Version: 0.10.2 (using KDE KDE 3.4.1) Installed from: Compiled From Sources Compiler: gcc 3.3.4 OS: Linux The Set Status -> Online option is used to go online with all accounts. If I all of my accounts (in this case, Yahoo, ICQ, and AIM) are offline, then this option works fine. However, if I am offline with one or two out of my three accounts, the Set Status -> Online option has no effect, and the offline accounts remain offline. This option should reconnect all offline accounts, as is described in the documentation.
I like the current behavior. Sometimes I just want to be offline with one account: No "Set Status" menu item should connect this account! All these item should just change status of connected accounts. Perhaps a "new" menu item e.g. called "Connect all" can satisfy both needs?
I certainly agree that Set Status -> Away should apply only to those accounts that are currently online. That only makes sense, as you can't change your away status for an offline account. However, Set Status -> Online and Set Status -> Offline must always apply to all accounts. This is described in the documentation, and this is how other multi-protocol chat programs work. You state that you sometimes want to be offline with one account. That's fine. Then you would never use Set Status -> Online. In fact, I am having a hard time understanding your idea, because there is no way for the interface to know which account(s) you would like the Set Status -> Online option to apply to. It must always apply to ALL accounts. It is a global option. If you want to change online or offline status for a single account, you can right-click on the account icon and perform the appropriate action. This is the same as Trillian. In summary: File -> Set Status -> Online should always connect all accounts File -> Set Status -> Offline should always disconnect all accounts File -> Set Status -> Away should modify the away status of all online accounts
no. if I have half my accounts away and half offline, then the purpose of the online button is to bring the away accounts back online without affecting the offline ones. however, if none of my accounts are away, the only reason I would click the online button is to bring *all* accounts online. right now, if all my accounts are offline, it will connect them all. I think it would be good for it to also connect them all if some accounts are online (but *not* away). that should please everyone, right?
Except for the fact that everytime i've used it (with trunk) this is what it's done. will verify later
Chani, OK, I understand what you were talking about before. This comes down to the meaning of the word "Online". To get to the bottom of this, I will use Trillian as an example. The Trillian application handles this by differentiating the terms "Connection" versus "Status". For example, here are the applicable menu items: Trillian -> Connections -> Global Reconnect Trillian -> Connections -> Global Disconnect Trillian -> Set Status -> Set all Invisible Trillian -> Set Status -> Set all Away Trillian -> Set Status -> Set all Back The terminology is very clear there. What's interesting is that Trillian even remembers your status, such that if you were Away in your ICQ account, and you do a Global Disconnect and then a Global Reconnect, you will still be away in your ICQ account. The notions of "connection" and "status" are clearly separated. With Kopete, there is a slight merging of these ideas. I interpret the Set Status -> Online option to be the same as the Trillian Global Reconnect option. This is how Kopete works if and only if all accounts are currently disconnected. I believe it should work the same INDEPENDENT of how many accounts are connected. You interpret the Online option to be the same as the Trillian "Set all Back" option, which is how it works if one or more accounts are online. This means that when my ICQ and AIM accounts get disconnected due to an unknown Kopete error (see bug #107023), a simple Set Status -> Online will not reconnect them for me, and this violates both the Kopete documentation as well as the consistency of the interface. So the Set Status -> Online option is not clearly defined. It works differently depending on whether there are "online" accounts already. The Set Status -> Offline option is more clearly defined. It disconnects all online accounts, period. For this reason alone, I believe it is necessary for the Online and Offline options to work in the same manner. "Online" must connect all accounts, and "Offline" must disconnect all accounts (which it correctly ALWAYS does). Then, we also need a "Set all Back" option to satisfy your needs (which is what "Online" is currently doing if one or more accounts are connected), in order to change the status of Away accounts WITHOUT connecting new accounts. The core of this issue is differentiating between CONNECTION (connected versus disconnected) and STATUS (here, away, invisible). In general, a STATUS is only relevant to accounts that are "connected" -- however, as I mentioned earlier, Trillian allows the user to change statuses for offline accounts, and remembers them. Hopefully, my analysis of this helps to resolve the issue.
Kopete only changes status. "Set as Online" is meant to set all connected accounts online. If there are no connected accounts, then it will connect the default ones. The point is that if I don't have one of my default accounts connected, it's because it's intentional (i.e., I disconnected it, or I connected the other ones individually). So "Set as Online" should never bring them online. We discussed that on kopete-devel before the 0.10 release, and this was the solution we came to. What you're asking for is that if all accounts are in "online" state, then "Set as Online" should reconnect all disconnected accounts. I, for one, think that would add confusion.
