iSync - Not impressed at all.

[ilsa]

I just set up the isync connector for our company (5.0.16).
Calendar

All it does is automate the creation of a caldav entry in iCal, which I had already done myself and was working (apart from the known issue involving osx 10.6 and not being able to update calendars. I'm harping on the sysadmin to apply the latest patches for that...)
Contacts

Not only does it not sync the GAL (which is probably the second most important part, after calendar) but it makes no effort to separate the synced address books in Zimbra to Address Book on the mac. It wiped out my existing contact groups on first sync, and then combined the whole thing into one big shapeless and disorganized mass.
I can see from searching the forums that these problems have been around for a very long time (The earliest message I found regarding the groups issues was from sept '08). The GAL workaround is flatout unacceptable, especially since there is no way at all to segregate the GAL contacts from other contacts without extensive manual labour.
These are things that have been requested by countless users, and at least as far as the GAL problem is concerned, Zimbra has flat out said that it will not fix this problem.
I would very much like an explanation as to Zimbra's refusal to fix these problems.

[329alchemy]

I'd also like to know the status of how contacts are expected to sync in future releases. I have had 01.com tell some of my clients to just NOT use the iSync connector, because it's unreliable. I have found that myself, as well - that it simply does not keep contacts in sync amongst multiple machines.
Right now Snow Leopard does a great job of connecting to Exchange 2007 server, and I'd never thought I'd say that.
Another big challenge is how small businesses work differently than a large organisation. They don't really want a GAL, they want an address book that is shareable/editable/updatable amongst everyone in the company in an offline-cache fashion.
I have held off from recommending Zimbra as a solution for anyone until we are out of this state of "limbo" with the iSync connector, or CardDAV is supported.

[ewilen]

My main problem with the iSync connector is that I suspect that it's responsible, or partly responsible, for massive duplication of contacts in Zimbra. Can't say for sure; iPhone ActiveSync may be another factor.
That said, with regard to synching the GAL, you may or may not be aware that Mac Mail will autocomplete based on the GAL if you have LDAP configured in Address Book. iCal 4 will also autocomplete based on the GAL, but only if you have a newer version of Zimbra. (The feature was added as part of https://bugzilla.zimbra.com/show_bug.cgi?id=21489. 5.0.18 is the first release that has it.)

[15539sam]

Regarding the future of the iSync connector...
When we started supporting the Mac desktop, to synchronize calendar & contacts a SyncServices based connector was required, and the iSync connector was born. Apple has/is adopting alternate standard protocols (CalDAV & CardDAV) in their clients (iCal and AddressBook) and since we are huge fans of standard protocols, we're focused on supporting CalDAV and CardDAV natively in ZCS. Apple is moving forward in the right direction and we certainly favor complete Mac desktop integration without the need for additional client software.
CalDAV is fully supported today. You can point iCal directly at ZCS without any other client software and your calendar(s) will sync.
ZCS supports CardDAV today but we're waiting on our friends in Cupertino to finish up Apple AddressBook support. Keep an eye bug 22008 for progress.

[pmonks]

[QUOTE]CalDAV is fully supported today. You can point iCal directly at ZCS without any other client software and your calendar(s) will sync.[/QUOTE]
err.........I beg to differ.

[ewilen]

The thread you reference involves iCal 4 (Snow Leopard) and an unknown version of ZCS. Perhaps you have an old version of ZCS?
I use iCal 4 with ZCS 5.0.20 and it's fine except for some glitches. The most prominent that I've noticed are:
Bug 41002 – Compatibility with Google calendar's 'Show As: Free/Available' setting (Actually this has to do with iCal's "Set as free" not synching. Note: fixed in GnR.)

Bug 42120 – Calendar Appointment Disappears when moving from one Calendar to another (Fixed in 6.0.4 and in the upcoming 5.0.22.)

Bug 40541 – ical notifications box not functioning (What remains of the bug is a bit of an edge case, but it can cause confusion.)

Bug 40833 – CalDav with iCal 10.6 Snow Leopard doesn't respect partstat

Bug 41365 – iCal can't edit events in shared calendars

[pmonks]

Elliot, I pinged our sys admins and they report that they've recently (in the last week or so) upgraded to Zimbra 5.0.21. I've not noticed any change in behaviour - the warning symbol is still visible in iCal, the error message is still the same, and none of the appointments I add directly into iCal sync to Zimbra.

[ewilen]

Hm, my experience and others' says it should work.
So I'd suggest trying to isolate the problem to either you or the server. My first step would be to create a new account in MacOS, then set up iCal within that account. If it works, then you might have some corrupted iCal data. Or you could just delete all your local ical data. I think I posted a list of places to look. I'll edit this message if I find it.
If not, you could ask your sys admins to create a test account, and so forth.
Also, if you have iSync connector, then your site has a Zimbra Professional license, which gives them access to Zimbra support.
BTW the appended forward slash you mention in your post is normal.
EDIT: here's the post where I was able to solve a problem by deleting a bunch of stuff in a Mac account: http://www.zimbra.com/forums/isync-caldav/30833-solved-caldav-errors-ical.html#post154462