Hi
The author would like very much to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of the KDE/KDEPim/Kontact/Akonadi developers, testers, you name it, who have moved the gestalt of KDE/KDEPim/Koffice another step toward complete, and final, integration.

The author can confirm that the Kontact/Akonadi/Googlewhatever "trio" are now completely functional (using IMAP and moving to the side Ktimetracker(which has been removed from the PIM by many distros)).

Apparently, there was an update, the author thinks to MySql, which created this situation. If anyone would care to enlighten the author as to particularly what the update was, it would be very interesting to read.

This has been tested on:
a) Generic Ubuntu Oneric with Unity.
b) Ubuntu Gnome 2
c) SuperOS
d) Debian stock install
e) Kubuntu
f) Mint/Cinnamon

g) The final pregnant test was on Ubuntu Precise, in which the calendar worked and the mail did not. The reason that is considered to be an important test is that the mail has "always worked" while calendar worked only with fits and starts. That the opposite case holds true indicates that the other cases are not unique, but a pattern.

To not put too fine a point on the situation. The problem was, to the author, that of the passwords.

Since Gnome systems store passwords in Gnome-ring, and not Kwallet, Gnome-ring "worked" at some times and did not at others.

The answer to getting the whole system to work is two fold:
a) remove all Akonadi resources from the system.
b) remove all passwords from the system.
c) several restarts to let the "system" completely clear itself.
d) installing Kwallet if it is not present and if present then rebuilding using Kwallet for the passwords.

The author completely realizes that the Gnome-ring password group "should" work, but it just to seem to work in some instances and not in others and then work and stop one time after another.

For all the bad mouthing by various people of Kwallet, using Kwallet works, end of story(in this author's opinion).

Following is a step by step procedure that the author used on all of the previously listed systems.

A) first, some Gnome systems do not have a "user preferences" module wherein one can directly interact with Akonadi resources. One has to work "backward" through Kontact. That situation is tedious and fraught with the possibilities of user error.

It is recommended that if the Gnome user does not have a user preferences module that one install Akonaditray from Synaptic.

It is next recommended that if the Gnome user does not have Kwallet installed that the user so do.

Given that the above steps have been taken and that one is working with a system in which one has, on prior occasions, tried to get Kontact to work the following steps should be carried out in order.

IF the user has never attempted to set up Kontact then one can skip to step "E".

The assumption in these steps is that the user is not a CLI user. CLI users should use their own techniques.

B) First remove all of the Akonadi resources. If one cannot do it through Akonaditray or from user preferences, then one will have to work backward through Kontact/mail/calendar, but one needs to end up with the situation wherein there is no appearance of "google resources" in either the IMAP mail account or in the calendar.

C) In a Gnome system, use Gnome-ring or Password manager to remove ALL instances of ANY google related password. Restart the system and check to verify that this has, indeed occured.

D) In a system using Kwallet, open Kwallet manager and remove ALL folders with passwords. Again, restart to verify that these are, indeed, removed.

Note: The author quite realizes that re-entering the passwords for various applications will be tedious but considering the number of times that one enters passwords in any event compared to having a functional KDEPim, the entering of passwords one more time is a trivial event.

E) Restart again, just to check that the passwords and the Akonadi resources are gone.

F) Kwallet should ask for a password on the restart. Enter it.

G) Working through Akonaditray or user preferences, add the IMAP google resource. One will be asked for the gmail address (the COMPLETE address) and the password. When the IMAP resource is present "modify/edit" it for:

server: imap.gmail.com
user name: your complete gmail address.
In security/advanced:
security is SSL and port is 993.
Be SURE to check that "Clear Text" is ticked and NOT "Plain". They are not the same thing.

The system should sync with gmail, there should be two "sockets" going together and then there should be a green radio button.

Do not do anything in Kmail yet.

One should now go to a third e-mail client(such as Yahoo). If one does not have a third e-mail client then one should make one, such as Yahoo, for testing purposes.

If one thinks about it, one will be getting e-mails from MANY third clients and using Yahoo as a test will verify that, indeed, the system does not work.

Note: The author is well aware that one can generate an e-mail from with Gmail to Gmail, and if the user is sufficiently confident that he or she can not make any mistakes at all then go for it. However, again, using a third client is a trivial exercise compared to having a fully functional Kontact.

