[Telepathy] Account and AccountManager objects

[mikhail.zabaluev at nokia.com]

Hi,

>-----Original Message-----
>From: telepathy-bounces at lists.freedesktop.org 
>[mailto:telepathy-bounces at lists.freedesktop.org] On Behalf Of 
>ext Simon McVittie
>Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:39 PM
>To: telepathy at lists.freedesktop.org
>Subject: [Telepathy] Account and AccountManager objects
>
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: SHA1
>
>I think the first thing we need to think about for Mission 
>Control is the
>concept of an account. This message is a bit of a brain-dump.
>
>Just what is an account?
>
>- - an independent "identity"
>  - if I connect to XMPP as smcv at example.com/N810 and 
>smcv at example.com/Laptop,
>    I think we ought to think of that as one account
>  - but if I connect to IRC as smcv on OFTC and smcv on 
>Freenode, that's two
>    accounts
>  - accounts can have different aliases, avatars, presence, 
>and even anonymity
>    requirements
>
>- - a way to get at contacts
>  - each of my accounts can have different contact lists
>  - I want to only talk to each contact from the account(s) 
>they're aware of
>  - I might want to talk to a colleague via my and his work 
>accounts (to
>    discuss XMPP) or via my and his personal accounts (to suggest we go
>    to the pub)
>
>- - something Mission Control can connect in response to 
>environmental changes
>  - e.g. internet tablets' auto-online
>  - therefore we need to store the complete parameter set for 
>each account
>
>- - not (currently) necessarily the same as a normalized ID 
>(which is the thing
>  you get when you inspect a contact handle)
>
>Instructive cases to think about:
>
>- - The canonical example is, as usual, Gabble. The 'account' parameter
>  is conceptually an account (although you can be connected to the same
>  account multiple times from one host, if you're insane - just set two
>  different resources). The 'account' parameter is globally unique and
>  is the same as the self-handle's normalized value - user at example.com.
>
>- - telepathy-sofiasip: here the 'account' parameter is 
>user at example.com,
>  but a normalized user ID is sip:user at example.com or 
>tel:+441234678910.
>  AIUI the self-handle normalizes to sip:user at example.com too.
>  (Mikhail, Senko: would a sip: URI be accepted as 'account'?)

Yes. Moreover, it's the preferred form, which will leave out any fuzzy heuristics.

There's also a gorgeous idea to implement umbrella accounts, where one account in terms of UI would mean two or more connections managed by different CMs. The case in point is Gizmo XMPP/Sipphone SIP. Here, some form of a cascade connection manager would be necessary that presents a front end unifying disparate protocol connections and their handle namespaces.

Best regards,
  Mikhail