Note: The Java-client (optional component) has been replaced by the offline synchronization included in the web interface.

The Simple Groupware Client is a desktop application which synchronizes data with the Simple Groupware Server. That way you can use all kinds of all datasets offline on your desktop. Compared to SyncML, you can also synchronize files and you're not limited to appointments, contacts, tasks and notes.
The Client offers the same tree structure and allows to pick a set of folders that should be available for offline usage. All datasets and attachments inside these folders are copied to the client when the "Sync" button is pressed. The local folder used for the storage is "<sgs-client>/data". All datasets are read-only on the Client. This makes things much easier because you don't need a huge user interface which only serves as a clone of the web interface. Therefore changing datasets is still done within the web interface.
To specify folders included in the synchronization process, open the Client, click "Set Sync" and check all required folders. Note that all parent folders of the selected folder should also be checked to be able to navigate to the folder.
When opening and changing an attachment within the Client, the file gets automatically uploaded to the server. The monitoring stays active until the Simple Groupware Client gets closed.

Note: When the file is automatically uploaded, the new version will be added as a new file without overwriting the old one.
Note: When two users work simultaneously on one document it can happen that one users overwrites the version of the other user. Therefore Simple Groupware offers to lock the document. Once the document is locked, other users will get a "access denied" message when they try to overwrite the file.

Screenshots

Client with helpdesk	Client with calendar
Client with files	Client with e-mails
Client with Windows	Sync with Windows Mobile

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Requirements

The Simple Groupware Client requires a Java Runtime (JRE), version 1.4.x or higher. You can get it here. Moreover, Simple Groupware 0.293 or higher is required as server.

Most Linux distributions include GNU Classpath which can also be used (version 0.3 was successfully tested). When using Linux make sure that the Mozilla Suite is installed at /usr/lib/mozilla (Firefox can't be embedded into applications). For Debian/Ubuntu you can use "apt-get install mozilla" to install the Mozilla Suite.
The Client uses the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) to get portable access to native user-interface facilities. SWT Binaries are included for Windows, Linux and MacOS. If you're using a different platform, please change the classpath in the start script to include the new swt.jar.

Note: Make sure the directories "<sgs-client>/data" and "<sgs-client>/export" are writable for the user running the Client. When using Linux or MacOS, make sure that the .sh scripts are executable for the user running the Client.

Synchronize Mobile Devices

All datasets are automatically exported to small HTML files which can be displayed on PDAs and mobile phones. Attachments within Simple Groupware can also be exported if necessary. The HTML files can be quickly transferred to a device by using typical synchronization programs bundled with mobile devices.
The local folder used for the storage is by default "<sgs-client>/export", but can be changed to any other location. Often there are special replication folders monitored by the synchronization programs: Simply set the location for the export to one of these special folders, open the webbrowser on the device, navigate to the first .htm file in the folder and you're done.
All datasets are read-only on the mobile device because most devices don't have enough resources to present large forms or handle big attachments. Since most mobile devices include a webbrowser, HTML was chosen as a cross platform presentation layer. The HTML files are kept very simple without any images, style sheets or Javascript code. That way they fit to small displays and get quickly loaded.
If you need all attachments on your mobile device, make sure that the option "Export attachments for PDA to the HTML folder" is checked in the synchronization configuration. To access this configuration, open the Client, click "Set Sync", make your settings, close the configuration and click "Sync".

Startup

First download the client package and extract it.

When running Windows, it's enough to double-click "sgsClient_win32.bat" in the main directory.

When using Linux, you need to give execute rights to "sgsClient_linux.sh" and launch "sgsClient_linux.sh" inside a terminal.

With MacOS, you need to give execute rights to "sgsClient_macos.sh" and launch "sgsClient_macos.sh" inside a (bash) terminal.

Login

After starting the client application, the login window comes up. To perform a login, you need to specify the URL, the username and the password:

• URL: http://<sgs-server>/<sgs-dir>/bin/
• Username: <username>
• Password: <password>

In the current release, the URL must end with "/", script names like "index.php" don't need to be added. Moreover, proxy servers are not supported, so you'll need to directly connect to the Simple Groupware server. The application is configured to trust self-signed certificates automatically.