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Instead of the small window that Kopete uses, I was thinking that an instant messaging widget would be an extremely useful case for integrating communications into the desktop better. With the work being done on Telepathy, nepomuk, and akonadi; KDE could utilize those databases and create a simple abstracted interface for communicating with friends. Here are some mockups for how it could look when placed on a panel;







For more information and notes check out my blog post below.

This idea was originally posted on my blog.
http://bsmith1012.blogspot.com/2011/04/ ... idget.html

Plasma integration for telepathy is planned. As far as I can tell kopete is essentially deprecated in favor of telepathy.

TheBlackCat wrote:Plasma integration for telepathy is planned. As far as I can tell kopete is essentially deprecated in favor of telepathy.

You're missing the point. Currently the developers are creating a Kopete clone, complete with small side window and icon in the systray. This is an idea to create a widget interface instead, with the IM services running in the background.

BSmith1012 wrote:You're missing the point. Currently the developers are creating a Kopete clone, complete with small side window and icon in the systray.

I'd like to point out, that it's not true. We're not doing a Kopete clone (what would be the point of that?), but we rather aim much higher (or deeper, depends on how you look at it ). We already have some deep system integration (Nepomuk) and everything are small reusable components (and separate apps for that matter). To put it simply - you don't even have to have the contact list to chat with someone.

As one of the lead KDE-telepathy devs, I thought I'd comment here.

Your mockup is fantastic, and _exactly_ the sort of thing I like to see. In fact it's just been referenced on our mailing list.

We have discussed grid avatar views before and it really comes down to an issue of "not everyone has an avatar", in my friend list on jabber it's only 1 in 8 people who have an avatar.

"Currently the developers are creating a Kopete clone":

No we are not! The IM services in the background is a really core part of what we're doing. Sure, the contact list app we're making looks the same but the whole point of Telepathy and what we're doing is the ability to have multiple contact selection interfaces. Also the contact list does not dock to the system tray.

Contact list plasmoids are currently planned, in fact we have a GSOC student to do so.

Anyway, join our ML, there's a thread on this exact topic.

this plasmoid should provide several views like dolphin

icons (avatars)
list view
detailed list view

(maybe an option to set custom avatars/photos like every modern phone does???)

thx you so much for your work david&co - can't wait to try it on my desktop

david_edmundson wrote:As one of the lead KDE-telepathy devs, I thought I'd comment here.

Your mockup is fantastic, and _exactly_ the sort of thing I like to see. In fact it's just been referenced on our mailing list.

We have discussed grid avatar views before and it really comes down to an issue of "not everyone has an avatar", in my friend list on jabber it's only 1 in 8 people who have an avatar.

"Currently the developers are creating a Kopete clone":

No we are not! The IM services in the background is a really core part of what we're doing. Sure, the contact list app we're making looks the same but the whole point of Telepathy and what we're doing is the ability to have multiple contact selection interfaces. Also the contact list does not dock to the system tray.

Contact list plasmoids are currently planned, in fact we have a GSOC student to do so.

Anyway, join our ML, there's a thread on this exact topic.

I'm glad you like my mockup. I wrote a more complete list of some of the issues with it on my blog if you havent seen the link at the bottom. I wrote that it was a "kopete clone" in regards to its looks, not its technology. Trust me, Ive read every article about it posted on planet kde so I understand what you're doing. I'll check out the mailing list and see if I have any good ideas to help out with the interface issues. Thanks

I can't see the original mockups, however I did at one point, and I wrote the plasmoids...

We have a widget for viewing one contact, a widget for incoming chats and a widget for the entire contact list.
(the last two not released yet).

I would say this is done, any changes from the original ideas to our implementations should be opened as separate ideas.