When the third client has been set up or opened then:

i) open gmail mail
ii) open Kontact mail
iii) generate an e-mail from the third client to gmail.
iv) One should, relatively quickly, see the e-mail appear in gmail. This serves as a test that an external client and gmail do, indeed, work so one is confident that the problem is not external to gmail.
v) VERIFY IN KMAIL that one is "checking mail" in the IMAP google resources mail sub system.
NOTE: it is recommended that the new user delete any and all "local folders". It has been the observation of the author, looking at many, many, many complaints around the net, that the user was checking the LOCAL mail folder when one should be checking the IMAP/akonadi/google resources folder.
vi) when one has verified that one is, indeed, checking the IMAP/akonadi/google folder, then "check mail" and the e-mail which appeared in gmail should quickly appear in Kontact mail.
vii) generate yet another e-mail from the third client and verify that it also appears in Kontact mail.
viii) restart the system.
ix) one will be asked to re-enter the Kwallet password and the google mail address and password.
x) go to user preferences or Akonaditray and add the google gcal resource. One will be asked by Kwallet for a password and by the system for the google e-mail and password.
xi) go to Kcalendar and verify that the google/akonadi/mail folder is enabled.
xii) with both windows open, in google calendar generate an appointment for one hour at a time of one's choice.
xiii) verify that one is checking the google/akonadi calendar resource and NOT a local calendar. If there is a local calendar either remove it or UNtick it.
ONLY the google/akonadi resource calendar folder should be ticked.
xiv) one can right click on that folder and one can make it the DEFAULT calendar. It is recommended that one do that. The experienced user can change the setting at any time.
xv) one has to right click on the google/akonadi resource and "refresh or reload" the calendar. Doing a "reload tab" in the browser does not always work. Doing it with a right click on the resource always works.
xvi) one should see the calendar item appear in Kontact calendar.
xvii) one should generate a second appointment in gcalendar. And, one should see it appear in Kontact calendar.
xviii) one now has two calendar items in gcalendar and Kontact calendar.
xix) one should now delete one of the items in gcalendar and then reload the calendar in Kontact calendar and one should see that the item disappears.
xx) one should now delete the other item in Kcalendar and one should see that it disappears from gcalendar.
xxi) the Kontact mail and calendar modules have now been verified to work.
xxii) IF one has NOT removed the local modules one has probably had a "complaint" from the system that other resources have not been able to be found and one has clicked them to close.

This was, in all probability, the system trying to find one's "contacts".
xxiii) go to Akonaditray or preferences again and add the google resources for contacts. One will immediately get a requestor from Kwallet and from google to enter the Kwallet password and the google mail and google password.
xxiv) one can now go to Contacts and one will see the IMAP folder but no contacts in the middle pane. Click the IMAP folder and the contacts will immediately appear. If one is syncing google with an Android phone contacts the Android contacts will appear also.

NOTE: Ktimetracker has been expressely not discussed because it seems to be "broken" for the forseeable future. When one tries to enter a "time" the module crashes.

Several distros have removed Ktimetracker(or it has been removed upstream) so it was not considered in this exercise.

NOTE: the journal and to do lists have always worked. The only caveat for to-dos is in formatting. If the to-do list is very LONG, when it is generated as a "page" to be printed, and flows onto two or more pages, the formatting loses some data "between pages".

However, if the to-do list is exported as a pdf this situation does not hold. All the data is present in a pdf and can be printed.

However, again, particular sub-headings may be lost but the data will be there.....IN ORDER OF TIME ENTERED into the to do database.

***************************

My, my but that was one very long post!

However, long as it may have been, the author wishes now to THANK PROFUSELY the people, who are un-named to the author for all of the long and diligent work which has been done to bring this situation to fruition.

In the authors view, the long worked for goal of complete integration of KDE/Koffice/KDEPIM/Kontact/Akonadi/google(whatever) is, indeed, on the horizon.

The effort to do this has been described by the author as having been truely Herculean. One of the tasks of Hercules in the Greek stories was to tame the savage bull, kept by King Minos of Crete, which was said to be insane and breathe fire. Hercules wrestled the mad beast to the ground and took it to King Eurystheus. Unfortunately, the king set it free, and it roamed Greece, causing terror wherever it went.

