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Idea #21786: Gmail Integration in Evolution

Written by Shady3D the 10 Oct 09 at 19:45. Related project: Evolution Mail and Calendar. Status: New
Rationale
setting-up Gmail in Evolution every time is a hell for non geeks. calendar, address-book, and notes are a completely different thing.
Tags: (none)

923
votes
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Solution #1: Gmail Template
Written by Shady3D the 10 Oct 09 at 19:45.
the setup wizard will just take the username and password and thats it.

what will the wizard do is:
1. connect to Gmail using POP or IMAP
2. better address-book sync
3. auto connect with Google Calendar
4. auto connect with Google Tasks(i don't know if there is API available for that)
96
votes
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Solution #2: Import config settings like in Thunderbird.
Written by ActionParsnip the 13 Oct 09 at 11:33.
Not too hard, could be a simple option on the initial startup screen.
230
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Solution #3: Solution #1 + Live Mail, AOL, etc
Written by tmoc the 14 Oct 09 at 03:34.
Yes, I know this idea is about GMail, but we might as well add the same type of support for Live Mail and AOL, which both offer POP access as well.
145
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Solution #7: Integrate the whole "conversation" idea of Gmail
Written by Zaklikestorawk the 29 Oct 09 at 21:43.
I love how in the browser Gmail the conversations are put into those handy little "Conversation threads"

I'm not sure about you guys, but I would even use evolution till the conversation threads are in.
36
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Solution #8: Create new online account management application
Written by optevo the 1 Nov 09 at 22:48.
Introduction:
An online account management application (OAMA) should be created. This application would have a simple interface and will store authentication information for various online accounts (google, hotmail, etc). In addition to basic account information, it could also store common preference associated with such accounts eg.
- IMAP vs POP
- which email account is the default
- whether to use a given account for any/all of email, chat, calendar
- whether to set the account up in the browser (eg. create bookmarks and save user/password information for the relevant site)

Whenever a Communications Application (ComApp) such as a email (eg Evolution, Thunderbird), chat (eg Empathy, Pidgin), calendar (eg Evolution, Sunbird), etc is launched for the first time it should either
1. Take existing settings that were set within the OAMA and auto-configure itself accordingly
2. If the OAMA has never been launched, the ComApp should invoke it first

ADVANTAGES:
- Once the OAMA has been run, any ComApp should be able to be launched with zero initial configuration and be usable
- Single point of configuration for all ComApps
- Easier configuration of all ComApps
- Easier to change between different ComApps

Additional suggestions:
If a preference that is managed by OAMA is changed within the ComApp, the preferences in the OAMA should be updated. In other words, there should be a 2 way sync between the OAMA and all ComApps

It might be worth considering having the OAMA run as part of the Ubuntu install process.
13
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Solution #9: Use a certain Canonical-sponsored cloud service.
Written by natetechboy128 the 3 Nov 09 at 04:34.
If you sync .gconf/apps/evolution, it keeps Evolution in sync across computers. On the U1 website, simply add a parser for the gconf file, and boom. Instant setup, and if U1 ever feels like giving us webmail... Like solution 8.
4
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Solution #11: Give me an "Archive" button for Gmail
Written by yookoala the 7 Apr 10 at 07:22.
Gmail has a great "Archive" function that I can clear unimportant things from "Inbox", while keeping them in a place called "All mail" for later search.

Please make this part of the Gmail-integration.

Propose your solution

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Comments
Vitaly wrote on the 12 Oct 09 at 02:34
I'm not shure, that template will be enogth. There're confusions about trash and spam folders, when you use IMAP.

We can redefine drafts/outgoing folders in config, but can do nothing with trash/spam. That should be fixed too.

ChrisChinchilla wrote on the 12 Oct 09 at 22:42
This is a great idea, i'm not sure what to add to to the solution above, but it's a great idea...

DMEDINA wrote on the 15 Oct 09 at 23:37
I agree about the idea, but y think that adding other popular web mail services, that use imap and pop, should be good too. So we don't show favoritism to one service, or company, in particular.

txwikinger wrote on the 16 Oct 09 at 02:17
Same thing for Kmail!

pechano wrote on the 16 Oct 09 at 10:27
Making evolution completely able to integrate with gmail would make it seem kinda biased I guess, but I can't imagine that people would want anything else. Gmail with all it features is perfect for almost anyone, and if Evolution was easily set up to sync with it, I would change from Thunderbird in a heartbeat.

