some feedbacks, mainly regarding the contactlist GUI

hi dudes

I am a student at ULP, living in Strasbourg and I like rice.
My
preferred color is red, sometimes it's blue or yellow, or
green also.
My father name's ...

Okay okay let's make short, it will be more easy, given my
level
in english : I'am a guy interessed by SIP communicator and
as I have  
made a small related work, (http://wsympho.free.f
r/fac/ter/), I have  
some feedbacks.
I hope it's the good mailing list.

I have seen a few bugs in the contactlist :
It's seems like Sip contacts in sc are handled like IM
contacts in the  
contactlist GUI, so, it's impossible to make a call using a
sip  
contact in the contact list. Even if we have an address in
our contact  
list, we need to type this address to issue a call. Except
if we are  
using a compatible USB phone of course ;)

here is the current implementation of
protocolContactSelected in
net.java.sip.communicator.impl.gui.main.contactlist.ContactL
istPanel.java:119


     /**
      * Implements the
ContactListListener.protocolContactSelected method.
      */
     public void protocolContactSelected(ContactListEvent
evt)
     {
         SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new  
RunMessageWindow(evt.getSourceContact(),
                 evt.getSourceProtoContact()));
     }

It's asummed that the only reason for wich a contact will be
selected
is to send a message to that contact. Why ? Maybe we want to
call him.
In fact this behaviour later lead to nullPointerExceptions
because when
a user try to send IM to a sip contact, the protocol
provider of this contact
do not have an OperationSetBasicInstantMessaging. We then
have to  
answer the following question :

What action must be taken when a contact is selected ?
Open a chatwindow, issue a call or just select the contact
...

Other softwares just selects the contact and let the user
choose an  
action either by showing a small popup or by extending an
area under  
the selected contact, with a set of actions specific to the
contact  
(metacontact).
It's look like a good solution but it's not the quickest way
to fix  
the current problem. We can start by adding a "call
this contact"  
JMenuItem under "send a message" in
ContactRightButtonMenu and when a  
sip contact is selected, issue a call rather than opening a
chat  
window, or just select the contact and let the user call by
using the  
call button.

Another thing : when I use icons located in the bottom of
the mainFrame to
switch from online to offline with a sip user, my contacts
desappear. and when
I switch back to online, they dont return. The only way to
have my  
contacts again is to exit and relaunch sc. And I see we can
rename a  
sip contact to have a friendly username in the contact list
rather  
than his address, but the Contact.getDisplayName() method
always  
return the address of the sip contact.

Third : to make a sip call, there is a "call via"
option wich gives the
possibility to select the account from which the call will
be made.
It can be a usefull option, but I think it will
"logic" to have a "default"
account to use with each contact.
This account could simply be the one to which the contact
belong. Here  
is how I have done in the scphone plugin :
http://wsympho.free.fr/fac/ter/javadoc/net/java
/sip/communicator/plugin/scphone/SCPhoneActivator.html#prima
ryProtocolProvider
The purpose is that when we add a contact, we have to choose
an account
to attach that contact to.
So there is a kind of affinity betwen contact and accounts.
I will  
prefer to use my account located at voip.example.com to call
user  
located to the same server. And sometimes, with some
servers, it will  
be impossible to do otherwise due to servers
"incompatibility" or  
accounts limitations for example.

Fourth and last (for today 

It's not possible to add a contact when there isn't any
group created. hence,
in the second window of the add contact wizard we can't go
forward if  
the select group menu is empty and we have nullpointer
exception at
net.java.sip.communicator.impl.gui.main.contactlist.addconta
ct.SelectGroupPanel.setGroup(SelectGroupPanel.java:121)
Here is the line :
newContact.setGroup(((GroupWrapper)group).getMetaGroup());

Reason of the Exception : the value of group is null,
because we do  
not have any group in the select menu.

How to reproduce : Try to add a contact when you do not have
any group created

Proposition : show a warning window to the user when he try
to add a  
contact and
he don't have any group in his contact list or have a
default group.

Sorry I haven't produced any patch, I will try to be more
productive in the
future 

++



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Hi Sympho,

sorry for the late reply, I was really busy these days.

symphorien.wanko-tchuenteulp.u-strasbg.fr wrote:
> hi dudes
> 
> I am a student at ULP, living in Strasbourg and I like
rice. My
> preferred color is red, sometimes it's blue or yellow,
or green also.
> My father name's ...

One thing is sure we definitely have some common preferred
colors

> Okay okay let's make short, it will be more easy, given
my level
> in english : I'am a guy interessed by SIP communicator
and as I have 
> made a small related work, (http://wsympho.free.f
r/fac/ter/), I have 
> some feedbacks.
> I hope it's the good mailing list.

