GSOC: Android client potential

[Tomasz Wasilczyk]

2013/4/14 Michael Zangl <pidgin_m at fam-zangl.de>:
> Am 13.04.2013 23:51, schrieb Tobia Tesan:
>
>> Il 13/04/2013 23:20, Michael Zangl ha scritto:
>>>
>>> * Write something that relays messages from a normal PC to Android, to
>>> not need Android staying connected to all the accounts. This could be
>>> done by writing a stand-alone client for Android and a plugin for
>>> pidgin. Or it can be done by adapting libpurple to support this sort
>>> of synchronisation, so that you do not need an Android client for
>>> testing, but it will work on Android as soon as libpurple works on
>>> Android. This would then also be a nice project for somebody who is
>>> not familiar with the JNI or Android API.
>>
>> Hi Michael, I'm not sure if I understand what you mean here (I've reread
>> the paragraph a hundred times to no avail, I guess I just need more
>> coffee).
>> Why would this be useful?
>> Would this be for testing purpouses?
>
> Hi,
>
> You are right, I should have clarified my Ideas more. This point includes
> two Ideas:
> * The Android "proxy" client, see [1]. This is based on a libpurple plugin
> that sends incoming messages on to an Android app.
> * A libpurple change (probably you need some more changes than just a
> plugin) that will allow you to do this with any two running libpurple
> instances. Once connected, one then acts as a server, while the other one
> acts as a client and gets all data bundled from the libpurple-server. The
> user of the library does not see this, all protocol interactions are just
> relayed to the server. The moment the server is not online, you could fall
> back to normal protocol implementations.
> The idea is that this way, you could do a great job minimizing the network
> traffic and therefore the power requirements for libpurple, which is great
> for running it on mobile devices.
> This mechanism would also include synchronizing the Account and buddy list
> (and probably chat history), so it is also an useful service for normal
> users.

You're talking about detachable sessions project [1] (multiple
instances running at once). It doesn't have to be done for android
proxy client - a plugin for libpurple will be enough. Anyway,
compatibility with this old branch would be nice additional feature.

[1] https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/GSoC2010/DetachableLibpurple