4 ms·

DAVdroid: An open-source CalDAV/CardDAV synchronization app for Android 4+

37 points by mailinator12 12y ago

chrisballinger 12y ago
How does this compare to WhisperSystem's Flock? https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Flock https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Flock
- untitaker_ 12y ago
  From a first glance, Flock seems to do end-to-end encryption over CardDAV/CalDAV. DAVdroid is, as the name implies, just a sync client for CardDAV/CalDAV servers -- no end-to-end encryption. If you value privacy that much, Flock seems interesting, while the lack of end-to-end encryption in DAVdroid has other advantages (e.g. ability to use server's web UI, compatibility with other clients)
  - mailinator12 12y ago
    What do you mean, "end-to-end encryption"? How should contacts/events be transferred encrypted from/to a CalDAV/CardDAV server? Those servers expected icals and vcfs, not encrypted data.
    - untitaker_ 12y ago
      I don't know myself, this is just what i gathered from the README. It might be possible that they're still producing valid iCalendar and VCARD files, but with a lot of ciphertext in them.
      - mailinator12 12y ago
        That might be, but then CalDAV/CardDAV would be reduced to WebDAV, so it would only be a WebDAV-Sync (because the server couldn't reply to CalDAV requests like "show me events between xx and yy"). As far as I have seen, Flock only "encrypts" the connection, say, is using SSL. But please correct me if I'm wrong!
        untitaker_ 12y ago
        It specifically states that it does end-to-end-encryption (which is not SSL). I know the authors, and IMO they're not the kinda guys who throw around with buzzwords.
        mailinator12 12y ago
        i just can't imagine how this should work (to avoid saying that it can't work), so some specs or more information would be useful.
XorNot 12y ago
Ooh, exciting. Although my needs always seem to be shifting, because I'm back behind a NAT (and carrier-grade NAT as well) now so my new trial is finding a way to punch-through that and put all my devices on a common VPN before I get round to setting up CardDav/CalDAV servers for myself again.
Gormo 12y ago
I've been using DAVDroid since January to sync with my OwnCloud CalDAV/CardDAV server, and it's been working flawlessly for me. Every update in either direction has synced without a hiccup. Most of the issues I've experienced have been relatively minor, and have been the result of issues with the Android platform itself, and not DAVDroid: there's no to-do/task list integrated with the default Android calendar app, so tasks stored in CalDAV don't show up without a separate app, and most of third-party to-do list apps for Android seem to either have significant flaws in their own right, or use their own proprietary sync protocols rather than CalDAV. Additional, Android's contact list doesn't have exactly the same layout of fields as the CardDAV standard, so there are a couple of situations in which certain data hasn't synced properly. But, again, these issues have nothing to do with the DAVDroid app itself, which is excellent.
- untitaker_ 12y ago
  This is why i stay with CardDAV-Sync and CalDAV-Sync. The latter is compatible with a task app from the same author.
vader1 12y ago
I'm using DAVdroid in combination with Owncloud, which works very well. Unfortunately though the author does not want to add support for self-signed certificates, which is not a huge problem for us technical people (we can manually import the certificate into Android and deal with the silly consequences that brings), but it's a dealbreaker for being able to get the rest of my family off of google and onto owncloud.
- ge0rg 12y ago
  Yeah, the certificate situation on Android is really sad, if you cannot afford to buy/get a "proper" cert. I wish more applications would provide an easy way to use self-signed certs without totally compromising security. Edit: link to davdroid issue: https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/3 https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/3
  - 13throwaway 12y ago
    StartSSL offers free certs.
    - feld 12y ago
      until they're blacklisted by everyone because nobody revokes their compromised certs because it costs money to do so StartSSL's heart is in the right place but they're throttling the edge and very close to being ostracized completely.
    - gherkin 12y ago
      Looks like we crashed the site. I'm ironically getting SSL errors trying to log in.
- 13throwaway 12y ago
  Did you try adding your CA to /system/etc/security/ ?
  - vader1 12y ago
shared4you 12y ago
I discovered various CardDAV servers listed on Davdroid's homepage. I just installed Baikal server and worked flawlessly with Davdriod. THanks OP and DAVdroid !

