDAV, syncURL and loglevel
are also relevant for multiple sources. At least with some servers, the
same syncURL can be used to find CalDAV and CardDAV collections.

-- 
Best Regards, Patrick Ohly

The content of this message is my personal opinion only and although
I am an employee of Intel, the statements I make here in no way
represent Intel's position on the issue, nor am I authorized to speak
on behalf of Intel on this matter.