Advantage Xi / Google
Sync
Advantage Xi can sync with
Google using the GoogleSync.exe module.
Use the instructions below to setup the options you need and do the sync
process. The advantage of using Google sync
is that many smart phones have the ability to sync with Google wirelessly. The Advantage Xi CONTACTS and CALENDAR items
can sync to allow you to keep up with your data easier.
For additional information
on how to setup your phone to sync with Google use the following link: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync
If you do not see the
Google Sync Icon in the Utilities group then you may need to do the setup steps on the
following page:
http://www.AdvantageXi.com/training/GoogleSync/GoogleSyncSetup.htm
Entering Your Google Sync Settings:
Once
the database changes have been made then fill in the information on this screen
to allow Advantage Xi access to your Google data. The first time you sync with Google It may be
much easier to remove all contacts and calendar items from Google and sync all
data from Advantage Xi to Google. (See
Deleting Google Data for details)
1. Enter your Google User Name which is your FULL
Google email address: Example: yourusername@gmail.com and make sure it is EXACTLY the same as what shows
in the upper right corner of your web browser when you are logged into the
contacts.google.com site. (UPPER CASE/ lower
case MATTER!!!!)
2. Enter your Google Password: It will show it as a series of * characters.
3. Sync
Google Contacts To Advantage Xi check this option if you want to sync names currently in
Google Contacts to the Advantage Xi Contact database.
4. Sync
Advantage Xi Contacts To Google check this option if you want to sync contact in
Advantage Xi to Google contacts.
5. Classification
Requirement – use this dropdown
selection to limit the number of contacts that syncs to/from Google. Some users have a large database of names and
only want to sync as small subset of names to sync. You can setup a classification like “Google Sync”
and assign each contact to that classification that you want to sync.
Note: Use Global Update to update
several contacts at once.
6. Add
Classification To New Contacts From Google can be used to automatically add the required
Classification (item 5 above) to any contact that was added in Google and
Synchronized to Advantage Xi so that when changes are made to that contact, it
will sync those changes from Xi back to Google.
7. Classification
Exclusion – use this dropdown
selection to exclude a particular classification from syncing with Google. Giving you the ability to sync all But one
classification.
8. Only
‘Clients’ Where I Am Record Owner
can be used to sync contacts that meet the requirement of item 5 and any
contact that is a contact type of CLIENT must also to be owned by the current
user.
9. Only
Records Where I Am Record Owner can
be used to sync contacts that meet the requirement of item 5 but each record
must also be owned by the current user.
10. Assign
Contacts To Google [My Contacts] This option will add a new classification to each
contact that is sync’d to Google and included in the Google [My Contacts]
Group. It is recommended that you
include this option but not required – If you do not then the Google [My
Contacts] group will not include your names.
11. Sync
Google Calendar -> Advantage Xi check this option to sync Calendar Items to Advantage Xi.
12. Sync
Advantage Xi Calendar -> Google check
this option to sync Advantage Xi Appointments, Phone Calls, To Do’s, Training
actions to Google.
13. Your Time
Zone select
your time zone – this is VERY important to get correct so that Google Sync show
the correct type of each calendar item that is added.
14. [Sync This
User] Use this button to perform
the sync process. BEFORE doing this the
first time you may want to remove any existing contacts and or calendar items
so that they don’t duplicate data already in Advantage Xi (see DELETING GOOGLE DATA below).
15. [Sync All
Users] Use this button to perform
the sync process for ALL users that have opted to allow you to sync for
them. Each users that wants to allow you
to sync for them MUST check
the SYNC THIS ACCOUNT ON [ SYNC ALL USERS] – in the OPTIONS tab.
USE STEP 14 or 15 to Begin the sync
process after you have all the information/options entered.
OPTIONS TAB:
Address Book/Calendar Last Sync Dates:
The
options tab shows you the last time the Address Book and Calendar were sync’d. If
you blank out the fields it will re-sync all records otherwise it will sync
only those records that have changed since the date that is displayed in this
field. The system keeps track of what
date the system sync’d the Contacts and the Calendar and in which direction
(Google to Advantage Xi) or (Advantage Xi to Google). This way you can reset any of the dates to resync items if needed.
