Add ActiveSync support to Horde for allowing Horde to sync with mobile devices using the mobile device's support for Microsoft Exchange/ActiveSync. Use Z-Push library (http://z-push.sourceforge.net) for handling ActiveSync protocol communication.
Michael Rubinsky
Jan Schneider
Integrate the Z-Push library into Horde. Provide the ability for Horde to provide over the air synchronization of email, contacts, and calendar data to devices such as the iPhone/iPod Touch, Android and any other system supporting ActiveSync. This implementation supports Microsoft ActiveSync protocol versions up to 2.5 - the version implemented by Microsoft Exchange 2003.
The ActiveSync code has been merged into git master, but is not active by default. You should be aware that this code is still considered experimental. While it mostly works for me in my tests, on my test devices, there may still be bugs. It may work, it might not, or it might make your iPod grow legs and run for higher ground. You have been warned.
To activate the server, you need to enable it in Horde's configuration, on the ActiveSync tab. There are two possible state drivers, a file based driver based on Z-Push's diff backend, and a Horde_History based driver that is orders of magnitude more efficient for synching with Horde. The file based state driver is included as a state driver for those using the Horde_ActiveSync library as a solution for other groupware backends. You should use the History driver with Horde. You will need to create the SQL tables that the driver uses using the horde/scripts/sql/horde_activesync.sql creation script.
You will also need to configure your webserver to redirect the URL Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync to your horde/rpc.php file. How you do this depends on your webserver and it's configuration. For Apache, something like:
Alias /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync /var/www/html/horde/rpc.php
or for lighttpd:
alias.url = ("/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync" => "/var/www/html/horde/rpc.php");
Contacts, Calendar and Task syncing are mostly working. The only client with task support that has been tested is the TouchDown client. Neither Android or the iPod/iPhone have a native ActiveSync tasks application.
Provisioning along with remote wipe is also working on devices that actually support it.
This code has been tested to some degree on the following devices:| Device | Version(s) | Provisioning | Notes |
| Android SDK Emulator | 2.0.1 and 2.1 | Does NOT support provisioning and will NOT work with it set to Force or Allow. | Contacts only as the emulator does not have a native calendar application |
| Motorola Droid | 2.0.1 and 2.1 | No (See above) | Contacts and Calendar data, though the calendar does not issue PING requests, and does not seem to properly support exceptions to recurring events. |
| Motorola Milestone | 2.1 | See important note below | ?? |
| TouchDown For Droid | Version 5.1.0028 | Yes | Contacts, Calendar (You can create recurring events, but cannot edit them. Also, recurring events with exceptions are not supported at all. See Touchdown website for details), and Tasks. |
| iPod Touch | 3.1.3 | Yes | Contacts and Calendar |
IMPORTANT NOTE There have been reports that some devices running Android 2.1 DO have support for provisioning, however there have been reports of major issues with regards to the unlock password screen. Evidently, once a password is set it looks like it's impossible to remove it. I have tested both the 2.1 SDK emulator as well as the Motorola Droid (NOT the Milestone) and these still do NOT support provisioning. This issue might be limited to the Milestone device. That being said if you plan on having users with Android 2.1 devices, do NOT enable provisioning unless you are willing to deal with this issue.
It's beyond the scope of this page to go into detail for each individual device. In general, you will need to create a new account on your device. The account type should be something like Microsoft Exchange or ActiveSync. Some devices use Corporate. You will need to enter your normal Horde username and password in the appropriate fields. In the field for the server address, you should enter the root of the webserver or virtual host that hosts Horde. For example, if you host horde at http://host.example.com/horde then you should enter http://host.example.com. You can ignore any reference to a domain entry.
A special note for the iPhone/iPod (and possibly others) - if you do not use a SSL enabled site you may receive errors about not being able to find the ActiveSync server. If this happens, just continue, or save, or whatever your option is to continue. On the iPhone, after everything is completely set up, you must go back into the account settings and disable SSL.
After the connection particulars are entered, you should choose to enable the folders that you want sync'd. Contacts, Calendar and Tasks are supported, but your device also needs to support the requested folders.
Provisioning allows devices to be more tightly registered with a particular server. It enables the server to be able to send policy settings to the device. These policy settings include things like requiring a PIN to unlock the device, the complexity of the PIN required, the number of failed login attempts allowed etc... Additionally, it enables devices to be remotely wiped so that if a device is lost or stolen, the user or administrator can request the device to be wiped.
As of yet, no user interface yet exists for initiating a remote wipe, but the functionality is there. To manually test this, you need to set the value of the device_rwstatus field from 0 to 2 and change the value of device_policykey to 0 in the horde_activesync_device table for the device you want to wipe. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING - THIS RESETS SOME DEVICES TO FACTORY DEFAULTS
The next time the device attempts to request a command other then PING or OPTIONS, it will be wiped. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! After it is wiped, if you wish to allow the device to connect to your server again, you should remove the entry in the device table for the device so it can be rebuilt. If you do not remove this entry, or at least set the value of rwstatus back to 0, the device will continue to be wiped each time it reconnects to the server.
If you are not even able to get past the initial setup page on your phone: you should first check to be sure you do not have SSL enabled on the phone when you're server is not serving SSL. The iPhone/iPod will not let you turn this off until after you save the configuration, so you must continue through all the errors and go back into the settings to disable SSL. You should also make sure that you have not enabled Provisioning support if your phone does not support it.
If the configuration went well, but you are not seeing any contacts/calendar items appear on the device: Some clients require a manual refresh or folder selection after setup when not using the "Automatic Discovery" facility of Exchange. With TouchDown, for example, after setup you must select the folders you want sync'd under the Advanced settings tab. If you can't figure out this issue, we will be happy to try to help work it out, but you should be able to check/provide us with the following:
http://z-push.sourceforge.net
https://zimbrabackend.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/zimbrabackend/zimbra.php
Some discussion/issues/info on calendar sycing
http://z-push.sourceforge.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=119&start=10
Some discussion on remote wipe issues with various devices
http://z-push.sourceforge.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=802
Useful information/examples:
http://wiki.openchange.org/index.php/ActiveSync_Protocol
Another AS implementation in PHP - there is some good implementation information there for the taking.
https://svn.tine20.org/svn/trunk/tine20/ActiveSync
TouchDown Client:
http://www.nitrodesk.com/dk_touchdownFeatures.aspx
Android SDK:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
iPhone/iPod Touch EAS:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf
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