BlueDevil systray icon

[todd rme]

On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 12:11 PM, Alex Fiestas <afiestas at kde.org> wrote:
> Since we're trying to reduce the clutteness in our systray for 4.8, I'd like
> to expose how we're handling it in BlueDevil so you can give me feedback :p
>
> ====== Short term ======
> There are two ways of turning off Bluetooth, by hardware and by software.
>
> By hardware: When turned off by hardware the bluetooth-monolithic application
> is killed since there is no use for it, ergo the systray icon is gone
>
> By software: If the user turn it off by software, probably means that he will
> want to turn in on by software again, so in that case we're keeping the
> systray.
>
> ====== Long term ======
> In BlueDevil 3.0, I'm thinking on not executing bluedevil-monolithic by
> default, this is why:
>
> bluedevil-monolithic is used mainly for:
> Sending files
>        The place to send files is the file management, not a systray icon. We
> already provide a nice context menu integration and I'm sure that the "Share
> stuff" in KDE is going to grow, so the user will be able to send files from
> more places.
>
> Pairing devices
>        This is something that is done once per device, and I don't think the
> average user has this many devices. Apart from the Bluetotoh KCM, I plan to
> integrate Bluetooth in other KCM's such mouse, keyboard or printing by adding
> buttons like "Add bluetotoh mouse", "Add bluetooth keyboard" etc...
>
> Turning bluetooth off/on
>        This mainly makes sense when you're in battery mode, so maybe we can show
> the option somewhere else.
>
> Enable discoverability
>        As device pairing, you usually have to turn on the visibily a few times,
> once for example a device is sent to you, the sender will remember your laptop
> so no discoverability is needed.
>
> As you can see, there isn't a strong reason why we should keep the systray in
> the future, but for now and until we do the needed work I think we should keep
> it as it is (short term).
>
> Any feedback?

Having the system tray icon makes sense in my opinion.  However,
making it always visible does not.  I think if there are no devices
connected or bluetooth is turned off in software the system tray icon
should automatically hide.  If users want it to be always shown or
always hidden they can set that within the system tray.

As for removing the system tray icon entirely, I don't think that is
really the best option.  Being able to quickly connect/disconnect a
bluetooth device or enable/disable the bluetooth radio are both useful
features to have at hand so I don't think burying them solely in
system settings is a good idea (although I do think also making them
accessible from places like the mouse and keyboard configuration is a
great idea).  One of the benefits of bluetooth devices is that you can
set them up quickly, so I wouldn't want to lose that.  However, I
would make it a single-click interface, a click on a disconnected
device connects it, and a click on a connected device disconnects it
(like in networkmanager).  All other functionality would be moved
elsewhere, like moving file management to the file manager.  Likewise,
I do agree that the "send file" and "browse device" parts would be
better in the file manager.

-Todd