Re: [GnomeMeeting-devel-list] Reworking the addressbook code

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

Le dimanche 28 mai 2006 à 22:29 +0200, Damien Sandras a écrit :
> > But I tend to agree that you could have the calls history at 2 different
> > places.
> > 
> > On one side, you have the :
> > - Find contacts window "calls history + neighborhood + local address
> > books + ldap servers + ils servers"
> > but also special views :
> > - the roster & the calls history
> 
> 

Keeping the same kind of idea as you Julien, I would propose the
following.

The address book is mostly used to "Find Contacts", and less frequently
to add contacts. In the future, we will have a roster, representing the
contacts that we dial the most. With this approach, users will rarely go
to the address book itself to dial a contact, they will do it, most of
the time, from the roster.

Hence the following approach...

MAIN USER INTERFACE
-------------------

The toolbar should have a few buttons. If we consider contacts, only 2
buttons should be present :
- Add contact: this will allow adding a contact for which you know the
details into the roster.
- Find contacts: it will open a new window, formerly known as the
address book window, but with a simplified and more practical layout.

ADDRESS BOOK WINDOW aka "FIND CONTACTS" WINDOW
----------------------------------------------

The current address book window would be modified into a "Find contacts"
window.

This window would allow you to find contacts in the various sources that
you have added. For example, when searching for "Damien Sandras", it
will search in :
- the local contacts
- the calls history
- the various LDAP servers that you added as sources
- more sources here...

The user doesn't need to know where the contact comes from. He shouldn't
have to explicitely go in the various "sub-addressbooks" to find an
user. All he would have to do is trying to find the contact, without
knowing where the contact information comes from.

So the "Find contact" window should only allow to :
- Add a source of contacts : LDAP server, local address book, calls
history, ...
- Find a contact (which will search into all possible contact sources)

Once you have found a contact, from whatever source, you can add it to
the roster or to any other source.

BEHIND THE SCENES
-----------------

Behind the scenes, the roster is a special view of the "local address
book". That means that when you add a contact to the roster, it is added
to the "local" address book, with a specific flag or with a specific
group indicating that this user should be shown in the roster.

QUESTION
--------

This approach is practical and intuitive, from my point of view.
However, it raises one question. Users will be able to edit contact
information from the roster, but imagine that you have one contact in
the local address book (the evolution one) that you don't want in the
roster, but for which you want to update the information. From where in
the UI do we update it? 


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