fruux blog

Well - not exactly free beer. We just wanted to catch your interest. And obviously it worked.

Here is a brief summary of the topics we are currently working on.

basic features:

• signup and modify your account via client application
• deploying additional sync servers (we thought about using google app engine, but currently gae is no final product and has no ssl support. anyway we have a working beta of the fruux server running on gae. if google starts production mode and adds ssl support: we are already prepared)
• addressbook group syncing
• webapplication (manage your contacts on the go)
• social features (described here)

maybe basic, maybe pro features:

• ical syncing
• preferences syncing
• safari bookmark syncing

pro features:

• external sync plugins
  • google contacts plugin (sync your contacts with your gmail / google apps contacts)
  • google calendar plugin (sync your ical calendars with your google calendar

Although all of the above is work in progress, you wont see everything right in the next release!

We’d rather like to here what features you would like to see in the next version of fruux! What features are most important to you? Are there any additional features you’d like to see in the next version of fruux?

We are looking forward for your comments, your posting on our fruux @ facebook page and/or your emails.

UPDATE:

Maybe we should postpone our google contacts plugin? Apple added iPhone <-> Addressbook.app <-> google contact syncing with 10.5.3 (via: Google Mac Blog).

We finally decided about our WWDC attendance (and got our flight booking confirmation).

Also attending WWDC ‘08?
Feel free to get in touch (comments, emails, fruux @ facebook, …).

Some hints, if you’re attending WWDC for the first time:

• Download and install the BART Widget (b.t.w. ADA 2007 winner)
• Want to use public transit-busses? You need coinage! There is no change!
• You’ll probably need a travel transformer if you’re not from the US
• Have a look at the WWDC Hints over at MacGuys.Com
• Andy had a nice idea: print out the icon of your project on a little 2 inch square and stick it into your WWDC badge
• More hints? -> comment!

Looking forward to meeting several nice people (unfortunately not all of them) again!

With the help of your nice feedback, we worked on a bugfix release during the last days.

Changelog:

• (FIX) No more iSync error messages at the console, when syncing cell phones
• (FIX) No more birthday conflicts, when using the reset function
• (FEATURE) Added german localization

If you are are current fruux betatester, you’ll get an email including the download location of the updated client. If you are interested in betatesting fruux, follow these steps.

Just in case there is an updated version of your new favorite application, here are the necessary steps.

1)

• Doubleclick the new fruux Preference Pane

2)

• Click “Replace”

3)

• Click “Synchronize Now” in the fruux Preference Pane
• Click “Allow” in order to grant the updated fruux application to the account information you previously stored in your keychain (This step is very important! Since fruux is not “codesigned” yet, you have to manually grant the keychain access after an update).

Several lion-hearted people out there started testing fruux during the last week. Taking the system stats into account it even looks like there are some everyday/productive users besides the team.

It’s a great pleasure that some of you already adopted fruux into your everyday life!

Now we’d like YOU to join us testing fruux!
Applying is quite simple, just get in touch with us and tell us a bit about you and your motivation to test fruux. We’ll happily provide you with the fruux application and a demo account.

While we are readying the system for a broader betatest our pixelguru Martin spent some time on the icon of our client application. The journey started of course with our logo.

Adding some gloss and depth… adding some details and glow… adding more depth and a typical system preferences icon shadow… well yes - it’s not ready yet, but sufficent for our upcoming beta.

The following screenshots show the current look and feel of our application.

Our icon still needs some optimization for different resolutions and sizes.

fruux is meant to simplify your digital life. When syncing different devices and services you might run into troubles called sync conflicts.

Just think about the following scenario:

1. you modified one of your contacts phonenumbers on the go via the (not yet demoed) fruux webapplication
2. then you modified the very same contacts phonenumber on your laptop (lets assume you had no internet access while doing this)

The outcome of this example is a sync conflict. The fruuxServer and your local system now contain different phonenumbers for the same contact. As the system has no idea which phonenumber is the correct one, it just asks you.

Reviewing the sync conflict gives you a nice dialogue (left side shows your local addressbook, right side shows the data from the fruuxServer). Now it’s really easy to choose the correct contact, by just clicking on the correct card.

After choosing the correct card you just restart the sync via the “Sync Now” button and immediately both your local system and the fruuxServer are in sync again.

For buzzword-compliance-reasons we are micro-blogging now, too. In other words: you are welcome to follow us at Twitter. It may or may not make sense to follow us if you want the first invites for our upcoming private beta (no timeframe yet). Of course blogging about fruux and commenting also boosts your chances to get invited to our private beta when it starts.

It’s been a while since our last post, but it was worth the wait. This screencast shows the first demo of our sync client including a graphical user interface. The video shows the following steps:

• empty database on the fruuxServer
• the content of the local addressbook
• installing and running the client
• fruuxServer database in sync with local addressbook
• changing a name in the local addressbook
• syncing again
• fruuxServer database in sync again

Just some comments:

• yes the gui isn’t very pretty yet and we have to add our logo
• the screencast shows just first- and lastname in the database of the fruuxServer, but of course all other entities have been synced as well. the system is able to handle all the custom entities!
• there is no public betatesting yet, but hopefully soon

Looking forward for your comments.

This screencast shows a very early version of our sync client. So far there’s no graphical user interface. We just wanted to share this video with you as a little non-vaporware proof.

What actually happens in the video is the following:

• the client uploads the local addressbook to the server
• the local addressbook is deleted
• the client runs again and fetches all the previously uploaded records from the server

Even in this early version we already support every entity of the addressbook, including the custom entities.

Just in case you wonder, why the client fetches all the records from the server during the second run instead of deleting them on the server as well (this is what would happen in a real sync): we cheated a bit. the second time the sync-client is invoked, it gets a special parameter that forces the client to rebuild the addressbook with the data stored on the server.