Mozilla's Sunbird Reviewed

comforteagle writes "Mozilla Sunbird is the latest stand-alone application from the Mozilla foundation that follows in the footsteps of now revered browser Firefox and email client Thunderbird. OSDir reviews their first public release, version 0.2. Screenshots included."

It's 0.2, not 2.0.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just thought you might like to know, editors. And authors.

Correction -- Version 0.2

[sessamoid]

It's not "2.0". It's "0.2". Way before 1.0.

For those who don't want to RTFA

[Monx]

It's a calendar application. That doesn't yet integrate with FireFox or Thunderbird. It's also at version 0.2, not 2.0.

Isn't the text at the top of this page supposed to be a summary?

Site's slow

[Anonymous Coward]

Software: Review of Mozilla's Sunbird Stand-Alone Calendar Application
Posted Sep 03, 2004 - 06:58 AM
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by Gareth Russell

Mozilla Sunbird is the latest stand-alone application from the Mozilla foundation that follows in the footsteps of now revered browser Firefox and email client Thunderbird. Gareth reviews their first public release, version 0.2.

(screenshots)

Sunbird is the new cross-platform calendar application from the Mozilla foundation. It is based around the existing Mozilla Calendar component and is the latest in a string of standalone applications from the foundation, which are gradually replacing the current Mozilla suite of applications. The aim of the project is to create a standalone calendar for someone who uses either Mozilla Thunderbird or Firefox as their email client or browser. Sunbird hopes to offer a reduced footprint and performance enhancement over the original Calendar component. Sunbird is still in the early stages of development and is certainly experimental software with version 0.2 having been released recently. Nonetheless Sunbird is a promising application for those of you already using Thunderbird or Firefox.

A word of warning though, as of the moment Sunbird does not integrate with Thunderbird or Firefox. It is purely a standalone project, although this is one of the tasks to be solved in the near future.

The most striking difference between Sunbird and its Calendar counterpart is the theme and visual identity. Sunbird has its own logo, which is somewhat similar to Thunderbird's along with a slick visual style that removes a lot of the harshness found in the default Calendar component's theme. If you're running Windows XP then this theme integrates well with the rest of your system. At the moment there is still no option to change the theme if you do not like it, although this should be expected in future builds.

The user interface is essentially the same as the Calendar components, this entails the use of a three or four framed system. A main frame provides an overview of the day, week, several weeks or month, whilst several sub frames provide information about events scheduled and tasks still to be completed. It is a flexible system that allows you to collapse windows to get the style you want but by default it feels rather unwieldy when it is compared to the more simplistic calendar components found in Outlook or Evolution due to the large number of windows on display.

There are some improvements that could be made to the user interface to make it more accessible to new users. Some of the more useful features are only available from the title menus these should be more easily accessible through the toolbar. For example a "New Task" button for the toolbar would be a welcome addition, instead of having to enter the "File Menu" to access it. Currently upon first glance, a user is left wondering whether or not such a function is available and only the task frame alerts you to its presence. The included keyboard shortcuts are of great use and once remembered they can dramatically speed up use of the program. As of yet there is no ability to change the shortcuts or to set up your own, but this is something to be expected from future releases.

Coloured tagging for events would also improve the interface of the application. Currently you cannot assign colours to event categories as you would in say Microsoft Outlook. These allow you to get a better overview of your calendar, as it is easier to relate colours to specific types of events rather than reading all of the available text. Coloured tagging could make the application appear less cluttered because you'd be able to get an easier overview of what is happening in the different windows.

The ability to create and maintain different calendars for different purposes is a nice touch although it does exist in other applications, but it is easier to move between the differe

Re:FP

[DarkSarin]

That may be true, but I remember not too long ago having trouble getting T-bird to open links in firefox if I clicked on them, and firefox wouldn't open mailto links.