[Max Note Count] – Since Advantage Xi is has the ability to have
multiple note entries and Google only has one note field, we have setup a
system where you can choose the number of note entries that you want to place
into Google. Simply enter the Max Note
Count number and it will take the number of newest entries from Xi and place
into Google. If you look at a contact in
Google you will see the notes with the words “====[ADD
NOTES ABOVE THIS LINE]====”
if
you need to add a note from your phone or from Google – make sure you add any
text ABOVE the words “====[ADD NOTES
ABOVE THIS LINE]====” otherwise they will be ignored and your notes will not be
put into Advantage Xi when it syncs.
[
[Run Google Sync when Exiting
Advantage Xi] – Some users have
requested that the system sync to Google when you exit Advantage Xi. This can be done by Answer ‘YES’ or ‘ASK’ to
this setting. YES, will automatically sync Advantage Xi with Google, while ASK will ask the user if they want to exit when
exiting Advantage Xi.
Sync This Account On [Sync All Users] – CHECKMARK
this option if you want to allow another user in your database to perform your google sync from their computer. This is helpful for Agents with assistants
that wish to have their assistant update the agent’s google
calendar.
[Validate Data] – Use this button to check the Address Book for
missing information that could prevent proper syncing. If you notice that the number of records in
the Google Contacts is not the same as those in the Advantage Xi Address Book
then click this button and let it check for missing data.
[Remove Unused Groups] – This button will look at the groups you have
assigned to Google contacts and remove any groups that do not have anyone
assigned to them. Helps to keep the
screen clean for you. If you have removed
all contacts from the Google Contacts screen then you can use this button to
remove all the unwanted groups also….
[Combine Groups] – This button will look at the Google groups and
find any that have the same name and make sure that the groups are
combined. If you had 2 groups named
“Buyers” then it would combine the two groups into one.
[Remove Contact Index Links] / [Remove
Calendar Index Links] – Use these buttons to REMOVE the linked information
of Google contacts or calendars to Xi.
If you have sync’d Advantage Xi with Google then for some reason remove
all contacts or calendar items from Google you should use one or both the
buttons to remove the information that links an Advantage Xi Contact/Calendar
to a Google Contact/Calendar item. Otherwise
it may skip the record during the sync process.
Alternate Login – Can be checked for those users that subscribe to
Google Apps and have difficulty using the normal login. This option is normally NOT checked.
Search for Deleted Items – these options are used to REMOVE
contacts/calendar items from the database when deleted from the other. The only difference is that when contacts
are deleted in Google and Sync’d with Advantage Xi, we add a classification of [Google Deleted] instead of deleting
them from the database. You can then go
into your Advantage Xi database and find all contacts by classification of [Google Deleted] and remove them
manually. This is a safety precaution to
prevent accidental deletion of your primary database.
Force Blank Entry Updates To Xi – This item may be removed in the future but is
used to update blank fields in Advantage Xi with data in Google. Early versions of the Google sync would not
fill in all fields on the first sync which caused problems. This has been corrected but we left the
option on the screen to help users that may still have blank data.
Create Log File – Use this checkbox to create a log file during the
sync process. This should only be used
if you are having problems with the sync and need to get information to an
Advantage Xi Support Rep.
[View Log File] – Use this button to view the log file that was
created during the last sync process.
RESULTS TAB:
This
tab will show the current processing results for the sync.
NOTE: This screen may be hidden in future releases.
UNLOCK CAPCHA:
I
received a CAPTCHA error during authentication, what is a CAPTCHA?
First of all, you
should not get a CAPTCHA if things are working normally. You may get a CAPTCHA Google
suspects illegal intrusion such as after too many incorrect login attempts. A
CAPTCHA ensures that a real person is attempting to log in, and not a computer
trying random strings (a "dictionary" attack).
If you do get a Captcha Security Warning simply goto
the Unlock Captcha tab and click on the [Unlock Captcha Security] button to get the Google accounts screen
and fill in the Email / Password information for your account and then type in
the characters you see in the picture.
Once you have a successful sync you should not get the warning message
again.
CONTACTS:
Delete
Google Contacts:
To
delete Google Contacts, goto http://www.google.com/contacts
(login as needed) then scroll down and select the group called: All
Contacts then click on the Select: ALL that is listed above the names that
were displayed. Once you have the names
selected that need to be deleted, click on the [Delete contacts] button in the upper right corner of the Google
contacts screen.