It is

> I have seen a few bugs in the contactlist :
> It's seems like Sip contacts in sc are handled like IM
contacts in the 
> contactlist GUI, so, it's impossible to make a call
using a sip contact 
> in the contact list. Even if we have an address in our
contact list, we 
> need to type this address to issue a call. Except if we
are using a 
> compatible USB phone of course ;)
> 
> here is the current implementation of
protocolContactSelected in
>
net.java.sip.communicator.impl.gui.main.contactlist.ContactL
istPanel.java:119 
> 
> 
> 
>     /**
>      * Implements the
ContactListListener.protocolContactSelected method.
>      */
>     public void
protocolContactSelected(ContactListEvent evt)
>     {
>         SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new 
> RunMessageWindow(evt.getSourceContact(),
>                 evt.getSourceProtoContact()));
>     }
> 
> It's asummed that the only reason for wich a contact
will be selected
> is to send a message to that contact. Why ? Maybe we
want to call him.
> In fact this behaviour later lead to
nullPointerExceptions because when
> a user try to send IM to a sip contact, the protocol
provider of this 
> contact
> do not have an OperationSetBasicInstantMessaging. We
then have to answer 
> the following question :
>
> What action must be taken when a contact is selected ?
> Open a chatwindow, issue a call or just select the
contact ...
> 

I prefer to divide the problem, that you described here, in
two parts.

The first problem you describe is that there's no way to
call  a
MetaContact. The quick reply here is that actually the call
action over
a MetaContact was already implemented in the gui and the
NullPointerException was caused by a bug. I've fixed that
and now it
works. If you have a selected contact

The second problem (respectively question) is: What should
be the
default action on user left click, right click and double
click? When we
should open a chat, call the user, see some info, etc?
That's a very
good question and I'm happy that you started this discussion
on the
mailing list. We have had some offline discussions already,
but this
question is really important and deserves to be posted here
and
everybody give his opinion. Emcho what do you think about
this point?

> Other softwares just selects the contact and let the
user choose an 
> action either by showing a small popup or by extending
an area under the 
> selected contact, with a set of actions specific to the
contact 
> (metacontact).

I like this approach, but isn't it useful to have some
default actions?
Like for example, pressing enter makes a call, double click
opens a chat
window, right click opens a menu. We could still have the
extended area,
but my question is what do you think about the key actions
and the mouse
clicks? How we use them?

> It's look like a good solution but it's not the
quickest way to fix the 
> current problem. We can start by adding a "call
this contact" JMenuItem 
> under "send a message" in
ContactRightButtonMenu and when a sip contact 
> is selected, issue a call rather than opening a chat
window, or just 
> select the contact and let the user call by using the
call button.
> 

I agree for adding a JMenuItem in the right button menu,
it's a good
idea. Presently if we want to call some one without opening
the chat
window, we should select the contact with the middle mouse
button and
click ok. I agree that it isn't very intuitive, I just let
you know how
it works.

> Another thing : when I use icons located in the bottom
of the mainFrame to
> switch from online to offline with a sip user, my
contacts desappear. 
> and when
> I switch back to online, they dont return. The only way
to have my 
> contacts again is to exit and relaunch sc.

I have tested this one and I think that the problem is that
the sip
contact doesn't become online on reconnect. It probably
disappears in
your case because you have pressed the "Hide offline
contacts" button.

> And I see we can rename a sip 
> contact to have a friendly username in the contact list
rather than his 
> address, but the Contact.getDisplayName() method always
return the 
> address of the sip contact.

Actually when you rename a contact in the contact list you
rename the 
meta contact. I have tried to rename a sip contact and it
works for me, 
so could you please provide more details on what exactly
happens and if 
there's an exception.

> Third : to make a sip call, there is a "call
via" option wich gives the
> possibility to select the account from which the call
will be made.
> It can be a usefull option, but I think it will
"logic" to have a "default"
> account to use with each contact.
> This account could simply be the one to which the
contact belong. Here 
> is how I have done in the scphone plugin :
> http://wsympho.free.fr/fac/ter/javadoc/net/java
/sip/communicator/plugin/scphone/SCPhoneActivator.html#prima
ryProtocolProvider 
> The purpose is that when we add a contact, we have to
choose an account
> to attach that contact to.
> So there is a kind of affinity betwen contact and
accounts. I will 
> prefer to use my account located at voip.example.com to
call user 
> located to the same server. And sometimes, with some
servers, it will be 
> impossible to do otherwise due to servers
"incompatibility" or accounts 
> limitations for example.


Good point! I have to verify if this is already done and if
not I'll 
implement that.

> Fourth and last (for today 
> 
> It's not possible to add a contact when there isn't any
group created. 
> hence,
> in the second window of the add contact wizard we can't
go forward if 
> the select group menu is empty and we have nullpointer
exception at
>
net.java.sip.communicator.impl.gui.main.contactlist.addconta
ct.SelectGroupPanel.setGroup(SelectGroupPanel.java:121) 
> 
> Here is the line : 
>
newContact.setGroup(((GroupWrapper)group).getMetaGroup());
> 
> Reason of the Exception : the value of group is null,
because we do not 
> have any group in the select menu.
> 
> How to reproduce : Try to add a contact when you do not
have any group 
> created
> 
> Proposition : show a warning window to the user when he
try to add a 
> contact and
> he don't have any group in his contact list or have a
default group.

Nice catch! I'll fix that.

Thanks Sympho! You've done a very good work!

Yana

> Sorry I haven't produced any patch, I will try to be
more productive in the
> future 
> 
> ++
> 
> 
> 
>
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> 
> 

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