That said, there is also a calendar plugin for both of these programs that can be made to use the sunbird calendar (all use the same file format, and you simply point them to the same file). A bit more work, yes, but ultimately useful.

I suspect that now is the time to speak up, and they will be able to fix the problems before a 1.0 release occurs.

there are plugin versions also

[Artifex]

The plugin versions work in Firefox and and Thunderbird. Yet they're totally separate from any install of Sunbird you may also have. So you pretty much need to choose one or the other, or risk forgetting some appointments because you have the wrong instance loaded. They can import across, but they don't just share one calendar file, which makes no sense to me.

Also, the biggest problem I have: there is no way to make the alarm trigger a selectable sound? There's a checkbox to "play a sound," but that's it, and if it actually does make a sound, I can't hear it across the room. Sadly, even the alarm clock in Windows XP's Plus pack beats this with a wet noodle. (Except, of course, when the alarm clock just fails to trigger at the time, which is whenever you need it most)

Re:there are plugin versions also

[FuzzzyLogik]

I'll say it again... look at the version number guys... 0.2 that's FAR FAR FAR away from 1.0 release. like all typical mozilla products it isn't totally usable until it gets around the .5 to .7 releases.. then from there it becomes much more useful from there on out... give it time, provide constructive criticism and give feedback... bitching on here about it (i know you weren't really but others are) isn't going to help, i bet most of the developers aren't going to read the slashdot comments to look for improvements to their product... email one of the developers or join a mailing list or something and provide some feedback.. what do you like? what do you not like? how can you make it better? what features do you think should be in 1.0? can you help out by providing code? there's a lot you can do if you just put a little bit of time into it .. i personally want this project to succeed because i use iCal on my powerbook and the .cal files from iCal work in sunbird which for me would be great for checking things out on my pc when i need to. :-P give it a try and see if you can't help.

OH, and BTW...

[ScottGant]

It's a calendar application

which planet are you from?

[alphan]

they would probably be converging into one application.

Everthing actually comes from the mozilla suite which is ONE APPLICATION.

Sunbird is stand alone implementation of Mozilla Calendar (ext), similar to browser (Firefox), or email (Thunderbird)

Re:Apple and Mozilla are both missing the point...

[amper]

BTW, Netscape also wrote some fairly insightful white papers and such on what the requirement were for a successful C&S solution. Much of it is still available at:

http://wp.netscape.com/calendar/v3.5/

Re:Dyslexic Version 2.0 - Real Version 0.2

[Zorilla]

Even when it involves mixing up numbers just the same as a string of characters, making it no different than dyslexia? No crappy calculations occured here to come up with this erroneous result, it was just a typo.

NOT stand-alone.

[DogDude]

I'm not sure what these developers are talking about. It CAN install as an extension to either Firefox or Thunderbird, OR you can install it stand-alone. I'd link to the page, but update.mozilla.org seems to be down right now. I absolutely installed it yesterday as an extension to both Thunderbird and Firefox, and stand-alone. Unfortunately, you can install it these 3 ways, and each one is a separate database. ie: Accessing the calendar from Firefox will not show you the same data as when you access it via Thunderbird.

Re:Close, but I think I'll stick with Evolution

[CdBee]

Please bear in mind though, that until such a time as Evolution will either run on Windows or cleanly compile on CYGWIN, these Mozilla apps are the best OSS PIM app available to many users.

Re:FP

[Bungopolis]

In a Linux system you'll need to edit your prefs.js directly at ~/.thunderbird/default.###/prefs.js

Simply add the line:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox");

or the path to your desired browser.

Re:Don't forget the extensions for Firefox/Tbird

[Anonymous Coward]

The Thunderbird extension is a different story, because the extension system does not seem to be in place. I followed the directions to go to tools -> options -> extensions button, and there is no extensions button. :(

Tried the 'Tools | Extensions' menu?

Re:Correction -- Version 0.2

[the pickle]

It doesn't help that you didn't say what it was, either...