Reset
the links to sync again:
Now
that the contacts have been deleted from Google, if you have performed a Google Sync with Advantage Xi in the Past then we need to
get rid of the OLD information that links the Google Contacts to the Advantage
Xi Contacts.
1. Go into the Google Sync module and click on the OPTIONS tab.
2. Remove the Last
Sync Dates for Contacts (Google >
Xi) and (Xi > Google)
3. Click on the button to [REMOVE CONTACT INDEX LINKS] so that the existing links of contacts
in Advantage Xi and Google are removed.
4. You can also use the button [REMOVE UNUSED GROUPS] to get rid of any group names that were left
in Google after deleting the contacts.
You
can now sync again the normal way….
CALENDAR:
Delete
Google Calendar:
To
delete Google Calendar entries, goto http://www.google.com/calendar (login
as needed) then click on the SETTINGS dropdown menu in the upper right corner
and select Calendar Settings. Then click
on the Calendars tab of the
Calendar Settings – on the right side of the screen you can click the Delete link and then click on
the [Delete] button that shows in
the popup screen. It will ask you to confirm that you really
want to delete all the entries – answer Yes - Since your primary calendar cannot be removed
from the list it will simply remove all entries in the calendar when you
perform this action.
Reset
the links to sync again:
Now
that the calendar has been deleted in Google, if you have performed a Google Sync with Advantage Xi in the Past then we need to
get rid of the OLD information that links the Google events to the Advantage Xi
events.
1. Go into the Google Sync module and click on the OPTIONS tab.
2. Remove the Last
Sync Dates for Calendar (Google >
Xi) and (Xi > Google)
3. Click on the button to [REMOVE CALENDAR INDEX LINKS] so that the existing links of calendar
events in Advantage Xi and Google are removed.
You
can now sync again the normal way….
HOW TO AUTOMATICALLY SYNC USING WINDOWS TASK SCHEDULER
The Google Sync program is
normally run manually from the main menu and data is only sync’d when it runs
and you press the Begin Sync button. HOWEVER, you can setup windows task
scheduler to run the Google Sync program automatically on a daily or hourly
basis so that your contacts on Google are automatically updated even when you
are not at your computer. Follow the
directions below for your operating system to setup the automatic sync process.
Windows XP:
Start
> All Programs > Accessories > System Tools> Scheduled Tasks
Double-Click on "Add Scheduled Task"
Click on "Next"
Click on "Browse"
copy the following into the file name including the
quotes
"C:\Program
Files\Mark-It Systems\Mark-It Advantage Xi\System\GoogleSync.exe" /AUTO NOTE:
/AUTO will sync only your Account
Or
"C:\Program Files\Mark-It Systems\Mark-It Advantage
Xi\System\GoogleSync.exe" /SYNCALL NOTE: /SYNCALL will sync all
users that have the option checked.
Then click on
"Open"
Choose "Daily"
> "Next"
Select the time you want to send out emails i.e. 8:00am Every Day (or when ever you want)
then click next "Next"
Enter the username and password that will be used "Next"
Press the "Finish" button when done
Windows
Start
> All Programs > Accessories > System Tools> Tasks Scheduler
Click on "Create
Basic Task..."
In
the Name field type: Sync Xi to Google
Click on "Next"
For
the Trigger Select: Daily
Click on "Next"
Enter
the Start Date/Time and recurring days as needed
Click
on "Next"
Select
(*) Start a program
Click
on "Next"
In
the Program/script: field
Click
on "Browse..." to the path below
or copy the following into the file name including the
quotes
32 Bit Versions of Windows: "C:\Program Files\Mark-It Systems\Mark-It Advantage
Xi\System\GoogleSync.exe"
64 Bit Versions of Windows: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mark-It Systems\Mark-It
Advantage Xi\System\GoogleSync.exe"
In
the "Add arguments(optional): field type
in /AUTO or /SYNCALL -
/AUTO will sync only your Account /SYNCALL will sync all users that have
the option checked.
Click
on "Next"
Click the checkbox to
"Open the Properties dialog for this task
when I click Finish"
Click on "Finish"
The window will open with
the information you added.
Click on the Triggers
tab then click the [Edit...] button
check the checkbox to Repeat task every [1 hour] for a duration of [Indefinitely]
Note: you have the ability
to manually change the 1 hour to 2 hours or 3 hours by typing in
the words
Press the [OK] button when done.