[QUOTE=JohnJ80;61101]I've probably overdone this to a certain degree. I use iCal on my laptop served off of a Mac OS X server using iCal server. I also have BusySync loaded on my laptop which allows me to sync my iCal calendars to Google Calendar. My family keeps all their calendars on Google Calendar. I then use nuevasync to do the activesync to my iPhone wirelessly. This all works great and keeps everything synced to everything else via Google calendar.

However, google tasks do not sync to tasks on the iphone nor do ical tasks sync to google tasks. The only way to do this is to turn each task into an event - which you can do with ical for that matter - and then have it notify you of events in this way.

The problem with this is that it greatly clutters up your calendar - just makes a mess of it. As well, you only get one warning with the activesync piece and that's also a problem. iCal has a very nice warning/alert method that allows you to add as many alerts as you want, but it doesn't sync through either through activesync or google calendar.

What I did do, and is on here under extras, is write an applescript that sends an action to Toodledo (web based todo service) as a todo. you can configure Toodledo to send an sms message to your phone about an hour before it is due. This *sort of* acts like what you describe and how it would work and *sort of* acts like push notifications with a timed delay.

That all said, iPhone 3.0 is supposed to include CalDAV support. I think, but am not sure (maybe someone more knowledgeable about CalDAV could jump in here), supports both tasks and calendars. If this is the case, and presuming that it fits with both iCal and Google calendar and tasks, then this problem may take care of itself by 6/17 when iPhone 3.0 comes out.

J.[/QUOTE]

Wow...

Here's to NOT having to

a) jump through endless hoops to get what we need working

b) run all our private data (and whole life) through Google to get what we need working

Down with the cloud - boo, hiss... :mad:

I am moving to iPhone BECAUSE of Omnifocus... please please make it do as much as possible so I don't have to re-enter that nightmare sync hall of mirrors again.. (Blackberry - pocket sync / missing sync - duplicate calendar entries and address book data...:eek:)

A complicated explanation for the fact that an appt entered on any one of my laptop, google calendar or my iphone is all wirelessly synced within 5 minutes to all the others - and that is very cool.

If only - and hopefully - apple allows tasks with alerts to be supported through an api on the iphone. then all this will probably work well for alerts from omnifocus.

J.

One idea for using push notifications for things like due soon badge counts:

Just use a combo of the device, client, and task IDs in the notice.

Desktop OF pushes a skeleton of due items to Omni server, omniserver monitors this database and fires notices to the iPhone. Only UUID strings are ever sent over the wire - means no privacy issues.

Not sure whether the push notice can contain arbitrary strings that are available to the app next time it launches so it can reconcile badge count from internal DB with the increments made by push service.

-Preston

[QUOTE=ptone;61560]One idea for using push notifications for things like due soon badge counts
[/QUOTE]

Count me in!

If you just update the icon badge counter via push notifications - which is sufficient for me (and many others I assume) - you don't need to store private task data on your servers, only the due dates. And only because the iPod touch users aren't always online is no reason to keep back this important feature for iPhone users.

I expect some sort of notification system from a "professional-grade personal task management" software. Push notifications are made for situations like this.

We absolutely do want notifications in OmniFocus, we just want them to be time-based rather than push-based (so they'll work when offline).

To that end, we've implemented calendar-based notifications for the next OmniFocus release for those who are syncing via MobileMe or WebDAV.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;62031]...for those who are syncing via MobileMe or WebDAV.[/QUOTE]

Interesting...what makes it not work for those syncing via Bonjour? (Not affected, but curious)

[QUOTE=Ken Case;62031]We absolutely do want notifications in OmniFocus, we just want them to be time-based rather than push-based (so they'll work when offline).

To that end, we've implemented calendar-based notifications for the next OmniFocus release for those who are syncing via MobileMe or WebDAV.[/QUOTE]

Will I be OK with Microsoft exchange syncing my Ical / Contacts and IMAP email accounts?

I am thinking of using that as it (microsoft exchange) is built into my IMAP email service - and I believe it will make my email far zippier (like Blackberry fast..) as compared with the rather pedestrian Mobile Me email delivery speed (am I crazy to think this?)

I am so keen on local geo alerts!!! - 100 yards from a hardware store? Get a pushed alert that you wanted to buy some nails! Come on! That would be amazing wouldn't it?

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;62034]Interesting...what makes it not work for those syncing via Bonjour? (Not affected, but curious)[/QUOTE]

The iPhone's calendar app doesn't have a notion of syncing a calendar from a Bonjour server.

[QUOTE=Casper TFG;62037]Will I be OK with Microsoft exchange syncing my Ical / Contacts and IMAP email accounts?[/QUOTE]

You'll just need to be syncing OmniFocus to a WebDAV server of some sort (MobileMe or otherwise). It doesn't matter where you sync the rest of your calendars or store your e-mail.

[QUOTE]I am so keen on local geo alerts!!! - 100 yards from a hardware store? Get a pushed alert that you wanted to buy some nails! Come on! That would be amazing wouldn't it?[/QUOTE]

I agree! We started asking asking Apple for this capability when we first wrote OmniFocus for iPhone over a year ago. Hopefully they'll get to it at some point; they certainly did give us a lot of other great features in 3.0!

While it does pose some privacy issues, and it's not exactly supported, etc. etc...

The "Find my iPhone" system on MobileMe looks imminently hackable. It's simple AJAX-based code running in your own browser. I'd be surprised if somebody hasn't already written a scriptable version of it that lets your server know where you are.

Run that server side, 15 minute locate interval. When the server notices you are near the hardware store, you can push "You're near the hardware store, you have 16 items to get there" notifications...

If a developer such as myself were interested in hacking this together, I'm wondering:
1. Is there an official way for me to dig into the OF data file? I've obviously looked at it a few times in the past, but not in too much depth. Is reverse engineering the bits that I need the best thing to do, or is there a possibility of some official library-style access tool?

1a. For a different project...if I want to modify OF data, is there a way to do this cleanly? I sync with MobileMe WebDav right now. I haven't looked seriously into the sync system that you're using; if the answer is to reverse engineer stuff, I'm fine with that. I just don't want to break anything, or reverse engineer it the day before the new version changes it all. (I have a few ideas for smart / context aware list stuff that I want to play around with. So my back-end would sometimes re-arrange my lists and stuff for me.)

2. On the iPhone, is there a URI registered that I can use to load OF into a specific place?

If I did the push notification scheme I'm talking about, I would add a helper app to the iPhone which popped up OF push notifications. When you hit "view", my app would load up, look at the context that had generated the notification, then open up this URI and start up OF at the right place.

(I'm an iPhone developer; I've got a prototype app doing push already)

Thanks,

gopi.