Bug 112429

Summary:	Ability to create disposable guest accounts
Product:	[Unmaintained] kopete	Reporter:	Degand Nicolas <nicolas.degand>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Kopete Developers <kopete-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	0.10.3
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Degand Nicolas 2005-09-11 16:03:31 UTC

Version:           0.10.3 (using KDE 3.4.2, Kubuntu Package 4:3.4.2-0ubuntu0hoary2 )
Compiler:          gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-8ubuntu2)
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.10-5-386

Sometimes, friends visit my home and need to connect to their IM accounts for a few minutes. Currently I have two solutions

1° Add their accounts to mine. But it would mess with my metacontacts

2° Create them a full-fledged account. A little bit too heavy

Possible solution :

add an extra menu item "Switch to guest account"

You would then be presented with a screen where you could select protocols and fill the necessary login info. Once the wizard would be completed, the current permanent accounts would be disconnected and removed from the interface. 

Your guest would have access to his/her accounts for the current session with history deactivated. Once the session is over, every personal info would be deleted.

It would be an useful option for accomodating one-time guests.

Comment 1 Olivier Goffart 2005-09-11 16:12:11 UTC

try also

mkdir ~/.kde_guest
export KDEHOME=~/.kde_guest
kopete --nofork

That will run another kopete, with a new config saved in ~/.kde_guest instead of ~/.kde

Is that a decent solution ?

Comment 2 Degand Nicolas 2005-09-13 01:25:22 UTC

Well, it will provide a workaround but

1° It is absolutely non-trivial from a beginner point of view

2° It does not provide an automated process for guests accounts disposal

I understand that this idea will not be implemented until KDE 4 (*), but I think it would be useful for a lot of people beyond me, even if it is does not appear until a year or so.

(*) I hope that by then I will have made some progress learning C++ and be able to help, but this is outside of the scope of this bug

Comment 3 Gael Beaudoin 2005-09-13 10:13:16 UTC

I agree. It would be a very useful feature.
And thanks for the workaround :)

Comment 4 Ian P. Christian 2005-09-13 12:00:42 UTC

I think this is outside of the scope of KDE programs.
You could easily open a console window, add a windows, su to that user, and start kopete up having exported DISPLAY.

What if they want to use kmail... and then they want konq without all your bookmarks..then wants to use knode...  I think there is already a solution to this problem, simply create a new user account.  This isn't a feature that should be provided by kopete IMO.  Just my 2 cents.

Comment 5 Gael Beaudoin 2005-09-13 12:47:59 UTC

At least, when you add an account and delete it afterwards, your contact list should be cleaned and empty of contacts that were added from an account that doesn't exist anymore.

I keep thinking it would be a useful feature.
Because I'm not the only one who would need it. It happens a lot of time here.

Ok there are workaround and other ways to do that.
But if it was possible with kopete, in a clean and powerful way, it would be better.

Comment 6 Olivier Goffart 2005-09-13 13:46:48 UTC

This is, like Ien said,  out of the scope of KDE applications.

About the fact that the contactlist is not cleaned correctly, i think there is already another report about that