[Pidgin] #8400: Alias/IM account relationship

[Pidgin]

#8400: Alias/IM account relationship
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 Reporter:  sfsdfd  |           Owner:  lschiere    
     Type:  defect  |          Status:  new         
Milestone:          |       Component:  unclassified
  Version:  2.5.4   |      Resolution:              
 Keywords:          |   Launchpad_bug:              
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Comment(by deryni):

 Accounts are local, buddies are remote people, contacts group buddies
 together visually in the buddy list.

 So your usage statement is:
  * User has an XMPP account xuser at gmail.com (I will refer to this as
 account X).
  * User has a Yahoo! account yuser (I will refer to this as account Y).

  * User adds john12345 at gmail.com to X's buddy list with alias 'John Doe'
 (this alias is given to the buddy, not the contact).
  * User sees 'John Doe' in the buddy list (because the contact displays
 the buddy alias when no contact alias is set).
  * (User is oblivious to the existance of the concept of a contact and is
 happy.)

  * User adds jane_1 at gmail.com to X's buddy list. (With or without an
 alias?)
  * User adds jane_1 to Y's buddy list. (Again, with or without an alias?)
  * User now has *two* new entries in the buddy list, one for
 jane_1 at gmail.com and one for jane_1. (Thus avoiding the confusion you
 seemed to indicate would exist and without combining them into a single
 contact, unless they were given the same alias and pidgin asked if they
 should be merged.)

 I can't fully continue my rendition of the story since there is too much
 possible divergence from what you might have meant. If at this point the
 user has sepereat entries for jane_1 at gmail.com and jane_1 then aliasing
 each of the entries will work exactly the way it works for
 john12345 at gmail.com. If, however, the user has a single contact containing
 both the jane_1 at gmail.com and jane_1 buddies then this is likely because
 they were both given the same alias when added and the user said 'Yes'
 when pidgin asked if they wanted them merged.

 To alias a contact, the pidgin local grouping entity, itself you need to
 expand it and then right-click the contact-label, not the buddies. Once a
 contact alias has been set the contact will *always* display *that* alias
 and never display the buddy aliases. When expanded the contact entry will
 display the contact alias and each buddy will display the buddy alias.

 When no contact alias has been set, the contact will display the buddy
 alias (or username) of whichever buddy is the most 'active' within that
 contact and the Alias menu item will act on the most active buddy (as do
 just about all of the the other right-click menu options).

 Please, fill in my missing details, correct places I went astrayand try to
 recast your usage example again so tht I can finish responding to it. But
 *please* try to get the terms correct, it really will make life much
 easier for everyone.

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/8400#comment:4>
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