The Contact List Applet

[David Edmundson]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 8:33 PM, Aleix Pol <aleixpol at kde.org> wrote:
> Oh! I forgot the questions!
> Please note that a big IMHO is implicit in all my answers.
>
> On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 5:55 PM, David Edmundson
> <david at davidedmundson.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Contact List Applet
>>
>> The Contact List applet has been doing nothing for a while now, and
>> it's time to get it sorted and finished.
>> I want to discuss what we actually want to do. Then once we have a
>> general consensus I'll turn it into bugzilla lists and get started on
>> it.
>>
>> Who here currently uses it? I don't really. My preferred method of
>> starting chats is homerun via krunner.
>>
>> So, brainstorming:
>>
>>  - Should it be a popup-plasmoid so it can be docked in a panel. What
>> would the icon be?
>
> Definitely yes!
> I'd try to merge it with the presence plasmoid. We need a reason for having
> them both at the same time on the panel.
>
>>
>>
>>  - If it's in a vertical panel that's wide enough should it show the
>> list properly?
>
> That's easy enough to do, when you have the plasma applet implementation
> there you'll figure it out, i'd say.
>
>>
>>
>>  - Should it use Plasma icons for presence?
>
> Should it be an option not to get integrated?
>
>>
>>
>>  - Do we want to have a search bar? Always shown? or with a button to
>> toggle it? Or just instantly if you start typing.
>
> I'd say let's see prototypes
>
>>
>>
>>  - Do we want to show groups? What's a good way to use a TreeView in QML.
>
> We can use QML sections. It fits perfectly imho.

There's a problem with QML Sections, a contact can legitimately be in
2 groups - or 2 sections. QML Sections does not support this.

The model then becomes a lot more complicated.

(reminder, please review my awesome grouping model!)

> Also like I said in my big e-mail, it's an interesting place where to cut
> down information and integrate with Activities.
>
>>
>>
>>  - Should it have all the different sort/group-by options the real
>> contact list has? In a "toolbar"? or in the plasma config?
>
> Probably not. If at all, in the plasmoid config.
>
>>
>>
>>  - Do we want call/video/send file buttons?
>
> We want a good delegate. But you don't want all buttons visible for all the
> contacts.
> Maybe it also depends on the plasmoid size.
> Also we should know how far we want to go with this so that we can say how
> far the contact plasmoid has to go.
>
>>
>>
>> - Should we have it so that in the config you specify what groups you
>> want to show? I think I might use it if I had a list of just people in
>> my "friends" group and that's it.
>
> Yes I agree, I discussed this above.
> Or if you're at the "work" activity, I'd like to have the "bluesystems"
> group available.
> I guess.
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Please comment and include your own ideas and suggestions.
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>
>
> Also it would be good to find out more imaginative ways to display contacts.
> For example having the name _and_ the photo [1] can be redundant, so
> somebody could try different things. In one of the examples for KPeople that
> I made, I implemented the contact list in a grid (sweetpeople) where the
> name would only be available on hover, since you can already recognize
> someone by their picture. What I mean with that is that there's space for
> improvement and we should try to go a bit past the "same old".
>
I kinda agree, but I think we need to get the "same old" finished and
working before we try doing anything too fancy & new.

Though I think the grid, using your confusingly named example as a
starting point, would be an interesting thing to try out.. maybe we
could put it on kde-look or something and get some feedback.

Dave