[GnomeMeeting-devel-list] Gnomemeeting remote control through DBUS

[PUYDT Julien <jpuydt free fr>]

Hi,

I'll answer to that mail to give the following files (I fear the 40k
wall):
* gm_remote.c and a little Makefile to help compile it;
* a patch against gm's cvs.

You'll need to have dbus and it's glib bindings installed to compile
both gm_remote and the patched gnomemeeting. (version 0.21 is what works
here)

Once you'll have compiled gm_remote and the patched gnomemeeting,
running them will require you to do the following:
* in a terminal, run "dbus-daemon-1 --session --print-address"; you
should get something like "unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-Wi693PHtxm";
* run both gnomemeeting and gm_remote with
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-Wi693PHtxm" at the
beginning of the command line, so the dbus server you just launched will
be used.

You should get a gnomemeeting that looks like usual, and a window with a
text entry and a row of buttons (window title: "Unknown").

If you press the "Update" button, you should see the title change to
"Standby". Now enter a nice h323 url in the entry, and click "Connect".
You should hear gnomemeeting start ringing. Click "Update", and you
should see the title become "Calling". When the call begins, re-click to
see "Connected". Click on the "Disconnect" button and gnomemeeting
should do just that (again, "Update" should give "Standby"), etc. If
someone tries to call you, and you press "Update", "Called" should
appear in the title. If your experiments ever make "Bogus" appear,
gnomemeeting did something very wrong and there's a bug:please report!

Some remarks:
1) gm_remote sucks ; its goal is just to help me test the dbus
component, and it serves that purpose well enough;
2) DBUS' api isn't stable and the implementation is probably buggy. That
won't change until people begin to use it, so if people don't use it
because it's not ready, it will never be ready... I think it is
important to break that vicious circle, and begin to use it now even if
it's a little painful;
3) DBUS is kde-friendly and gnome-friendly (probably xfce-friendly too ;
hopefully gnustep, e17 and others will follow), so it's nice to be
compatible with it;
4) look at the post of R.Rozman in the archives (23 Jan 2004), and
you'll see there is interest for that kind of features (with ideas of
things that could be interesting);
5) automatic launching of gnomemeeting when asking to connect should be
possible, but I don't know how yet;
6) notification of events (connection begin/end) should be possible too,
but I don't know how yet;
7) perhaps DBUS has some easier way to be used than launching the daemon
by hand and giving its address explicitly? (If it hasn't yet, I'm pretty
sure it will come.)

Enjoy,

Snark