Jabber vcard icons

[Evan Schoenberg, M.D.]

On Aug 11, 2009, at 1:40 AM, Mark Doliner wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Peter Saint- 
> Andre<stpeter at stpeter.im> wrote:
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>> On 8/10/09 7:59 PM, Mark Doliner wrote:
>>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 6:16 PM, Richard  
>>> Laager<rlaager at wiktel.com> wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 14:44 -0700, Mark Doliner wrote:
>>>>> I kind of see the rationale for wanting to have a
>>>>> different icon in each location where you log into your jabber
>>>>> account, but you really only have one vcard, and it is meant to
>>>>> describe your person, not your location.  It seems like Pidgin  
>>>>> should
>>>>> inherit the vcard icon from the server, instead.
>>>>>
>>>>> What do other people think?
>>>> I don't know anything about the Jabber protocol, but if we  
>>>> "inherit the
>>>> vcard icon from the server", how does a user change their vcard  
>>>> icon?
>>>
>>> You would have to set the icon while you're logged in.  Which  
>>> means if
>>> you try to set it while you're not logged in, your change is lost,
>>> which is sad.
>>
>> What exactly is sad? How could you upload a modified icon if you're  
>> not
>> online? That's no different in XMPP than in HTTP (you can't do an  
>> HTTP
>> POST if you're not connected to the Internet!).
>
> Oh, yeah, I wouldn't expect the XMPP server to be able to accept an
> updated icon when you're not online.  The sad part is that Pidgin's UI
> lets users set an icon when they're offline.  So my original
> suggestion has some problems.

In Adium, we handle this for the MSN Display Name, which has a similar  
behavior (stored online, may be updated elsewhere, should be shared)  
by setting a separate boolean preference when the changed is made  
while the account isn't connected.  When the account connects, if and  
only if that preference has been set to true, the local value  
overrides the server value, and the preference is reset to false.

Perhaps a similar behavior would be the compromise for best behavior  
with the XMPP icon?

Cheers,
Evan