Missing "Server" input box for Sametime accounts

[Julius Thor]

Hi,

It is no longer possible to connect to sametime server because there is no "Server" input box undir Sametime accounts. This happened recently and according to a freedesktop.org bug report this happened when libpurple was upgraded from 2.10 to 2.10.1. Here is the explanation from the freedesktop.org bug report:

"With the latest version of libpurple (2.10.1) a change was made to the Sametime
protocol:

 + Sametime:
    - Separate "username" and "server" when adding new Sametime
      accounts

Although at first this seems harmless and only affecting the pidgin client, it
seems that telepathy-haze can not handle this separation. When a new account is
created for Sametime, the server details are no longer displayed. Also an old
account (that has all the details already) no longer works due to the same
issue. Adding the missing parameter to the accounts.cfg file (mission-control)
causes that this parameter is ignored and removed.

Returning to libpurple 2.10.0 resolves the issue and the server can be
identified again when the account is created." - Raymond Wooninck

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44631

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: empathy 3.3.90.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.29-generic 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Mar 14 11:02:27 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: empathy
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-12 (1 days ago)

[Tittiatcoke (tittiatcoke)]

With the latest version of libpurple (2.10.1) a change was made to the Sametime protocol:

 + Sametime:
    - Separate "username" and "server" when adding new Sametime
      accounts

Although at first this seems harmless and only affecting the pidgin client, it seems that telepathy-haze can not handle this separation. When a new account is created for Sametime, the server details are no longer displayed. Also an old account (that has all the details already) no longer works due to the same issue. Adding the missing parameter to the accounts.cfg file (mission-control) causes that this parameter is ignored and removed.

Returning to libpurple 2.10.0 resolves the issue and the server can be identified again when the account is created.

[Bilal Shahid (s9iper1)]

setting the bug and status.he already upstreamed it and now more dealing is there.

[Rainer Rohde (rainer-rohde)]

This affects me as well. I cannot connect to the agency's Notes Meetings... :(

[Julius Thor (joolli)]

There is a workaround for this which can be used until this gets a proper fix: You can specify username and server in the accound field with a semycolon in between:

Account: "username:serverhost"

See screenshot in comment #5.

[Joel (hundred17)]

Still running into this on Fedora 18 with:

libpurple-2.10.6-4.fc18.x86_64
telepathy-haze-0.6.0-2.fc18.x86_64
empathy-3.6.1-2.fc18.x86_64

[Negativo17 (negativo17)]

Any chance to see this fixed?

Thanks,
--Simone

libpurple-2.10.7-2.fc18.x86_64
telepathy-haze-0.6.0-2.fc18.x86_64
empathy-3.6.4-2.fc18.x86_64
meanwhile-1.1.0-9.fc18.x86_64

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

What were the old account parameters called? What was their syntax?

What are the new account parameters called? What is their syntax?

Is there any way we can test Sametime without buying a server for it?

Does this untested patch work?

diff --git a/src/protocol.c b/src/protocol.c
index 639e25e..cd8593a 100644
--- a/src/protocol.c
+++ b/src/protocol.c
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ static const HazeParameterMapping irc_mappings[] = {
     { NULL, NULL }
 };

+static const HazeParameterMapping sametime_mappings[] = {
+ { "usersplit1", "server" },
+ { NULL, NULL }
+};
+
 static const HazeParameterMapping jabber_mappings[] = {
     { "connect_server", "server" },
     /* usersplit1 => domain is deliberately not in this map, because
@@ -200,7 +205,7 @@ static const KnownProtocolInfo known_protocol_info[] = {
     { "local-xmpp", "prpl-bonjour", bonjour_mappings, "" /* ? */ },
     { "msn", "prpl-msn", NULL, "x-msn" },
     { "qq", "prpl-qq", NULL, "x-qq" /* ? */ },
- { "sametime", "prpl-meanwhile", NULL, "x-sametime" /* ? */ },
+ { "sametime", "prpl-meanwhile", sametime_mappings, "x-sametime" /* ? */ },
     { "sipe", "prpl-sipe", sipe_mappings, "" /* ? */ },
     { "yahoo", "prpl-yahoo", yahoo_mappings, "x-yahoo" },
     { "yahoojp", "prpl-yahoojp", yahoo_mappings, "x-yahoo" /* ? */ },

[Negativo17 (negativo17)]

Hello,

I'm the (unfortuante) mantainer of the meanwhile library in Fedora; I can make some test builds and then try to push patches to the appropriate component if they do work. Is the attached patch for telepathy-haze?

The old parameters were "account", "server", "port" and "password" IIRC.

Now I have all of them except the "server" one, to make it work correctly I have to use the following syntax in the connection parameters dialog in the "account" field:

<username>:<server>

I've the following components installed here.

libpurple-2.10.7-2.fc19.x86_64
telepathy-haze-0.7.0-3.fc19.x86_64
empathy-3.8.3-1.fc19.x86_64
meanwhile-1.1.0-10.fc19.x86_64

Thanks,
--Simone

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Is the attached patch for telepathy-haze?

Yes.

