Exits on Close instead of Iconifying

[Amr Hassan]

Binary package hint: gwibber

When I close Gwibber's window it completely exits. Without an error message or anything, even though I've enabled "Minimize to tray on close" in the preferences.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: gwibber 2.0.0~bzr394-0ubuntu3~daily2~jaunty
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gwibber
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-15-generic i686
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package

[Foppe Hemminga (foppe)]

Would you please be so kind and report if this issue is still a problem with the latest version of gwibber (2.0.0~bzr476-0ubuntu3). Thanks

[Amr Hassan (amr-hassan)]

Nevermind, this is fixed now.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

This bug is apparently back on Lucid Alpha 3. When I close Gwibber, I expect it to be minimized to the messaging menu, like Empathy does. Instead, it's completely closing.

By the way, I had to do a "ps" to be sure, because of Bug 528239.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

@ConsciousUser when you close gwibber open system monitor and see its running. Although gwibber takes a few seconds to show up when minimized to indicator messages

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Omer, I forgot to subscribe to this bug and thus never responded.

Like I said, I used "ps" to confirm it is indeed not running. But
since you explicitly asked, I checked through system monitor
too. It is indeed not running.

[Fabien Lesire (fle)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Gwibber used to have a option in the preferences to use a tray icon, was it removed by design or the implementation is currently incomplete? It certainly needs a fallback tray icon in case the MessagingMenu is not installed.

[Daniel Wiberg (dannew)]

Confirmed on Karmic running from PPA and updated Lucid . I tried both quit and close window. It exits instead of minimizing.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Bug #548576 makes this bug slightly worse, as the lack of integration with the messaging menu gives no option but full closure in all circunstances.

[J. Austin Rodriguez (jeanaustinr)]

Attached two duplicate/similar bug reports concerning the tray icon

[J. Austin Rodriguez (jeanaustinr)]

Can anyone confirm if we can change the title of this bug report to a more understandable one? Like -- "No Minimize to Tray on Close Option". Thank you!

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Even when gwibber is closed you still get notifications for mentions and also you can broadcast from the memenu. This is the case in ubuntu dont know about any other distribution.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

I've asked Ryan Paul on IRC and I'll try to make things more clear here.

Gwibber, at least the current version, does not minimize to tray by design. The usual behavior of an application (for example Empathy) is:

close button: hides window, keeps app running
file->quit: closes app

Gwibber, on the other hand, does the following:

close button: closes gwibber, keeps gwibber-service running
file->quit: closes both gwibber and gwibber-service.

In other words, there is no "hide to tray" option because the very concept of "hiding" does not apply to the current version of Gwibber. It is either open, and showing, or closed. So a "replacement" for the tray icon would be adding a launcher to the panel.

Theoretically, the difference in user experience should be minimal (even being closed instead of minimized, the Gwibber window is supposed to appear instantly), but due to a couchdb-related bug Gwibber takes a long time to open, so it's very noticeable.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

I've written the above from memory, so there might be some inaccuracies.

Also, I've heard Ken VanDine is working on the "takes a long time to open" bug.

[Dave Reid (davereid)]

I can confirm that the service still runs when I close the window (not via File) but it will never re-open for me.

[J. Austin Rodriguez (jeanaustinr)]

@Dave Reid

Unless you have a tray icon, the only way to re-open it is to open it via Launcher or via Applications Menu. (Or if you have the Me Menu)

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

Hide to tray on close used to work on my Ubuntu 9.10, but does no longer on Ubuntu 10.4 (same machine)

Any workarounds ?

Thanks

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

workaround: sudo apt-get install alltray and then start gwibber with alltray
gwibber (that might work)

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 3:11 AM, Steven <email address hidden> wrote:

> Hide to tray on close used to work on my Ubuntu 9.10, but does no longer
> on Ubuntu 10.4 (same machine)
>
> Any workarounds ?
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> Exits on Close instead of Iconifying
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/420953
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to gwibber
> in ubuntu.
>
> Status in Gwibber: Confirmed
> Status in “gwibber” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gwibber
>
> When I close Gwibber's window it completely exits. Without an error message
> or anything, even though I've enabled "Minimize to tray on close" in the
> preferences.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> Package: gwibber 2.0.0~bzr394-0ubuntu3~daily2~jaunty
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: gwibber
> Uname: Linux 2.6.28-15-generic i686
> UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package
>
>
>

[Nizar Kerkeni (nizarus)]

with ubuntu 10.04 gwibber is integreted to the indicator applet (micro-bloging). When closing it, it remain active but no icons is displayed just a little symbol ">" in the indicator applet.