In like manner, the wonderful developers of KDE/KDEPim/Kontact/Akonadi have wrestled the the whole system to the ground and delivered it, operational, to the king(s)..... the makers of all the wonderful flavours of Linux which abound.

And, they, unfortunately, will release the system, and it will be like a bull in a china closet....and many will be the complaints that....."it doesn't work".

The wonderful developers cannot avoid those occurrences in the future, but at least the author....

can doff his hat to the community now.

Again, thank you all.

I remain,
your obdn't servant.
woodsmoke

P.S.....the above was a LONG post, if someone finds an error, please indicate it in a reply.

Wooow cool. thanks man

You are quite welcome! Although I don't know that I did that much, merely recounted what I did.

woodsmoke

Hi
This is a follow on to the above post and it is about how to do a "to do" in the "system" of Kontact todo list, Akonadi, Google/"tasks(todos)" and the cellphone.

One NOVEL item is that in one part of the "mix" of the whole thing a .pdf file[/pdf] can be generated which can then be "printed" as one would normally expect, as a hard copy to carry around or.....

One can move the .pdf to a smart cellphone and, using an app like "pdf reader" read the pdf on the phone instead of carrying the paper.

+++++++++++++++

This post will not be arranged "normally" because the whole thing is a "system" and one needs to step back and look at the "forest" before wandering through the trees.

A) It will first be about "how people use" and "how people generate" a todo list.

B) Second it will be about the interaction of the "system" mentioned in the title: that of: Kontact todo, Kcalendar, Akonadi, Google mail, Google calendar and the cell phone.

Fundamentally, one can say that "moving todos around between platforms" is still in the export/import .ical stage that calendars were not a long time ago.

C) It will then be about specifics of how a todo is "made" and then "moved" around in the system.

A)
a) First, let it be said that if one really uses todos in an industrial strength manner, that possibly the best thing to do would be to purchase a todo system that is designed, first and foremost, to operate from a cell phone and that also places the todos on "the cloud" and then one can also interact with them by making paper printouts and working on a desktop or laptop. Some of them are really "free" as in RTM or Remember the Milk, but even those are coming under the big guns of lawsuits of people who sell stuff. Evernote is another. However, I have not "particularly" used them to check out their full potential.

The simple fact of the matter is that given whatever type of PIM client one uses that is "based" in Linux, that it "goes through" other things and is not really what one would call heavy duty caliber in terms of doing something like doing a "mass change" to things like tags, whatever.

b) If one is a casual user of todos then one should consider which "part" of the system mentioned in (B) above that one feels the most comfortable using and what works best in the situation.

In other words, if one really only wants to make a paper printout and carry it in the classic notebook then one can use just about any Linux PIM and any version of a todo and that will work very well. These really have been pretty well worked out for some time now.

If one wants to use the Google end of things, it tries to be the "middle", then the todo function, called "tasks" is rather rudimentary at the best.

If one wants to use only the cellphone then, again, a free, or paid, app is the best way to go and don't worry about any of the rest of it.

B)

i) The following will be a discussion of how Google is used to make a "todo" (task) and where it can go to interact with other applications what format is produced and how it can be printed out.

Google's version of a "todo" is in mail, presently up in the top left corner and it is called "tasks". When one clicks the tasks word, one gets, presently, a small box at the bottom right with a not to intuitive interface that one can fiddle with to make a small todo. Todos are not really that big anyway so that is not a big deal. One can enter as many things as want and make several tasks. One can then send it as an e-mail to one's self. One then moves this mail to the inbox to an appropriate folder or one of one's making, the author used the " INBOX/calendar". There is a "more" tab above the e-mail with a variety of options one of which is "make an event". One clicks the item and gets what APPEARS to be "the calendar". However, that is not correct, it is, instead, a seperate window. When the event has appeared, one has to close the window. Then reload the "real" calendars tab and the event appears in the calendar.

In other words, the todo becomes an "event".

The important part of this process for the purposes of this discussion is that with the next sync the event will appear in the Kontact Calendar and that allows one to further manipulate it.