37 points by mailinator12 12y ago

How does this compare to WhisperSystem's Flock? https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Flock https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Flock

untitaker_ 12y ago
From a first glance, Flock seems to do end-to-end encryption over CardDAV/CalDAV. DAVdroid is, as the name implies, just a sync client for CardDAV/CalDAV servers -- no end-to-end encryption. If you value privacy that much, Flock seems interesting, while the lack of end-to-end encryption in DAVdroid has other advantages (e.g. ability to use server's web UI, compatibility with other clients)
- mailinator12 12y ago
  What do you mean, "end-to-end encryption"? How should contacts/events be transferred encrypted from/to a CalDAV/CardDAV server? Those servers expected icals and vcfs, not encrypted data.
  - untitaker_ 12y ago
    I don't know myself, this is just what i gathered from the README. It might be possible that they're still producing valid iCalendar and VCARD files, but with a lot of ciphertext in them.
    - mailinator12 12y ago
      That might be, but then CalDAV/CardDAV would be reduced to WebDAV, so it would only be a WebDAV-Sync (because the server couldn't reply to CalDAV requests like "show me events between xx and yy"). As far as I have seen, Flock only "encrypts" the connection, say, is using SSL. But please correct me if I'm wrong!
      - untitaker_ 12y ago
        It specifically states that it does end-to-end-encryption (which is not SSL). I know the authors, and IMO they're not the kinda guys who throw around with buzzwords.
        mailinator12 12y ago
        i just can't imagine how this should work (to avoid saying that it can't work), so some specs or more information would be useful.

XorNot 12y ago

Ooh, exciting. Although my needs always seem to be shifting, because I'm back behind a NAT (and carrier-grade NAT as well) now so my new trial is finding a way to punch-through that and put all my devices on a common VPN before I get round to setting up CardDav/CalDAV servers for myself again.

Gormo 12y ago

I've been using DAVDroid since January to sync with my OwnCloud CalDAV/CardDAV server, and it's been working flawlessly for me. Every update in either direction has synced without a hiccup. Most of the issues I've experienced have been relatively minor, and have been the result of issues with the Android platform itself, and not DAVDroid: there's no to-do/task list integrated with the default Android calendar app, so tasks stored in CalDAV don't show up without a separate app, and most of third-party to-do list apps for Android seem to either have significant flaws in their own right, or use their own proprietary sync protocols rather than CalDAV. Additional, Android's contact list doesn't have exactly the same layout of fields as the CardDAV standard, so there are a couple of situations in which certain data hasn't synced properly. But, again, these issues have nothing to do with the DAVDroid app itself, which is excellent.

untitaker_ 12y ago
This is why i stay with CardDAV-Sync and CalDAV-Sync. The latter is compatible with a task app from the same author.

vader1 12y ago

I'm using DAVdroid in combination with Owncloud, which works very well. Unfortunately though the author does not want to add support for self-signed certificates, which is not a huge problem for us technical people (we can manually import the certificate into Android and deal with the silly consequences that brings), but it's a dealbreaker for being able to get the rest of my family off of google and onto owncloud.

ge0rg 12y ago
Yeah, the certificate situation on Android is really sad, if you cannot afford to buy/get a "proper" cert. I wish more applications would provide an easy way to use self-signed certs without totally compromising security. Edit: link to davdroid issue: https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/3 https://github.com/rfc2822/davdroid/issues/3
- 13throwaway 12y ago
  StartSSL offers free certs.
  - feld 12y ago
    until they're blacklisted by everyone because nobody revokes their compromised certs because it costs money to do so StartSSL's heart is in the right place but they're throttling the edge and very close to being ostracized completely.
  - gherkin 12y ago
    Looks like we crashed the site. I'm ironically getting SSL errors trying to log in.
13throwaway 12y ago
Did you try adding your CA to /system/etc/security/ ?
- vader1 12y ago

shared4you 12y ago

I discovered various CardDAV servers listed on Davdroid's homepage. I just installed Baikal server and worked flawlessly with Davdriod. THanks OP and DAVdroid !