[Daniel Wiberg (dannew)]

@Nizar: Not exactly, gwibber is closed, but gwibber-service is running, what I want and I guess everybody else is also to keep gwibber running, as it takes some time to start it again.

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

@Nizar: I'm sorry but I don't see anything like a ">" in the indicator applet when closing Gwibber by clicking on the window's close button. I'm presuming the indicator applet is the one where it also states my login, the date & time, network connections etc.

What I want (and what I had on Ubuntu 9.10) is:
- When I click the window's "close" button -> The window with Gwibber closes and a Gwibber icon is present in the notification bar, next to my login, the date & time, network connections, Empathy, etc.
- A click on that icon can toggle the window state of Gwibber: if Gwibber is open, a click on the icon closes it, if Gwibber is closed, a click on the icon opens it

As far as I'm concerned the icon in the notification bar can be present from the moment Gwibber is started, so I can control the Gwibber window with that icon (hide or show the window).
If I really want to quit Gwibber, I'd just have to right-click on the icon and click "Quit", or from the Gwibber window's menu: Gwibber > Quit

That's what it did on Ubuntu 9.10 and that suits me fine :)

Banshee does exactly that, so you can check that out if my explanation isn't clear.

Thanks for a great app, I love it but please get me that tray icon back ;)

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Daniel: see my comment above. Whether Gwibber is closed or not *theoretically* should not make any difference for the user. The long startup time is the true bug, and is being worked on for the next version.

[Facundo Batista (facundo)]

The big flaw in this "service in the backend - gui in the frontend" reasoning is IMHO the notifications.

I really like notifications... while I'm in the computer.

When I need to do other stuff, I leave the computer, and close the gwibber GUI... but know what? as the notifications are sent by the always-running service in the backend, they still continue to pop-up.

What should I do? Configure to stop and start notifications every time I stop or start using the computer? Is that "usability"?

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

try ctrl+q ;)

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Facundo Batista <email address hidden>wrote:

> The big flaw in this "service in the backend - gui in the frontend"
> reasoning is IMHO the notifications.
>
> I really like notifications... while I'm in the computer.
>
> When I need to do other stuff, I leave the computer, and close the
> gwibber GUI... but know what? as the notifications are sent by the
> always-running service in the backend, they still continue to pop-up.
>
> What should I do? Configure to stop and start notifications every time I
> stop or start using the computer? Is that "usability"?
>
> --
> Exits on Close instead of Iconifying
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/420953
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to gwibber
> in ubuntu.
>
> Status in Gwibber: Confirmed
> Status in “gwibber” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gwibber
>
> When I close Gwibber's window it completely exits. Without an error message
> or anything, even though I've enabled "Minimize to tray on close" in the
> preferences.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> Package: gwibber 2.0.0~bzr394-0ubuntu3~daily2~jaunty
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: gwibber
> Uname: Linux 2.6.28-15-generic i686
> UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package
>
>
>

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Facundo:

Please read the previous comments again. If you want a full close, including the service, use File -> Quit. (or ctrl+q as Omer suggested)

Behavior-wise, the difference between Gwibber and applications that do not separate GUI from service, like Empathy, is non-existent. If you close Empathy with the window close button instead of using File -> Quit, the window will hide to tray but Empathy will remain open and you will keep receiving notifications.

If your complaint is a general complaint that includes Empathy as well, then it is unrelated to this bug and should be taken to proper media. But then do realize that it has nothing to do with separating service from GUI at all, as Empathy does not do that.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Judging by the last comments, I think this bug report outlived its usefulness. It should be closed as "won't fix" or "invalid" and people should be pointed out that the true bug is the startup time.

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

@Conscious User: I don't agree.

The title of this bug report states "Exits on close instead of iconifying" which is a UI issue and which is what I subscribed to.
I didn't subscribe to a bug concerning Gwibber's startup time.

Probably the comments regarding the startup time should be moved to another bug thread and removed from this one instead.

Thanks,
Steven

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Steven, you didn't understand. Let me summarize again.

1) For users who use the Messaging Menu, Gwibber *does* iconify when you click on the close button, the "icon" being its entry on the Messaging Menu. It is different under the hood but the behavior is supposed to be the same. The only difference is the longer startup time, but this is actually a different bug and shouldn't happen. In this sense, this report is "invalid".

2) For users who do not use the Messaging Menu, not having a tray icon was a design decision. You can work around this by adding a launcher on the panel or using AllTray. Yes, those solutions are suboptimal and yes, the Gwibber developer said he was thinking in bringing the tray icon back in the next release. But that doesn't change the fact that, for the current release, it was a design decision and will stay. In this sense, this report is "won't fix".

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I forgot something important. All my comments refer to downstream (Gwibber 2.30 in Ubuntu Lucid).

