Tjarda’s Blog

Syncing Android with Exchange

11/06/2009 at 22:32 | Posted in Business, Personal | Leave a comment
Tags: ActiveSync, Android, Exchange, TouchDown

I am looking with one eye to an Android mobile (HTC Magic).  No real need, but it is open, Linux-like and allows me to experience the web 2.0 features on the go. But it would be nice if it would sync with our corporate Exchange server. Since I have ‘problems’ to sync Evolution with Exchange (it does not), it is possibly not that simple. On the web there are several horror stories covering adding root certificates @ Android using illegal root-access. That is a no-go for a business phone.

I did my homework on a Android emulator, that occurred to me being the cheapest way to find out if this works out well. On the web I discovered two tools that could do the work for me: ContactsCalendarSync and Touchdown. The native email clients  (POP/IMAP and GMail) were ruled out already,  my company doesn’t support IMAP nor POP mail. The main problem getting Exchange access using the commercially available tools appeared to be to access the Android Market.

I executed the following steps. First get an emulated version of the Android phone up and running:

1. Download the Android SDK

2. Create a phone image.

These are the images available:

cd android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r2/tools/ (change to the tools folder of the sdk)

./android  list (find out what images are available)

We create a 1.1 image, and I name it Android11. There appears to be a route that does some additional tweaking to get a semi 1.5 (cup-cake, with the on-screen keyboard) version, but I want to stick to as native as possible, ruling out that my over-tweakedemulated version can do a lot more/different that a real one. To create the 1.1 version:

./android  create avd -t 1 -n Android11

3. (Create another two images)

You do want to play with the ‘cupcake’ version (1.5)  as well! The second image is the ‘bare image’ and the third one contains Google’s applications like Google Maps etc.

./android  create avd -t 2 -n Android15 (to create the ‘bare’ version of Android’s 1.5, aka Cupcake)

./android  create avd -t 3 -n Android-full

4. Start the image (remind to take the version 1.1 image)

./emulator -avd Android11

Booting takes a while, the ANDROID text needs to be replaced by the nicely colored background. (It uses QEMU, one of the open sourceemulator/virtualization solution)

Then we need to update the (running!)  image with some additional packages to access the Android Market. Here you can find the 4 files needed. (You will need to register first!)

To be safe, I suggest to follow the same order I do when installing the packages:

adb install SetupWizard.apk (required to bind a Google account to the Android emulator)
adb install gtalkservice.apk (Gtalk service)
adb install Talk.apk (GTalk app)
adb install Vending.apk (Market)

Now you have Android market installed. Reboot your phone if needed, and find the market icon in the menu (3rd col, 3rd row). Open the Market and authenticate against Android Market using your Google account (or create a new one).

Congrats, you’re in! Now you can navigate to the Productivity section and look for Exchange by TouchDown.

Install the app, you have a 5 day free trail. It takes a little, and then you’re able to start TouchDown.

The bottom icon on the left opens the settings panels. There are three of them:

In the first panel (Account), provide your ID (the trick for me was to use the right domain, which was not the same as our web/email address domain), and enter your email address.

The second panel (Connection) I had to configure to use ActiveSync only, and state the server name. We use SSL of course.

The third panel (Advanced) deals with the advanced options. Here you specify some display settings, but more important what folders to sync. Include your calendar and contacts, and you’re ready to roll!

Return to your email and/or agenda, synchronize, and enjoy the virtue of Exchange email/calendar on your Android Emulator.

Since this is working, I trust it will do so on a real Android phone. The showstopper of no Exchange email/calendar on Android is successfully killed…

2 weeks later

My experiment was succesfull, and the request to purchase the phone as well. So now I am the lucky user of an Adroid. Forget the emulator stuff, it’s all fine using the real phone. And the Email (even push-mail) is working like a charm indeed! I purchased the Touchdown for $24.99 in the Android Market using Google Checkout, and I am on the go! having access to email, calendar, notes, todo’s – Android ready for the Enterprise!

Sidestep: Evolution

Considering the ease of configuration of the ActiveSync in Touchdown, why does it take Evolution so long to provide a way to connect to Exchange? Being a Linux user I have need to connect to Exchange in another way than IMAP/POP, or the insecure version of OWA2003/OWA2007… Why is there no https bridge to Exchange2007 or one using ActiveSync? (I am even prepared to pay for it…)