Thiago, For fear of repeating myself, I would ask that you carefully read my previous comment. I have made it clear that Kopete is mixing two separate concepts into a single menu option, and THAT is confusing. My suggestion is to alleviate the confusion by clearly separating these concepts. Let's look at a concrete example: I'm a Kopete user, and when I start Kopete, I have 3 offline accounts. I use Set Status -> Online, and now all 3 accounts are online, as expected. Sometime later, a Kopete error causes 2 of my 3 accounts to go offline. I go back to Set Status -> Online to reconnect them, but NOTHING happens at all. Why not? Due to the fact that I have one online account, the behavior of Set Status -> Online has CHANGED from a Connect/Disconnect function into a Here/Away function. This is completely counter-intuitive, and it manifests itself as an apparent bug in the interface. The concept of CONNECTION STATE ("connected" versus "disconnected", or if you prefer, "online" versus "offline") is very different from the concept of USER STATUS ("here" versus "away", or "invisible", or whatever). If Set Status -> Online brings all accounts online when all accounts are disconnected, then the user expects this to be consistent, INDEPENDENT of the number of accounts that are currently connected. Same applies to Set Status -> Offline, which is already correct and consistent -- it always disconnects all connected accounts. Again, please re-read my previous posting. By the way, a quick fix to this might be to add another menu option to the Set Status menu: Set Status -> Online Here Away -> ... Offline 1. "Online" would clearly be defined as a global connect -- it would always connect all disconnected accounts. 2. "Here" would clearly be defined as making all accounts "active" (or "here", or "back", or whatever term you want) again. 3. "Away" would keep its current definition: the status of all accounts will become "away", or "invisible", or whatever. 4. "Offline" would also maintain its current definition: all connected accounts would be disconnected. Alternatively, "Online" could be changed to "Global Connect", and "Offline" could be changed to "Global Disconnect".
I did read your post. What I am saying is that the menu is correct for what it intended. It is supposed to have only the concept of "status". The idea is that the toolbar menu works exactly like the statusbar icons: if you set Online on a protocol while you are already connected, it won't connect again. If you are disconnected, it will connect. So the toolbar menu will connect only if you are disconnected (definition: all accounts disconnected). Otherwise, if you are already connected (definition: at least one account is connected), it will only change status. What is missing is the automatic reconnect of accounts when closed involuntarily. That way, you'll always have the same accounts connected, unless you explicitly close one of them. I understand what you want: we did have that before. And we thought that was confusing. So we changed. You're now asking that we revert.
Thiago, You stated, "The idea is that the toolbar menu works exactly like the statusbar icons: if you set Online on a protocol while you are already connected, it won't connect again. If you are disconnected, it will connect." I agree. As a user, I expect that behavior, and it should be consistent. However, the toolbar menu does not connect ALL disconnected accounts all of the time -- it only does so if every account is currently disconnected. Therein lies the problem. It is inconsistent and confusing. You mentioned an automatic reconnect feature. This is completely separate from the issue at hand. I agree that each account should have a toggle setting for "Reconnect on disconnect", just like the "Do not connect at startup" toggle (which does not seem to work -- my accounts are always offline when I start Kopete, but that's a separate issue). I think the easiest way to handle it is to scrap the term "Online", which can mean either "connected" or "not away". If "Online" is the preferred term, then it must be clearly defined. Either way, we need another option, as stated in my last comment. We need to clearly separate the act of connecting and disconnecting (which I call going "online" and "offline") from the act of changing status (which I call going from "here" to "away", and vice versa). The menu that I described in my last comment works for both the global menu in the toolbar, as well as the individual account icons in the status bar. Then, the global toolbar menu will TRULY affect all accounts consistently.
> However, the toolbar menu does not connect ALL disconnected accounts all of > the time. That's intentional. As I said, for one account, it only connects if you are disconnected. Expanding that, for all accounts, it connects only if you are disconnected. That means: if all accounts are disconnected.
*** Bug 109647 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Thiago... > That's intentional. As I said, for one account, it only connects if you are disconnected. > Expanding that, for all accounts, it connects only if you are disconnected. That means: if all accounts are disconnected. That is not logical, in my opinion. When you choose "set online" (globally), you want to set all your accounts *online* as you would set all of them *away*. It should not depend on whether you have one account connected or disconnected.
Actually, after thinking about it... I quite like the idea to separate the CONNECTION STATE from USER STATUS as mentioned by Ken Zalewski in comments #2 and #5. I'd vote for a similar solution.
I also don't get the point. a button should always do the same, independent of the status -> set status online should set _all_ accounts online I also like the behavior of Trillian in this way, but would prefer to have it in one menu: (re)connect set away set invisible set whatever personal status I might want to (some protocols allow this) set online/set back disconnect to exclude a special account of this global settings, you already have "exclude from connect all" I also like the idea of using the last used status. Giving an initial status might also be interesting, so the "(re)connect" should have a submenu like this: last status online away busy ... giving the same option like the status menues one level up. This would suit all needs I have found in this report so far. Ciao /dirk
*** Bug 139280 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
For me it would be better to reconnect offline accounts, as for me it often happens that my 3 jabber accounts disconect, and dont reconnect automatically, while my icq account stays connected or reconnects correctly. Then i have to reconnect 3 Accounts manually, or have to set all offline and all online again. For me if i press online on the global status i would think all accounts would come online except if i set the checkbox to not include the account on global connect, in preferences of that account.
Dear user, unfortunately Kopete is no longer maintained. Please migrate to another solution, e.g. for Jabber a possibility is Kaidan, for Matrix a candidate is NeoChat.