[Kde-pim] Future of SMS messaging through Kontact

[Tobias Koenig]

On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 01:17:11AM +0100, Stephen Kelly wrote:
> Hi.
Hi Stephen,

> I'm a new and inexperienced developer and I want to start working on better
> SMS messaging through kontact.
That sounds good, SMS is still an area in PIM which is understaffed.

> Currently kontact/kaddressbook offer to pass a number and a message file to
> a shell command. That's fine, but it does not offer any feedback of whether
> the message was successfully sent or any other info.
Right.

> My intention is to use kross to connect to different SMS message sending
> providers. People writing the kross scripts would specify what provider it
> is for, a login method, a sendMessage method, a logout method and any other
> helper methods. I've only read about kross, and I don't know how it really
> works, but I'm assuming that's possible.
> 
> Here's what the config dialog might look like:
> http://img20.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kontactsmsmockup2oo9.png
IMHO the user shouldn't be bothered with Kross, that's an implementation
detail. Better show a list of available service providers (e.g. provide
default Kross scripts for standard sms sending applications under
linux/unix and maybe also for macosx and windows). Whether the sms
sending applications are available could be tested (autodetection).

So the best interface would be just a combobox which lists all kross
scripts which are based on available (installed) programms and the user
can select on of these.

The integration of GetHotNewStuff is a great idea as well!

> It allows the user to specify a service to log into to send messages through
> and would allow for download or creation of new scripts.
> 
> Also I'd like to have something like the following
>  under View -> Sent SMS messages... or something:
> http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kontactsmsmockup1ls9.png
> 
> I shows recently sent messages, the recipient, and whether it was
> successfully sent.
Looks good.

> I currently use the attached script to send messages though kontact, and I'm
> sure other classes similar to MeteorHandler could be written very quickly.
> I could write handlers for the other two providers in Ireland - O2 and
> Vodafone. I'd expect to connect when attempting to send the first message
> in a session, and then log out when kontact closes.
> 
> How much sense does this make? Is this what kross is suited to?
Yes, I think so. And if you provide a good tutorial, which describes the
Kross API, many new developers could be attracted here.

> This also seems to be a candidate for a plasmoid, so I'll probably look into that
> too.
Absolutely.

So the first step would be to create a library with a C++ API for this SMS service.
This library hides all the communication with the cross scripts and
handles the user configuration (e.g. stores selected sms provider,
login, password etc.) Furthermore it provides methods for sending sms,
retrieving status information etc.

> Also, I'd like to know the current state and plans for kaddressbook so that
> I'm not duplicating work, and I can work with whoever is doing this.
I'd like to remove the code from KAddressBook and put it into a
separated component. This component can be embedded in every pim
application then.

Ciao,
Tobias
-- 
Separate politics from religion and economy!
The Council of the European Union is an undemocratic and illegal institution!
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