The main reason for this capability ( in the opinion of the author, and for the "casual user" ) is that if one is at work, suddenly thinks of a todo, and has it on that machine as a todo but also has moved it to the "home machine". It is also quickly on the cell phone. However, if one does not need the to do on the work machine, one can just make the "todo" as an "event" and that serves the same function about getting it to the "work machine".

ii) The following will be a discussion of how Kontact makes a todo and how it can "accept another item", such as an Ical from Google calendar, and how that can be used to make a todo and then how these can be used in other parts of the system or printed out.

This discussion is about how to make a "todo" of "an event" in Kontact whether the event arrived from the todo/event process at Google Calendar or if one made it as an event in Kontact calendar and then decided to make it a "todo".

However the event appeared in Kontact calendar, right click it and choose the option of "send as .ical" and then send it to ones self at gmail, (which is the default since this is about using gmail in the system. ONE WILL BE ASKED for the e-mail and password, but it will be rejected and the e-mail will then be in the outbox. If in a later operation it chooses to take the password it will go to gmail and then have to reappear at the inbox. But, the system is designed to not have that occur. One gets a popup which complains that the function cannot be carried out. It is recommended to then make a folder just for the icals of this type and move the e-mail to that folder.

Open the e-mail and in the lower pane will be a black box that has the item and inside it there will be a note to yourself, IF you have written such a note. The note will be the text of the todo. Right click that box and and select create an event or to do. One does not want to make and event of an event, so one clicks "make a todo" and the todo is made in both the calendar and in the todo window.

IT IS RECOMMENDED TO HAVE THE ITEM NOT BE A CONTINUING EVENT OR AN EVENT THAT GOES OVERNIGHT. It is reommended that one REDO IT....to make it an hour long. Akonadi sometimes balks at opening a daylong event or an overnight event. Just a piece of advice.

One will get a complaint box that local folder was not loaded, however, one did have it ticked and it will appear as a to do in the local calendar and in the todo window.

NOTE ON PRINTING A LIST IN THE TODO MODULE.

One prints from "file" but the actual item that is presented to print is a .pdf. The simple reason for this is that data can be lost if the todo list is "just printed". It is so long that it flows over several pages. The data is lost in the transition between pages.

Printing to a .pdf saves the data.

Of course, this is not a "real" print to .pdf. It is really a form of the old style "print to file". The file is in dropped into "home" and, if one has not retitled it it has a name somewhat like "job X.... something".pdf.
The .pdf is very nicely formatted with a colour title at the top, date of creation, etc. In other words everything one needs for a paper format.

PLEASE SEE NOTE IN NEXT SECTION ABOUT READING THE .PDF in one's cellphone.

iii) The following will be a discussion of how a cellphone can be used to make a "todo like thing" and how Kontact, and also how Google calendar, can interact with it.

a) Assuming that one is using the above system, there is an app in the Android phone that is called: "pdf reader". It is very small and works very well.

I )One can move the .pdf to the phone in any way one wishes, as an attachment in an e-mail, or the above way or by tethering or using bluetooth.

In EITHER CASE....one now has the "paper list" IN THE PHONE!! kewl! No need to carry the paper list if one does not want to do that.

II) One can also purchase a version of a kind of "Open Office" and if one want's to select the text from the .pdf on the computer and save it as a .doc, or whatever, and move it to the phone one can interact with the text, possibly deleting a finished to do, or marking it done, or something, on the phone.

This will NOT sync back with Kontact, but it is a novel way of using the .pdf on the phone.


b) Install or purchase an app that will produce an .ical file that can be e-mailed to the rest of the system or make an event and follow the above steps.

c) Sync with either a tether or Bluetooth to skip the above steps and go directly to making the todo in Kontact.

So, to summarize what was a LONG post.

The whole process is rather labyrinthine, and in the style of the old process of moving an .ical file around and around in a circle. It is not something that most people would want to do for a large bulk of "previous stuff". But it works well enough for the casual user who wants to use "the whole system".

However, There really are two "cut to the chases" and one of them is novel( and I have not seen it elsewhere, it is possibly unique to the author If anyone has information about a previous post or article about using a .pdf in a cell phone the author would be grateful for a linky! ).

X) Most folks will "probably" just use the paper version.
X') instead of printing the .pdf move it to a cellphone and read it using a "pdf reader" app.

Hope this helps someone and if there are questions, please ask.

woodsmoke

Here:seems to be "the fix" for the whole thing re/Google mail as posted by TheMacster at the Kubuntu forums.

woodsmoke