I have nothing against keeping this report open for upstream. I'm just suggesting it to be closed downstream in order to avoid misleading Lucid users into thinking this might be "fixed" for Lucid, which will never happen.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

This bug report was actually reported against gwibber 2.0 which had an icon in the notification area what I think is that when the reporter reported this bug either he had the tray icon option disabled by mistake or there might have been a bug in gwibber for not showing the notification area icon so when he clicked on close button gwibber actually quited.

For the present situation with gwibber 2.30 gwibber actually does not quit when the close button is pressed as gwibber-service (which is responsible for the notifications) is running in the background which makes it that the frontend is closed but the actual service is running. (same as the notification area icon but on a different way as 'conscious user' described).

I have reported an upstream bug for gwibber for the notification area icon bug 582405 I will mark this bug invalid as the original report was about something else.

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

@Conscious User @Omer

Ah ok my misunderstanding then :)

I'll see if I can get the messaging menu installed & running. BTW, the "me" menu allows me to Twit messages, but I don't get notifications for either Twitter nor Facebook...

Steven

[Matthias Runge (mrunge)]

I'm using gwibber on fedora. Fedora does not use ubuntus message-menu. (Sic, there is a world outside ubuntu).

Running gwibber as service is pretty useless, because notifications will not be displayed. In prior versions of gwibber messages were displayed, while iconified. As I understand right, iconify was removed and will not be brought back. This makes gwibber useless for me. I don't like just a few windows on my screen, especially if the applications will popup info windows, if something happens.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Matthias:

1) Notifications work for me when running Gwibber as a service. If they do not for you, this is not intended. File a bug or search for an existing one.

2) Please read the comments above again, with more attention. For those who do not use the Messaging Menu, there are workarounds available to have iconify-like behavior. And the icon probably *will* be brought back in future upstream versions. It just will not be brought back *specifically for the version released in Ubuntu Lucid*.

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

Ok I added the indicator applet to the Ubuntu panel and I now have an envelope icon from which I can either launch Empathy or Gwibber. So this helps me out a bit but is far more cumbersome than just being able to hide/unhide the Gwibber window from a click on an icon in the "systray".

I'm very disappointed that the iconification not longer works under Lucid. I find this a *severe* regression from Jaunty and will have me look for another microblogging tool that *will* iconify.
It's a shame really, I thought I had found the perfect microblogging app :(

Steven

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Steven:

Did you try AllTray, as Omer and I repeatedly suggested?

It's not a "Gwibber-native" solution, but works and it's certainly a less radical solution than searching for another microblogging app.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Matthias Runge, see bug 582405

[Steven (svanpoeck)]

@Conscious User:

Yes I did thank you. I guess I can live with that solution until the -hopefully- next release of Gwibber restores the iconification :)

Thanks for your and @Omer's help :)
Steven

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

Small update: the tray icon has returned in the pre-3.0 branch. Although this does not and will not change things for Lucid, this practically confirms the return of the icon for the next release (of both Gwibber and Ubuntu), so have some peace of mind. :)

Omer, I'm changing the upstream status to "In Progress", as it is just invalid downstream but at the same time I don't think a "pre-3.0" branch qualifies as a "Fix Commited".

[Matthias Runge (mrunge)]

Sounds great!

[Cleveland Rock (clevelandrock)]

I'm not sure if I understand.

1.) Gwibber is supposed to be either closed, or open/visible? Because that's not the case for me. If I close it with the X instead of with Gwibber > Quit, it stays open in the background with no tray icon or anything.
2.) Things will not be fixed for Lucid? Why not?

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Cleveland Rock

Everything you are asking have already been explained in previous comments, please read them carefully.

[Cleveland Rock (clevelandrock)]

@Conscious User
I did, about two and a half times, but I'm still confused. All I really want to know, as a Lucid user, is if I'll have to use AllTray permanently or if it will be fixed.
Sorry for my confusion.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

@Cleveland Rock:

Long story short, yes, for Lucid you will either have to use the Messaging Menu, AllTray, or add a launcher to the panel. As this was a design decision, fixing this for Lucid is "wishlist" at best, which probably can't qualify for a Stable Release Update. The icon will probably return in Lucid+1, though.

[Conscious User (conscioususer)]

I nominated this bug to Lucid and Maverick in order to decline the former and accept the latter, making things more clear.

[Filip Chabik (hadret)]

Please, do not abandon tray icon -- Ubuntu isn't only Linux distribution out there, also it's GNOME "version" isn't the one and only. I believe there's a lot of Gwibber users who use some other DE like GNOME-Shell, Xfce or LXDE -- and there's no memenu, simple tray only. Maybe some patch for other distributions? Or flag in ./configure that could enable this feature?