Firstly, you need something on the phone which will support SyncML, the standard that allows different devices to exchange data.  To sync, install the iPhone Funambol application (iTunes store link) which is currently free and works really well.

The Funambol application itself is very simple, adding an account is easy:

• set the “Server” field to something like http://example.com/horde/rpc.php (replace the location appropriately)
• set the “Username” and “Password” fields to the same ones you use to login normally
• in the “Contacts” section of the setup, the “Remote Name” should be set to card

The “Sync Direction” can be set whichever way you prefer. A cavaet: I only do one way synchronisation.  That is, I sync my contacts from iPhone to server, but not the other way. Whilst it does work both ways, I haven’t tested it extensively. It is possible that rabid zombies will eat your firstborn if you change something on the server and try to update the iPhone.

Once these settings are updated, you can go back to the main screen and hit the big “Sync Contacts” button. If it succeeds, you will see your contacts appear on the Horde server. If not, you can always view the log from the settings menu to work out what went wrong.

One of the coolest (but most useless) features is that any photos associated with contacts will also be uploaded to the server.

Note that some fields aren’t automatically used by Horde, such as the “Home Email” and “Work Email”. This is very easy to fix, but you’ll need to ask your system administrator to have a look at this post on my blog.

Feel free to leave me a comment if you get stuck and I will endeavour to help you fix it.

To begin with, login to Remember The Milk and proceed to the tasks overview page. Make a note of the link highlighted in the picture below, with the text “iCalendar (Events)”. Note that you don’t need to copy the part after ?tok, or it would be very long to type into the iPhone!

Remember The Milk iCalendar export

You should end up with a link like this:

www.rememberthemilk.com/icalendar/username/12345678/events/

Make sure your username and the unique number are correct. Now head over to your iPhone and follow the steps below.

• Open Settings and choose “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
• Choose “Add account…” and then “Other”
• Choose “Add Subscribed Calendar”


Adding a subscribed calendar

• Type in the link you got from the Remember The Milk website into the “Server” field and select “Next”
• The iPhone should now tell you the account requires a username and password, use your Remember The Milk credentials (the same as for their website) and press “Next”


Confirming iCalendar account details

• If the phone says “Subscribed Calendar account verified”, you are good to go! If not, double check you have an internet connection and that the link, username and password are all correct.
• Press “Save” and head back to the iPhone calendar
• Find a day where you have a task due in order to check it worked. On my phone, they appear as red events


Remember The Milk events in the iPhone calendar

If you like this, please comment. And don’t forget to subscribe to Remember The Milk! I will probably do so in a few days, it is a really useful service.