Make evolution stand out, make it perfect for gmail users! Solution #1 all the way!

zachthejones wrote on the 17 Oct 09 at 11:05
I agree with Solution #1, but don't forget about Google tasks as well - it is another new Google service that is gaining a lot of momentum quickly (at least in my case...).

I'd just like to be able to use Evolution as my email, calendar, tasking, etc. service....all that! But I use google services because I'm not always on my computer accessing them.

I would love getting Evolution somehow fully integrated into using the google services.

eventissimus wrote on the 17 Oct 09 at 16:41
Solution #1 is the most reasonable. However we should not forget that Evolution is substitution for Outlook and should work with MS exchange sever that's why it has all disadvantages - address book for example (number of phones is limited and people cannot have two mobiles phones :-) )
One more thing, evolution does not work correctly with google calendar. A lot of time it closed suddenly with only one message:
Oct 17 19:27:37 eventus-lt kernel: [ 5061.071058] evolution[16593]: segfault at 0 rip 7fc9785c08c3 rsp 7fff91edbac0 error 4

Regarding solution #4, do not forget that Ubuntu is used by many integrator for corporative users.

xavierpij wrote on the 18 Oct 09 at 17:10
I was just going to submit an idea to simplify the Evolution wizard, but I think this one is similar enough.
I made a mock-up image about how it should be:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7407/evolution.png

giancarlo.chiappe wrote on the 18 Oct 09 at 18:29
I think should be replaced by thunderbird that is easy to use and don't has all that options that no one uses. Evolution should be an optional package as any other installable using aptitude.

suryaden wrote on the 18 Oct 09 at 21:15
actually, im waiting for

ratdude747 wrote on the 22 Oct 09 at 05:50
evolution is better integrated in gnome than thunderbird.replacing evolution with thunderbird i think is a step in the wrong direction. i personally like evolution, and i have gotten the hang of setting it up for gmail. but, simplifying it would be a time saver at the least

Drebon wrote on the 22 Oct 09 at 05:51
Well, even if I quite dislike Evolution, for now I should admit that it has one reason to be the default mail/calendar/... suite instead of Thunderbird :

Evolution has quite a perfect integration with Gnome, it is one of the only (if not the only) mail suite that is able to let you access an MS Exchange server easily with all your mails, meeting, GAL and many things you want to access an the Exchange server of your company. The only thing is that you do not seem to easily have access to the calendars of others but this is a detail

snostorm wrote on the 22 Oct 09 at 16:56
It seems to me that Thunderbird (3.0 in particular) is better as an email client than Evolution. In other things Evolution may well be better. I do recommend, however, that people try the 3.0 betas (http://bit.ly/1Q8WOJ) before commenting on Evolution vs. Thunderbird, as Thunderbird 3.0 will be final by the time any such decision is made.

robinparriath wrote on the 1 Nov 09 at 13:30
The conversations idea is great! and it really helps in locating and grouping information fast!
+1

Pyronick wrote on the 3 Nov 09 at 21:55
Evolution (aswell as Empathy) should have it's own silent listen/notification daemon.
At the moment, evolution-indicator only works when evolution is running.
A proper client like Thunderbird can launch silently with the parameter.

You need either alltray or mail-notification and/or mail-notification-evolution to have a silent background application.
This should not be the case as it requires extra software to be installed and you have two applications running when 1 should be enough.

Shady3D wrote on the 4 Nov 09 at 05:43
@Pyronick i think that opens another discussion on "notification-applet" which i think all notifications should be configured here.

smon wrote on the 7 Nov 09 at 09:20
Here is a brainstorm dedicated to Evolution Mail : http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21935/

You can propose ideas to improve evolution and vote :)

Shady3D wrote on the 10 Nov 09 at 05:37
@smon why don't we merge both

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 7 Jul 11 at 05:20
Deleted solutions #4, 5, 6, and 10, which were not related to the Rationale.


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