[Pidgin] #11764: Account Names

[Pidgin]

#11764: Account Names
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 Reporter:  tristangrimaux  |        Owner:           
     Type:  enhancement     |       Status:  new      
Milestone:                  |    Component:  libpurple
  Version:  2.6.2           |   Resolution:           
 Keywords:  account name    |  
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Changes (by darkrain42):

  * milestone:  Plugin Suggested =>


Comment:

 I'm splitting this up into multiple replies, for my sanity.

 Replying to [comment:10 tristangrimaux]:
 > Please, remember this problem is really easy to see when the user makes
 a heavy use of Pidgin and he is not an expert or a powerful user.
 >
 > Please, read carefully: it is NOT the protocol icon what I mean: its the
 account icon.
 >
 > There might be three different icons: the buddy icon, wich should be a
 nice picture of the user, the account icon, that might be the Facebook
 isologo, or the GMail one, or it might be a picture of my university. It
 might be as well a Facebook icon with a 2 over it to describe it as my
 second account on Faceboock. And finally it is the protocol icon which is
 the way the user rapidly understands what is capable of doing under that
 account.
 >
 > In fact, when creating a wizard to add an account, it could list the
 Facebook account type which only asks for username and password, and it
 automatically creates an account with the name Facebook, the icon and the
 server data already filled. Adding account types make more sense than
 adding a custom protocol which creates an unnecessary overhead over the
 classes structure. It's really better than adding custom icons for a
 protocol which really does not fit anywhere.

 This sounds like a use for the protocol icon to me (yes, the fact that
 Facebook identifies itself as XMPP is unfortunate, as Facebook's XMPP
 implementation lacks a lot of the cool features of XMPP).  But really, I'm
 not sure I understand what you're describing now, so I'm going to start
 with some terminology (where I'm coming from):
    * Account - The things in the account dialog.  A representation of
 ''your'' (the user's) account on a service
    * Account [buddy] icon - This is the icon that Pidgin typically sets on
 the server for an account (so it's what other people see if they have you
 in your buddy list).  It can be set globally (via the statusbox at the
 bottom of the Buddy List window) and overridden on a per-account basis.
    * Buddy - Someone on your buddy list, associated with a specific
 protocol (can also be grouped into a meta contact)
    * Buddy icon - Similar to the above, but is what is associated with a
 specific buddy (If you have yourself in your buddy list, you should see
 your Account icon as the buddy icon for that buddy)
    * Protocol icon - the little indicator of what protocol an
 account/buddy is associated with

 As I said above and previously, it would be nice if protocol icons were
 distinguishable for things like Facebook from other XMPP services.

 My current guess of what you're asking for is a "Local Account Icon", that
 is set per-account, but ''is not'' transmitted to the server, and simply
 serves as a visual indicator.  if that's correct, I still think an ability
 to set per-account protocol icons would roughly work here, although it
 does constrain the size of the icons (I'm unsure on whether that's a bad
 thing or not :P).  These would primarily be displayed in the toaster
 popups (pidgin-libnotify or guifications), right?  Where else do you
 envision they'd be displayed?  (It seems to me that, since they wouldn't
 garner widespread use outside of the toaster popup plugins, it would be
 more reasonable to implement it there)

 I'll respond to the later parts in a bit; I have to run now.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/11764#comment:11>
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