[Evolution] Instant Messaging

[Kiran Jonnalagadda <jace lunateks com>]

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone was doing any work on integrating
instant messaging into Evolution. While existing apps do a fairly
reasonable job, there's no reason why communication via instant
messaging should not get the kind of integration that Evolution
is giving to mail and calendering.

Among all the clients I've seen in a while, EveryBuddy [1] has
the best architecture. They use a plug-in approach to unify
multiple protocols into one common interface. Recycling their
work to fit into Evolution should be easier than designing the
system from scratch, I suppose.

I'm willing to help with this, but need guidance. To say
something about my abilities: I've been programming since 1991 in
most of the mainstream languages (Assembler, BASIC, C, Pascal and
recently Python) on the DOS and Windows platforms. I've been a
full-time Linux desktop user since January 1999, but never found
any project to hook into (I've never been a professional
application programmer, my current job involves administration
and back-end design for Web sites). Of Gtk+, my knowledge is
limited to an understanding of the event mechanism and making
forms using Glade, but nothing more. I have problems with getting
spare time, but I'm trying to put in a couple of hours at the end
of each day into working on Evolution or EveryBuddy (or
understanding how the existing code works, as of now).


Getting back to instant messaging, here is what I have in mind:

1) The contact manager should have a section for specifying the
contact's screen name on the various IM protocols. The IM plugin
is responsible for collecting the required info (like Jabber does
using XML).

2) Instead of just "Send e-mail to contact", there should be a
"Send instant message to contact". The contact's preferred IM
service should be used by default, unless another is explicitly
chosen, or if the local user does not have an account on that
service.

3) Many mobile phone service providers have e-mail gateways. This
can be used as a form of instant messaging too.

4) The user should have the option of getting reminders over an
IM service. Sending reminders to mobile phones is particularly
useful if the user is away from his computer at the time the
reminder is sent (it may have been set for five minutes before
the appointment; too little time to expect the user to return and
notice the reminder).

5) Since the IM client needs to be running all the time, it will
have to be independent of Evolution, sharing only the back-end
server process.

6) For the IM plug-ins, some may be send-only, like the e-mail to
ICQ gateway (UIN pager icq com) or the e-mail on phone service
(phone-number maxtouch co in with my provider).


[1] http://www.everybuddy.com

-- 

Kiran Jonnalagadda
http://lunateks.com

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