Really, I've heard about Lotus Traveler a bit, but didn't plan to try it, until this January. The reason is simple - I had a simple mobile Nokia 6230 phone since 2005, and didn't plan to change it to something else, as it was (and still is) very reliable device, permanently serving main mobile's function - I could talk using it, even after it felt few times on the concrete floor. However there was no need for full-scale mobile synchronization.

But during these New Year holidays, my wife's brother-in-law, who works with Sony Ericsson, came to visit us, and I surprisingly became an owner of brand new Sony Ericsson X1 (very valuable gift from my point of view, thanks a lot, man!).

So, obviously, as this thing is equipped with all modern communication transports (GPRS/EDGE/3G, Wi-Fi, ActiveSync), I've got to make it synchronized with my Lotus Notes, and gave a try to Lotus Traveler.

First, I installed Traveler on our Domino server (see software requirements). Surprisingly, installation was quick, nice and easy. I even didn't configure a thing, and it just presented me an URL to download mobile client in the end of installation process. Actually, when installed, this product adds Lotus Traveler tab to the server document form in Domino Directory, but I decided to not touch anything if all works good, as most settings aren't dealing with end-user experience.

Then, I've downloaded and installed the CAB on my X1 to setup and synchronize. Really, there are not that much settings either, but Lotus did a god job to have exactly those settings, which are mostly needed.

Settings consist of:

1. Account Settings - server name, your Web username and password.
2. Mail and Calendar - sync options for mentioned, including number of days for sync, needed importance, allow attachments, size-based truncation, events timeframe.
3. Other Applications - sync contacts, notes, and tasks settings.
4. Auto Sync - network and low-battery disable function.
5. Server Settings - ports, protocol, and servlet directory settings.
6. Logging - logging level and limit.

For sure, many of those, who are in need to synchronize their PDA with Lotus Notes have already went across CommonTime mNotes - probably the most sophisticated and function-reach synchronizing solution in this area. For sure, it beats Traveler solution if we talk about available functionality - for example, if we touch messaging synchronization only - Traveler does not support HTML messages (converts to plain text), in-line images, encrypted messages, etc. And mNotes is available for both Windows Mobile and Symbian, unlike Traveler, which supports Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 platforms only.

However, if you run Windows Mobile, and just need basic email/calendar awareness and contacts synchronization - Traveler is nice and easy, requiring almost no configuration efforts to get synchronized, and the main thing - if you're Lotus Notes user, then you're already entitled (good in crisis times, right?).

So, I just installed, synchronized, and - miracle, got both my email and calendar synchronized with Lotus Domino mail file. Just like that. Though, I disabled my contacts synchronization initially, as it was synchornized with MS Outlook after I trasferred my contacts from Nokia 6230.

So, at that time I had no idea what Traveler would require to get contacts synchronized with server, while all my contacts were in Personal Address Book, and had to deal with this separately.

You may think I'm dumb, but I didn't ever used my personal Address Book (local names.nsf) synchronization with the server mail file. And now I had to do this in order for my X1 to synchronize my personal contacts through the Domino server, so I got to read Help a bit.

I'm pretty much sure most of you guys are much smarter than me in such technical issues, but in case someone still didn't do it yet, here is the trick.

First, you need to make sure your local names.nsf and server mail database have design not lower than R7. If not, you need to upgrade it.

Then you need to enable synchronization in your mail database Preferences:

When you get to Access and Delegation, click "Enable Synchronize Contacts" link and enable it on the Contacts Preferences dialog window.

When done, please ensure that Synchronize Contacts is enabled on your Replicator page.

Also, would make sense to check that scheduled replication is enabled in your location, if you haven't done this before. Just open current location.

Then switch to Replication tab, and setup according to your needs.

Finally, you can open Replicator back again, and start manual replication in order to check it is all working. You can then click Contacts switcher in your server mail file.

And finally, make sure contacts are synchronized correctly.

So, now you're ready for Contacts synchronization with Lotus Traveler. Just enable this option in Traveler on your device, and that's it.

There is also another nice side-effect of this procedure. If you do it in several locations - for example at work and at home (though, being careful about contacts merging, which can cause them to get duplicated initially), you can synchronize few personal address books with your server mail file, keeping them all synchronous and up-to-date. Cool, isn't it?