Mozilla Sunbird v0.5: Now With Two-Way Sync For Google Calendar
Yesterday Mozilla released an update to its standalone calendar application, Sunbird. The new version, .5 is still a beta and not without its quirks, but the update adds some much desired features like Google Calendar support and auto-importers for a number of other calendar applications.
Along with Sunbird, the Lightning tool to integrate Sunbird into Thunderbird has also been updated. You can grab Sunbird from Mozilla, but Lightning aficionados should take note of Mozilla’s installation warning: “be sure to backup the ICS file that it put in your profile directory, and uninstall the [Thunderbird] Calendar Extension before installing Lightning.”
The update brings some much needed speed and stability improvements, but the big news is the Google Calendar support. As Sunbird ships you’ll only have read access, but installing the Provider for Google Calendar add-on enables the two-way sync.
With Provider installed in either Lightning or Sunbird you can have the two-way sync with Google Calendar that you’ve always wanted. Having tested the add-on in Thunderbird some time ago I can say that the new versions of the app handle syncs much better. I still couldn’t find a way to set how often Provider syncs, but selecting File >> Reload Remote Calendars will force it to reload and it syncs in the process.
Given that Apple iCal users who want two-way sync with Google Calendar currently need, SpanningSync, a $65 program, to get this functionality, this a huge win for Sunbird users.
Mozilla touts the following additional improvements for Sunbird v.5:
- 42 new calendars added
- Much more polished user interface in the calendar views
- Automatic migration of data in Sunbird 0.2, iCal.app, and Evolution
- Much improved printing functionality
- Vastly improved reliability
- Many usability improvements
This version also features support for Universal binaries on the Mac.
In testing Sunbird this morning I didn’t notice any serious bugs, though I did have problems with a few Google Calendars. I found that for the best results you should use the URL for your “private calendar” when subscribing from Sunbird.
When Sunbird started up for the first time it automatically detected and imported my iCal calendars with only one issue — it lost the calendar names.
Also, I still find it somewhat confusing the distinguish between events/tasks in the list view atop the monthly calendar, it would be nice if these were displayed in the same color as the calendar they belong to (or at least listed the name).
Mozilla has a list of known issues in Sunbird, the most serious of which is that, in some cases, calendar data can become corrupted when two or more users are editing the file. But stability wise this is huge step up from the previous .3 version.
Sunbird v0.5 is an impressive release and shows that Mozilla is serious about its little-known calendar program. While its still an early release (technically listed as “for developers”) Sunbird has promise.