> The old parameters were "account", "server", "port" and "password" IIRC.
>
> Now I have all of them except the "server" one, to make it work correctly I
> have to use the following syntax in the connection parameters dialog in the
> "account" field:
>
> <username>:<server>

OK, that's what I thought. This suggests that doing the usersplit thing (as in the untested patch) should hopefully work: you'll pass 'account' and 'server' to Haze, and it will re-combine them like "${account}:${server}" for libpurple.

[Negativo17 (negativo17)]

I've tested the patch, the "server" field is there but it's not working.
I've created screenshots for the following steps here:

http://slaanesh.fedorapeople.org/sametime/

1- When creating the account the only field is "account", no "server" field.
2- I edit the "connection settings" and fill in the fields.
3- It asks me for the password, and when filling it in it keeps on asking.
4- If I edit the account settings to re-check, all the settings have vanished; only the account is there and the rest is blank.

It would be great to have this fix, but I understand that almost nobody is using IBM's Sametime anymore except for a few big companies (what luck I have!...) and that the server is proprietary; so maybe a faster / dirtier fix would be to add a text at the account creation screen (screenshot 1) with instructions to use <account>:<server> as the account name.

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> 1- When creating the account the only field is "account", no "server" field.
> 2- I edit the "connection settings" and fill in the fields.
> 3- It asks me for the password, and when filling it in it keeps on asking.
> 4- If I edit the account settings to re-check, all the settings have
> vanished; only the account is there and the rest is blank.

That sounds like several bugs. What telepathy-mission-control version is this? Did you log out and back in (or reboot) between installing the patched Haze and trying to use it?

Since there are no Telepathy contributors with access to a Sametime server (as far as I know), if you want this fixed, I'm afraid you'll need to do some debugging. Sources of information that could be useful include:

* Empathy's Debug window (empathy-debugger)
* <https://live.gnome.org/Empathy/Debugging>
* <http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Debugging/>
* dbus-monitor

The debug logs for both Haze and Mission Control are probably relevant.

(In reply to comment #6)
> maybe a faster / dirtier
> fix would be to add a text at the account creation screen (screenshot 1)
> with instructions to use <account>:<server> as the account name.

That'd be an Empathy feature request: Telepathy doesn't have much control over its account creation UI. If you're giving Empathy a protocol-specific UI for sametime anyway, you could use logic like:

* have text-entry boxes for both account and server
* if the connection manager claims to support the server parameter, send them as account and server
* if the connection manager does not claim to support the server parameter, send ${account}:${server} as the value of the 'account' parameter"

and it'd work whether Haze splits them or not.

[Negativo17 (negativo17)]

Unfortunately (depending on the point of view....) I'm not the sysadmin of the SameTime servers and I'm not able to ask creation of accounts for these purposes. I would be very glad to give accounts to developers but I can not :(

(In reply to comment #7)
> What telepathy-mission-control version is this?

telepathy-mission-control-5.14.1-2.fc19.x86_64

> Did you log out and back in (or reboot) between installing the patched
> Haze and trying to use it?

No, I simply quit empathy. Could not quit while I was at the office. Actually logging off and logging in back again solved the issue; sorry for the noise.

I can now log in after editing the account by splitting the account and server options.

Thanks for the patch. Can you push it to telepathy-haze?

> (In reply to comment #6)
> > maybe a faster / dirtier
> > fix would be to add a text at the account creation screen (screenshot 1)
> > with instructions to use <account>:<server> as the account name.
>
> That'd be an Empathy feature request: Telepathy doesn't have much control
> over its account creation UI. If you're giving Empathy a protocol-specific
> UI for sametime anyway, you could use logic like:
>
> * have text-entry boxes for both account and server
> * if the connection manager claims to support the server parameter, send
> them as account and server
> * if the connection manager does not claim to support the server parameter,
> send ${account}:${server} as the value of the 'account' parameter"
>
> and it'd work whether Haze splits them or not.

Thanks, should I file a bug on Empathy for this?

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

Created attachment 81546
Adjust for Sametime accounts getting a "usersplit" in libpurple 2.10.1

Previously, Sametime accounts had separate 'account' and 'server'
parameters. Upgrading to libpurple 2.10.1 caused them to have
a single 'account' parameter with syntax like "username:server",
flagged as being split at ":" - to keep existing accounts working,
we want to separate them again, like we do for IRC.

Bug: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44631
Tested-by: Simone Caronni
Signed-off-by: Simon McVittie <email address hidden>

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Thanks for the patch. Can you push it to telepathy-haze?

I can if someone reviews it (or tbh I'll push it after a while anyway, if nobody actually wants to veto it).

> > (In reply to comment #6)
> > If you're giving Empathy a protocol-specific
> > UI for sametime anyway, you could [...]
>
> Thanks, should I file a bug on Empathy for this?

If you or any of the other people cc'd on this bug intend to implement one yourself, please open an 'enhancement' Empathy bug for it. libempathy/empathy-account-widget-* would be the right place to start.

Given that Sametime isn't widely-used, or testable outside organizations that have bought a server, I think it's unlikely that the Empathy maintainers would implement this protocol-specific UI themselves, but they'd probably accept patches.

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

Fixed in 0.7.1

[Simon McVittie (smcv)]

*** Bug 47891 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Dennis (deki24)]

How can I apply the fix to my Ubuntu 13.10 installation?