[Telepathy] Account and AccountManager objects

[Alberto Mardegan]

ext Simon McVittie wrote:
> So whatever UI causes the activation is responsible for deciding what
> status to set? That sounds rather mysterious... it sounds like a job for
> MC really. On the other hand, I suppose the UI might ask the user?
> 
> - ----------------------------------------------------
> |To call Bob, you need to connect to the account   |
> |"Google Talk (example at gmail.com)".                |
> |                                                  |
> |Set this status: [ (-) Busy |v]                   |
> |with message:    [On the phone__________________] |
> |                                                  |
> |      [   OK   ]   [ Cancel ]                     |
> - ----------------------------------------------------

In theory -- but I hope that in practice the UIs won't bother the user 
with such questions. :-)

> Thinking about this some more, here are ways an account can become connected,
> and possible things we could do:
> 
> * We gain an Internet connection, or do some other action that can
>   trigger an "onlineness" event. Accounts that are so configured try to
>   go online.
> 
>   Requirements to support this: either MC guesses an appropriate status
>   for all accounts (in ITOS2008 it's a global preference), or each
>   account has a stored value for "when you get online, do this".
> 
>   Reasonable implementation: for each account, either store a boolean
>   "put this online whenever possible", or a presence type (possibly Offline)
>   "set this status whenever possible" (I was leaning towards the latter
>   in previous mails)

I vote for presence type, +message (not that I find the message that 
important, but it doesn't cost much to add it now).

> * The user asks to initiate a call/IM session/... with a stored contact.
>   That account has to go online first.
> 
>   Requirements to support this: either MC guesses an appropriate status
>   for the account, or it uses the stored status from the previous case
> 
>   Reasonable implementation: the UI sketch above seems OK, actually.
>   The UI could always ask MC "what status would *you* set?",
>   or perhaps pass in Connection_Presence_Type_Unset to trigger an MC
>   decision, if it doesn't want to ask the user.

I think that going online with the same presence (+message) we talked 
about above is the simplest and most coherent solution. Of course the UI 
can choose to give the user the possibility of setting another presence 
(but if I were a user I would be quite annoyed by that), either by 
changing the default presence for the account, or by forcibly request 
that presence, wait for the account to connect, and then call 
RequestChannel.

> * The same as the last one, but we weren't previously connected to a
>   network, and we activate the network connection for the purpose (this
>   is mostly an Internet-tablet case).
> 
>   Reasonable implementation: either we somehow freeze automatic
>   connection for a short time, or we reason "well, while they're going online
>   anyway..." and do the same as any other "gaining an Internet
>   connection" event

MC will have plugins for requesting connectivity.

> * The user explicitly asks to put this account online
>   (implicitly selecting a status)
> 
> * The user explicitly asks to put a group that includes this account,
>   or all accounts, online (should probably be exactly the same as the previous)
> 
> For the VPN use-case, we could have something in the Advanced tab of
> account config, I suppose:
> 
> |                                |
> | This account requires          |
> | [ VPN "vpn.example.com"    |v] |
> - ----------------------------------
> 
> together with some way for VPN plugins, etc. to add extra requirements.

Yes. More about this on the next email. :-)

Ciao,
   Alberto

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