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How to keep AirSet and Outlook in sync with group (company-wide) calendars and contacts lists?
Having casually used AirSet over the past year (mainly for the Mobile BREW app), I am still short of a full implementation for my needs because I am stuck on one (seemingly) simple requirement... I want to be able to keep Outlook as the primary data entry point for group (Web Computer) calendars and contacts and/or keep Outlook in sync as a "live" backup for group calendars and contacts.
Let's use a company wide calendar as an example (substitute Family-Calendar if you wish). I want to start with a calendar that I already have in Outlook that has all company wide events and sync it directly to a shared Web Computer (Doe Company-Calendar). You can do this of course by using the Desktop Sync utility and not syncing to [Personal] but by syncing to the Web Computer [Doe Company-Calendar]. But since you have to login as a user to access AirSet (and because the current Desktop Sync has an apparent bug), the "User" is automatically added as a participant for the event, and the event is automatically shared to the "User"'s personal calendar. This is a problem since the user syncing the calendar may very likely not be a participant for many of the events - so they all have to be edited on Airset to remove the user as a participant.
One runs into a similiar problem when trying to implement the basic idea of a company-wide directory. I have a complete contact list of all employees/suppliers/vendors etc. for a company in Outlook, and I want to push that straight to a similiarly titled Doe Company-Directory shared Web Computer. But, since "AirSet Sync is currently available for Personal Contacts only". I can only get the phonebook into Airset by again logging into Desktop Sync using some user and having their phonebook sync to their Personal Web Computer, and then sharing the personal contact list to the Doe Company-Directory Web Computer. This has a serious drawback in that the given user can not then have their own personal contact list. Alternatively, I can sync once and *move* the contact list from the user to the Doe Company-Directory shared Web Computer, but then I have broken the connection to Outlook and no longer have a "live" backup or sync.
I keep coming back to the thought that the only solution is to create a dummy or admin user for each critical group (Web Computer). For example, I would create a DoeCoAdmin user, and would setup Desktop Sync to access Airset using that user to sync the company wide calendar and contact in Outlook to the Doe Company calendar and directory web computer(s). For the Calendar I can have the DoeCoAdmin calendar sync directly to the Doe Company Web Computer (I don't really care at that point that the user would be marked as a participant), and I can have the DoeCoAdmin users personal contact list synced the the DoeCoAdmin Web Computer and then shared to the Doe Company Web Computer. That way any edits made by the share members are automatically reflected in the DoeCoAdmin users contact list (except for Notes and Tags, which is another issue), AND the company wide contact list is always synced back to Outlook.
This solution seems to solve the two major roadblocks I mentioned in trying to keep group (or company-wide) calendar and contacts in sync with Outlook, but I can't find any references to this approach in the support database so I keep thinking there must be a drawback. Please reply with any thoughts.
(P.S. for anyone who might be wondering why I would want to jump through this hoop to continue using/keeping Outlook fully in sync with AirSet, just imagine if AirSet were to shut down tomorrow).
Let's use a company wide calendar as an example (substitute Family-Calendar if you wish). I want to start with a calendar that I already have in Outlook that has all company wide events and sync it directly to a shared Web Computer (Doe Company-Calendar). You can do this of course by using the Desktop Sync utility and not syncing to [Personal] but by syncing to the Web Computer [Doe Company-Calendar]. But since you have to login as a user to access AirSet (and because the current Desktop Sync has an apparent bug), the "User" is automatically added as a participant for the event, and the event is automatically shared to the "User"'s personal calendar. This is a problem since the user syncing the calendar may very likely not be a participant for many of the events - so they all have to be edited on Airset to remove the user as a participant.
One runs into a similiar problem when trying to implement the basic idea of a company-wide directory. I have a complete contact list of all employees/suppliers/vendors etc. for a company in Outlook, and I want to push that straight to a similiarly titled Doe Company-Directory shared Web Computer. But, since "AirSet Sync is currently available for Personal Contacts only". I can only get the phonebook into Airset by again logging into Desktop Sync using some user and having their phonebook sync to their Personal Web Computer, and then sharing the personal contact list to the Doe Company-Directory Web Computer. This has a serious drawback in that the given user can not then have their own personal contact list. Alternatively, I can sync once and *move* the contact list from the user to the Doe Company-Directory shared Web Computer, but then I have broken the connection to Outlook and no longer have a "live" backup or sync.
I keep coming back to the thought that the only solution is to create a dummy or admin user for each critical group (Web Computer). For example, I would create a DoeCoAdmin user, and would setup Desktop Sync to access Airset using that user to sync the company wide calendar and contact in Outlook to the Doe Company calendar and directory web computer(s). For the Calendar I can have the DoeCoAdmin calendar sync directly to the Doe Company Web Computer (I don't really care at that point that the user would be marked as a participant), and I can have the DoeCoAdmin users personal contact list synced the the DoeCoAdmin Web Computer and then shared to the Doe Company Web Computer. That way any edits made by the share members are automatically reflected in the DoeCoAdmin users contact list (except for Notes and Tags, which is another issue), AND the company wide contact list is always synced back to Outlook.
This solution seems to solve the two major roadblocks I mentioned in trying to keep group (or company-wide) calendar and contacts in sync with Outlook, but I can't find any references to this approach in the support database so I keep thinking there must be a drawback. Please reply with any thoughts.
(P.S. for anyone who might be wondering why I would want to jump through this hoop to continue using/keeping Outlook fully in sync with AirSet, just imagine if AirSet were to shut down tomorrow).
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Inappropriate?@donsev
I have not tried your solution, but on the surface it seems to solve the issue you are trying to solve quite nicely. If your Outlook Calendar only holds events for the target group, then I can't think of any drawbacks.
However, if you choose to enter personal events into Outlook that don't belong in the shared calendar, then you may need to modify the Category field in Outlook for those events (AirSet uses the Category field to store the associated web computer name) so that your personal events don't end up in the shared group.
Let us know how it works out for you ! -
Inappropriate?Hi Jim,
Thanks for the feedback (although I was kinda hoping that I was missing something and there was an easier way to do this ;-)
Yes, I am familiar with the use of the Outlook category field and it's tie to the Airset Web Computers... too familiar, I must have thought this through 20 ways from Sunday trying to determine if this it the best/only way. As I have it layed out, the Outlook .pst file (calendar and contacts) would only contain the company wide (or family wide) information. I wish that Desktop Sync would support multiple Outlook Profiles (could'ya add that one to the new feature list for me), but instead I can use separate Windows User profiles, or just have all of the company/family stuff on a separate computer entirely.
I realize that somewhat by design, the Airset model of the universe is a subset by subset "add up the pieces to make a whole" approach. But, don't you find that most companies/families *already have* a superset calendar and contact list (say, in Outlook) that has generic entries that aren't "owned" by a specific user? And want to find a simple way to integrate what they already have with an Airset shared Web Computer? (As opposed to having to start with a clean slate... and having no real fallback system other than through import/export).
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