Using OmniFocus with two computers with iCal sync
 

Hello,

I keep switching computers between work and home, yet I share my GTD implementation between the two. To keep them synchronized, I use a file synchronizer ([URL="http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/index.html"]Unison[/URL]) to make sure I have the same version of the OmniFocus file on both sides (of course I quit OF before doing this).

I am now considering synchronizing to iCal, and I was wondering if the fact that I keep my iCal synchronized (using SyncTogether, which is a serverless and subscriptionless .Mac for synchronization, relying on SyncServices) would make things go awry.

Do you have an experience with using OF on several computers with iCal synchronization running as well ?

Thanks a lot.

Ouch. I have a similar situation. I think we are streatching tha capabilities of sync services. If Omni can make this work they would be heroes.

It's time apple bought out mark/space and fixed the sync services once and for all. I'm so sick of this.

I don't know of anything specific, but you may have some weird issues if you're syncing the Focus files directly, and also through iCal. So you probably want to do one or the other.

Option 1:We expect that if you have two machines, A and B, syncing OmniFocus A->iCal A->iCal B->OmniFocus B will work, but that's still on my list of things to test. If you take that approach, you'd want to stop syncing the OF files via Unison.

Option 2: I'm not familiar with SyncTogether, but does it have a feature to allow you to choose which iCal calendars to sync? If so, you could tell it not to sync the Focus calendars (the ones starting with "OF:"). Then you can sync your Focus files directly with Unison and sync Focus with iCal on either computer, and not worry about SyncTogether transfering the Focus info also and scrambling things up.

And whatever route you choose, email us if you encounter any unexpected issues.

[QUOTE=johnrover]It's time apple bought out mark/space and fixed the sync services once and for all. I'm so sick of this.[/QUOTE]

Heck, I'd be happy with the .Mac sync abilities for a lesser price (or free, but I'm realistic). $100/year is insane in this market -- there are too many free (or cheaper) alternatives.

I don't care about iDisk storage.
I don't care about free web hosting.
I don't care about (yet another) email address.

When I saw the guy from Google on the stage with Jobs during the iPhone keynote, I began dreaming of .Mac becoming a "branded" upgrade of some of the Google free services. "The reliability of Google. The of Mac" or something like that.

Let my sync my iCal, Keychains, Address Book, etc. for about $20-$25 a year and I'll be happy.

OK, I've now tried out the Focus -> iCal -> .mac -> iCal -> Focus syncing. It fails. But it fails in a way that means syncing your context calendars between iCals really won't mess up any of the other syncing you might be doing.

We don't have a copy of SyncTogether here at Omni, or I'd try that too.

[QUOTE=Lizard]Option 2: I'm not familiar with SyncTogether, but does it have a feature to allow you to choose which iCal calendars to sync? If so, you could tell it not to sync the Focus calendars (the ones starting with "OF:"). Then you can sync your Focus files directly with Unison and sync Focus with iCal on either computer, and not worry about SyncTogether transfering the Focus info also and scrambling things up.[/QUOTE]
I allows this, so I'll try this option. Thanks for the suggestion.

[QUOTE=Lizard]OK, I've now tried out the Focus -> iCal -> .mac -> iCal -> Focus syncing. It fails. But it fails in a way that means syncing your context calendars between iCals really won't mess up any of the other syncing you might be doing.

We don't have a copy of SyncTogether here at Omni, or I'd try that too.[/QUOTE]
Do you plan on fixing this? I would expect SyncTogether to behave the same.

In fact if all information for OF was synchronized to iCal, this would be the preferred way of synchronizing things.

[QUOTE=Lizard]Option 2: I'm not familiar with SyncTogether, but does it have a feature to allow you to choose which iCal calendars to sync? If so, you could tell it not to sync the Focus calendars (the ones starting with "OF:"). Then you can sync your Focus files directly with Unison and sync Focus with iCal on either computer, and not worry about SyncTogether transfering the Focus info also and scrambling things up.[/QUOTE]
Just a small question about this setup: when I create a task in computer 1 and sync to iCal, after synchronizing the OF file to computer 2 the status is: task in C2 and task not in iCal. Will synchronization do the right thing (add the task to iCal) and not the wrong thing (remove it from OF, as it may thought it was already synchronized hence must have been deleted)?

Similarly, how does OF track which side was modified? If I change the name of a task in iCal, I expect it to change in OF after sync. But moving to another computer with "stale" iCal data may have some strange consequences.