For those of you who don't know (from the project page [mozilla.org]):

The Sunbird Project is a redesign of the Mozilla Calendar component. Our goal is to produce a cross platform standalone calendar application based on Mozilla's XUL user interface language. At the moment the "Sunbird" name is a project name. It is not official and may change in the future.

Re:Actually...

[kfg]

Who knows what you mean by "deep system call"

He means calls to the system API, or even the kernel itself, to handle application level functions.

While embedding application level code at a low level can certainly reduce the amount of duplicate code in memory and provide a certain core "integration" of products written against that code it also means that a crash or security flaw of an application can be a crash or security flaw of the system itself which can only be corrected by rewriting system level code.

He suggests that data exchange between applications instead be accomplished by the simple expedient of applications using a common data exchange format. It's a radical concept, I know, but it just might work. Someone might want to start down this road by devising a simple binary code for the alphabet and numbers and stuff.

KFG

It does.

[Vess V.]

Tools > Subscribe to remote calendar...

Don't forget Chandler

[sphealey]

If you are looking for a FOSS calendar solution, don't forget to take a look at Chandler [osafoundation.org]. They have had some project difficulties, but they are well-funded.

sPh

Integration with other programs/devices

[Jammet]

Unless this thing will be able to hotsync to a Palm Pilot or a Pocket PC, I see little use in actually using this calendar. I hope that is planned, and I could find a single reference to that sort of thing in the article (by word-search). It's a little length, so - if anyone's already read all through or has some more background info, please tell us wether this is a planned addition or already within it's options.

Re:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method.

[snilloc]

Maybe not XP, but the "switch" campaign was aimed at 9x users. And yes, in 9x, my USB camera driver BSOD'd Windows. After much research I discovered that my cd burner software and my camera are incompatible. As a workaround, I wrote a batch file that switches out the offending file depending on which device I want to use - and even that requires a restart and I can't use both devices at the same time.

Re:Actually...

[kfg]

The question you raise here is not whether a bug in Mozilla is a bug in the Firefox browser ( I consider that a tautology and uninteresting), but rather whether a bug in Mozilla is a bug in Windows.

There is an essential difference between having to end a task and restart it and having to reach for the big, red button; as well as an essential difference for a bug in an application to require a patch to the kernel.

As for your last point it just might be case that I want isolated applications because I want to run a Mozilla browser, but a Eudora mail client. Isolated applications allow you to mix and match, not simply run all the stuff in the monolithic app seperately.

In any case the point raised by the original poster, which I agreed with and expounded upon a bit, was that Mozilla should not handle data exchange at a low level and while OP rasied Windows as an example my own post was generic.

KFG

It's not Apple's iCal standard

[masterfres]

The article confuses iCal, Apple's calendaring iApp, with iCal, short for iCalendar, the widely used vcal derived calendering format standard. Apple did not create iCal the standard. iCal the standard predated iCal, Apple's application, by quite some time. Apple's iCal the calendering app was one of the first major applications to adopt iCalendar/iCal/vcal the standard (although Ximian/Novell's Evolution beat them to it.) I'm still trying to decide if coopting the name iCal was a purposeful attempt to associate the standard with their application or just an unfortunate, but beneficial, mistake. Confusions like this make me hope that they name some future apps "iNoVeryFastComputer" or "iNoMindStretchingTheTruth" or simply "iSuck".

Try Nvu

[theguywhosaid]

Nvu [nvu.com] is fairly rockin if you ask me. Even if you don't, its still at least good.

Re:It's not Apple's iCal standard

[Baricom]

Apple did not create iCal the standard.

Quite right. In fact, in a twist of irony, the prinicpal authors of RFC 2445 [faqs.org] are F. Dawson of Lotus and D. Stenerson of Microsoft.

Sometimes, I really wish Outlook 2002 had an iCalendar exporter (it does import iCalendar files, but it'll only export CSV).