Implement one-way contact / calendar syncing

This repo contains a python program which can dump the calendars

http://git.matt.colyer.name/?p=2009/iphone-calendarsync.git;a=summary

It appears mail account sync is a bit "special":

• pushes only account settings, no mail messages or related
• can only be "pushed" from the computer to the device (thus one can only sync with one computer as another one would not know about any unique ids associated with a synced mail account)
• it seems even iTunes doesn't get it right and people encounter a few sync issues (device cancels sync session, record commit fails, ...)
• one has to remove all accounts on the device before syncing new ones to the device

A sample mail account record:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
	<string>SDMessageProcessChanges</string>
	<string>com.apple.MailAccounts</string>
	<dict>
		<key>3E63A1D6-4B7B-686C-BC04-26B0BB3F323E</key>
		<dict>
			<key>AuthenticationScheme</key>
			<string></string>
			<key>AccountName</key>
			<string>mail.google.com</string>
			<key>AccountType</key>
			<string>SMTPAccount</string>
			<key>PortNumber</key>
			<string>25</string>
			<key>Hostname</key>
			<string>mail.google.com</string>
			<key>ShouldUseAuthentication</key>
			<string>YES</string>
			<key>uniqueId</key>
			<key>3E63A1D6-4B7B-686C-BC04-26B0BB3F323E</key>
		</dict>
	</dict>
	<false/>
	<string>___EmptyParameterString___</string>
</array>
</plist>

This is quite awesome. I would love to have the protocol to delete, update and add records to the device. I'll see what I can do about #35 [PATCH] Fix receive of plists larger than a packet.

To delete a record add the record id nodes twice:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
	<string>SDMessageProcessChanges</string>
	<string>com.apple.Bookmarks</string>
	<dict>
		<key>153E95CE-4813-4265-8E17-B7F10747FFEC</key>
		<key>153E95CE-4813-4265-8E17-B7F10747FFEC</key>
	</dict>
	<false/>
	<dict>
		<key>SyncDeviceLinkEntityNamesKey</key>
		<array>
			<string>com.apple.bookmarks.Folder</string>
		</array>
		<key>SyncDeviceLinkAllRecordsOfPulledEntityTypeSentKey</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
</array>
</plist>

To add or update a record, just send the full record data for an id:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
	<string>SDMessageProcessChanges</string>
	<string>com.apple.Bookmarks</string>
	<dict>
		<key>153E95CE-4813-4265-8E17-B7F10747FFEC</key>
		<dict>
			<key>parent</key>
			<array>
				<string>81A46F6A-85D3-5D49-94C7-4FCE0BAA84C2</string>
			</array>
			<key>position</key>
			<integer>12</integer>
			<key>name</key>
			<string>New Folder</string>
			<key>com.apple.syncservices.RecordEntityName</key>
			<string>com.apple.bookmarks.Folder</string>
		</dict>
	</dict>
	<false/>
	<dict>
		<key>SyncDeviceLinkEntityNamesKey</key>
		<array>
			<string>com.apple.bookmarks.Folder</string>
		</array>
		<key>SyncDeviceLinkAllRecordsOfPulledEntityTypeSentKey</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
</array>
</plist>

The last node tells the device it should remap ids and report them back.

The device answers with a SDMessageRemapIdentifiers and a list of key/string pairs which you update your local ids with.

I thought about storing the first sync in binary plists and use their last file modification time as last sync time for a data storage type. However, I don't know a good way where to pull changes from afterwards.

Perhaps it would now be the time to rather use this for a Conduit plugin.

Here is another one that provides a basic Conduit module for contacts.

I believe things reach a point where this ticket should be marked as resolved, since all the work left does not affect libiphone (but python-iphonesync)