Login indicators not being properly identified as such

Bug #440068 reported by Jeremy Nickurak
30
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
One Hundred Papercuts
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
libindicate
Invalid
Low
Unassigned
empathy (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: empathy

This bug had originally two parts: (1) the messaging menu showing Empathy login entries despite login notifications have being disabled by the user and (2) those entries not being properly identified with a "connected" string instead of a timestamp, as the specification in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MessagingMenu#Recommended%20behavior%20for%20instant%20messaging%20clients demands.

This report will now focus on (1), and (2) was moved to Bug #495671.

Original description below:

The messaging menu frequently shows "message" entries in the menu for users I haven't sent/recieved messages to/from. My guess is they've come online/offline, and this notification is what ends up in the messaging menu.

If these entries are going to show up in the messaging menu, they should be distinguished somehow from ones which actually have messages to read.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Oct 1 10:17:46 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: empathy 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
SourcePackage: empathy
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686

Revision history for this message
Jeremy Nickurak (nickurak) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for your bug report, that has been fixed in karmic

Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Jeremy Nickurak (nickurak) wrote :

Negative, still getting this in karmic.

empathy:
  Installed: 2.28.1-1ubuntu1

indicator-applet:
  Installed: 0.2.0-0ubuntu2

indicator-applet-session:
  Installed: 0.2.0-0ubuntu2

indicator-session:
  Installed: 0.1.7-0ubuntu3

Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Released → New
Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Ken VanDine (ken-vandine)
Revision history for this message
Ken VanDine (ken-vandine) wrote :

They should show up in the indicator for sign on/off events briefly, then go clear themselves. They should not "draw-attention", which is the filled in envelope icon and they won't display a time. Right now that is the only real way to distinguish them now. Perhaps this is something that can be improved for Lucid. Suggestions for ways to distinguish them?

Revision history for this message
Nicolò Chieffo (yelo3) wrote :

You could add something next to the name, for example:
(online) and (offline)

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

In <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MessagingMenu#Recommended%20behavior%20for%20instant%20messaging%20clients> I've specified: "Optionally, [an IM client] may also provide a message source item for each person in your contact list who has not sent you new messages, but who has connected in the past minute and is still online. It should not do this unless it is also configured to display a notification bubble notifying you that the person has connected ... For someone who has connected in the past minute but not sent you new messages, time should be set to “connected”."

So in the case of Empathy, I think the required changes are (1) add those items only when "Enable notifications when a contact comes online" is checked, and (2) set time = "connected" for them.

Omer Akram (om26er)
Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

I didn't know this bug already existed, so I now properly marked Bug 495671, which I reported some time ago, as a duplicate.

I'm also assigning this bug to the Papercuts project, something that was done in the duplicates and never contested.

Revision history for this message
David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Conscious, I don't think bug 495671 is a duplicate of this bug.

Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

David, from a strict point of view, I agree. But if Bug 497646 was considered a duplicate, then I think it's coherent to consider Bug 495671 a duplicate as well, despite my sentimental issues due to being the reporter. :)

Also, it should be noted that what I requested in Bug 497646 is precisely what mpt is suggesting in Comment #6 (1).

Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

Sorry, the last part should've been "...what I requested in Bug 495671...".

Revision history for this message
Ken VanDine (ken-vandine) wrote :

Marked this as also affects libindicate, currently it can't meet the specification. That field requires a timestamp, so to allow strings like "connected" libindicate would need to add support for that.

NOTE: Might also require changes to indicator-messages

Revision history for this message
Chandru (chandru-in-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I experience this in spite of the fact that I have notifications disabled for users coming online/going offline in empathy. Interestingly for me, the entries in messaging menu end-up in the mail section of the menu instead of the chat section.

Ted Gould (ted)
Changed in libindicate:
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

Okay, I changed my mind. The focus of this bug seems to have been turned to the problem of setting "connected" as the timestamp for login indicators, but not to the problem of them appearing despite the user not wanting them to.

I propose changing the description of this bug to something like "Should properly identify login indicators with 'connected' as the timestamp" and stop considering Bug #495671 as a duplicate of this one, as David suggested.

Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

If you accept my suggestion, then I guess Bug #495671 can also be marked as Confirmed.

Revision history for this message
Ted Gould (ted) wrote : Re: [Bug 440068] Re: Messaging menu shows entries for users without messages

Sounds good. I think that a bug on being able to disable
connection/disconnection indicators would also be appropriate. I think
part of the discussion should be whether that's a per-app setting or a
global one.

Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

Okay, I made all the changes proposed in the title and description, and #495671 went back to standing on its own.

description: updated
summary: - Messaging menu shows entries for users without messages
+ Login indicators not being properly identified as such
Revision history for this message
Jeremy Nickurak (nickurak) wrote :

With users constantly going online and offline, the value of the indicator applet's "new message" icon is completely nullified, because it's just always on.

Big impact on the indicator's usability.

Revision history for this message
Conscious User (conscioususer) wrote :

Jeremy, this bug is more about the identification of login indicators. The bug about their presence is now Bug #495671.

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

The papercut task was carried over from Bug #495671[Dup of bug #533857] , which is now fixed.
Closing papercut task

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: New → Invalid
Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
assignee: Ken VanDine (ken-vandine) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Ted Gould (ted) wrote :

I think this bug was probably fixed in the switch to telepathy-indicator. If not, please reopen.

Changed in empathy (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Invalid
Changed in libindicate:
status: Confirmed → Invalid
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