Rated 1 out of 5 stars

by glc25 on Aug. 26, 2009 · permalink

I tried version 0.8.10 in the following configuration :

I needed to maintain synchronization for my contacts between Gmail, Thunderbird, and my Nokia E71 (Symbian S60 3rd edition) .

So I used :

1 / Zindus 0.8.10 for Thunderbird < = > Gmail
2 / Google Sync (through Mail for Exchange) for Gmail < = > Nokia E71

While synchronizing in step 1, all contacts seem to be ok when transfered to Gmail by Zindus
But after step 2, contacts that originally had TWO words or more in first name field were splited by Zindus in first and second name.
Here's an example :

BEFORE :
First name : Ana Luisa (Vera Cruz)
Second first name : (not defined)
LastName : (none)

AFTER synchronizing through Zindus, the same contact appears on the Nokia as :
First Name : Ana
Second first name : Luisa (Vera Cruz)

So that while searching on my Nokia's directory, the contact appears as truncated in the results list, showing just "Ana"

I know the second second first name is artificially created by Zindus and not by the other tools or extensions indicated above, because when I do the same kind of synchronization without Zindus, it works perfectly and contacts remains the same through all the process.

For example :

1 / Mozilla Funambol extension for Thunderbird < = > Nokia E71 (contacts)
2 / Google Sync (through Mail for Exchange) for Gmail < = > Nokia E71

In this case, it works perfect, and the original data remains the same in mobile's directory at the end of step 2 ( "Ana Luisa (Vera Cruz)" and no "Second first name" field created on the phone's directory).

"Second first name fields" don't exist neither in Gmail nor in Thunderbird, so why Zindus splits artificially the second and further words in a "second first name" ? I never asked Zindus to change and corrupt my data ! :-( I just want my data to remain intact from end to end in a synchronization process that can be longer and more complex than just Thunderbird < = > Gmail.

So please, let the data as they are, if people want to store two words in the same "first name field", it's probably because they have good semantical reasons to store their data in this manner.

Furthermore, there's no way to easily specify or know the synchronization interval in Zindus options like in other similar plug-ins (that are also buggy for other reasons) altough we can find those parameters in advanced parameters of Thunderbird, so that when we close Thunderbird 10 seconds after having modified contacts, we don't know if the data are synchronized before Thunderbird shutting down, and they aren't updated actually.

The best source of inspiration for the improvement of synchronization schedule options in Zindus would be the similar options in Xmarks extension for Firefox, that are really perfect.
It synchronizes the data on Firefox startup, shutdown (optionnaly prompting) and at user's specified intervall, so that everything is clear for users.