Regression in Empathy / Telepathy : force chat window to come in foreground when new message is received

[Xavier Guillot]

Hello,

I'm currently using version 3.6.4 on Ubuntu Saucy (development version).

There is a regression comparing to previous releases, as said here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/telepathy-indicator/+bug/1098549
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/206547

The option "Display incoming events in the notification area" is no more available, so I have no more way to "force" any incoming message to put the chat window on the focus when Empathy is in the background !

99% of the time, Empathy contacts main window is in the background : I start Empathy and then work with other programs in foreground (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Gedit...).

My preference is to have the discussion window opening and/or coming to the foreground at EACH time one of my connected contacts sends me a message when I'm available - if I do not want to be disturbed, I go offline, busy or invisible.

Function was recently implemented but seems to have disappeared:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=585914

Is it a choice of developers - to make the code cleaner or because of move to Gnome 3 or because the notification area is no more present in Gnome Shell or Unity or to suppress some options or customization (like in Nautilus) - or is it temporary and will be fixed with a future version of Empathy or Telepathy ?

Because now, I often miss some conversations... I had to go to Dconf editor to activate the Ubuntu notifications (being informed with the top-right bubble via libnotify and sound when a contact connects, goes offline), but did not find any way to force chat window go to foreground.

The only indication goes on the MeMenu (I miss it often) and to Unity dock when no chat window is opened (only the contact ones), a number appears to indicate how many messages are unread. But when the chat window is opened and in the background, no more number, just a small and short animation on the Unity dock...

So is there a way to have this back in Ubuntu (via Dconf or something else) ? Empathy is well integrated in Gnome and Ubuntu, with online contacts, Telepathy... and I want to keep using it, but I need this configuration to be available (as an option) again.

I asked main Empathy developer, who answered me by mail : solution is to

Write a Telepathy script : a "telepathy Approver" which automatically approves all new text-type channels.

To make the window visible at foreground each time we receive a message (even if chat window is already opened but in background), it needs to be also an "Observer" and that it calls PresentChannel() for all answers we get.

I don't know how to do this and if it can be implemented in Ubuntu ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Xavier

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello Xavier,
Thank you for submitting this bug and reporting a problem with the empathy package. You made this bug report in 2013 and there have been several versions of Ubuntu since then.

Could you confirm that this is no longer a problem and that we can close the ticket?
If it is still a problem, are you still interested in finding a solution to this bug?
If you are, could you run the following (only once):
apport-collect 1182189
and upload the updated logs and and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu better.
G

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for empathy (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]