Data collation and multisync

1. I'd be interested in packaging gpe-multisync for Debian IF a  
complete build environment (with configure.ac and Makefile.am) was  
available rather than patching an existing Makefile, plus the usual  
paraphenalia of ChangeLog, COPYING etc. I don't mind doing this myself  
- autoscan would do most of the work - if I have access. There'd need  
to be some kind of upstream "project home" with CVS/svn/foo - it's not  
too small for SourceForge (it's not going to be any smaller than  
gpe-expenses which is already in SF).

1a : Do the three tarballs need to be separate? Can they be produced  
from a single upstream home?

2. Just how does it sync with Palm PDA's? I have a utility that can do  
this if gpe-multisync would output XML. (The XML provided by glib-2.0  
would probably be fine, I'll handle the XSL from that, there may be no  
need for libxml2.)

3. What's involved in extending it to other data sources (like  
gpe-expenses)?

4. Can it (be extended to) support data collation? e.g. To prepare an  
invoice, I need to cross-reference Calendar (where I worked / for whom  
I worked) with Contacts (who to bill for the work) and Expenses (what I  
spent). I'd prefer to retrieve that data as a single data set, rather  
than syncing with three separate databases. Alternatively, should I  
create a "collation" utility for installation on the iPAQ to interface  
directly with the sqlite databases of contacts, calendar and my own  
expenses? (If it's my own, it would use libqof1 to handle the queries  
required to match data from one utility with data from another.) I  
could conceivably work it from a simple sqlite dump from the iPAQ to  
the host PC if necessary (as long as the sqlite table schemas remain  
stable). The Palm cannot do this kind of computation, so pilot-qof does  
it on the host whereas the iPAQ can do this portion of the work itself.

5. Can gpe-multisync (be extended to) support writing data directly to  
data files instead of applications? Other formats (XML)?

6. How to deal with expenses? There's no standard vcard/vtodo format  
that I can find.

7. Can it upload data to the iPAQ that has been exported as discrete  
vcard/vcalendar/vtodo files?

Basically, I want the same functionality on the iPAQ as I already have  
via the Palm and pilot-qof. Then I can extend that to create a larger  
financial utility for GPE that can handle rudimentary business  
accounts: gpe-cash.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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