Author: xclaesse

With this version comes important things !

libempathy and libempathy-gtk are now installed libraries with public C API. You can see documentation (gtkdoc) with devhelp. That means other applications can now link on libempathy(-gtk) to integrate IM support. At guadec I seen IM stuff in abiword and inkscape, they both implement everything themself with a different UI. Using empathy those projects can support collaborative edition very easilly using stream/dbus tubes (not merged into gabble yet). Python bindings is underdevelopment bug #457660. You can begin to write other language bindings, but keep in mind that the API can change at any time !

Thanks to Vincent Untz reviewing the whole empathy UI, there is now 62 open bugs for Empathy ! Most should be really easy to fix, so if you have free time and want to hack on the future GNOME IM client please help me to fix bugs !

The 0.9 release announce:

Empathy 0.9 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.9/

58ae0939f44d91f9887f235ee1bc3e52 empathy-0.9.tar.gz
74c7255a56ffa8e37147a1a0cfe40565 empathy-0.9.tar.bz2

What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia’s Mission Control, and reuses Gossip’s UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

Where can I find out more?
==========================
You can visit the project web site:
http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

What’s New?
===========
– Initial room list support. It doesn’t work yet but most of the code is ready.
– Tell the user when a message can’t be sent.
– Set all contacts from salut protocol to the “Local Network” group.
– Fix NetworkManager support.
– Iconify main window to the status icon like in rhythmbox.
– Show avatars in chatrooms.
– Fix avatar not being requested when empathy starts.
– Remove unused nickname entry and use a GtkTable for room information.
– Set a window title and fix alignment of widgets for contact related dialogs
(add, edit/view info).
– Adding initial API documentation using gtk-doc.
– Auto-accept to publish presence to contacts that are in our subscribe list.
When accepting a pending contact add it to publish and subscribe list.
– Filter incoming text channels and make status icon flash when there we
receive a new message. Dispatch the channel only when we get a message and
the user click on the icon.
– Install libempathy and libempathy-gtk and make their API public. The API is
NOT STABLE AT ALL !!!

Bugs Fixed:
===========
– Fixed #451564, crash in Empathy Instant Messenger: Nothing — having open c… (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #454277, crash in Empathy Instant Messenger: Started empathy and was … (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #443162, MSN account settings need a better UI (Cosimo Cecchi)
– Fixed #444490, Gossip–>Empathy conversion (Mario Danic, Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #452536, Provide a nice API to launch EmpathyLogManager (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #455240, add EMPATHY_LOGFILE env variable (Guillaume Desmottes)
– Fixed #457992, Rounded avatars (Raphael Slinckx)
– Fixed #458106, Iconify nicely to the status icon (Jaap A. Haitsma)

Translations:
=============
– Updated sv: Daniel Nylander
– Updated pl: Tomasz Dominikowski
– Updated es: Jorge Gonzalez
– Updated ja: Takeshi AIHANA

Manual Translations:
====================
None

25 July 2007
Empathy team

Senko hacked a little epiphany plugin using python binding for libempathy. It shows how empathy can be used for IM intergration into GNOME desktop.

Here is his blog post with screenshots !

I’ll merge python binding patch into empathy HEAD as soon as possible, at the moment it’s available in bugzilla.

For any question you can talk to me at Guadec until sunday morning 🙂

Empathy 0.8 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.8/

43688633798403fda6612da8ccd200b1 empathy-0.8.tar.gz
752074c88667fc796ee0cebe58a1f726 empathy-0.8.tar.bz2

What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia’s Mission Control, and reuses Gossip’s UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

Where can I find out more?
==========================
You can visit the project web site:
http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

What’s New?
===========
– Fixed contact list handling.
– Make use of NetworkManager to set presence to OFFLINE when we are disconnected
and restore presence once we are reconnected.
– UI for searching in conversation history and to view all conversations with
a given contact.
– Do not use 2 different processes (empathy and empathy-chat), merge them
into one client. This is easier for debugging and share data.
– Do not create log directory for a chat if there is no messages to put in.
– Do not set active contacts when creating the store, and when contact groups
changed.
– Fix warning when using command-line options.
– Ignore ssl errors by default. This is needed to connect jabber accounts
using ssl.
– Adding spellcheck support using aspell.
– Lots of bugs fixed.

Bugs Fixed:
===========
– Fixed #445859, Add Smooth scrolling to chat view. (Raphael Slinckx)
– Fixed #446161, Unable to generate pot file (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #447178, crash on Add to Favorites (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #447659, Salut protocol icons (Michael Monreal)

Translations:
=============
– Updated ja: Takeshi AIHANA
– Updated dz: Pema Geyleg
– Updated pl: Tomasz Dominikowski
– Updated es: Jorge Gonzalez
– Updated hu: Gabor Kelemen

21 June 2007
Empathy team

Here is my first post with the new interface in blogs.gnome.org. It’s really great ! Thanks to GNOME webmasters and to WordPress team.

Empathy is still improving every day, here is the announce of 0.7 I just released:

Empathy 0.7 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.7/

e1582652a5fb7fb23570b0dab7d3a9bc empathy-0.7.tar.gz
c63eded14fc0ad0feb38114569191f8d empathy-0.7.tar.bz2

What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia’s Mission Control, and reuses Gossip’s UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

Where can I find out more?
==========================
You can visit the project web site:
http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

What’s New?
===========
– Adding new contacts.
– Accept/Reject contacts who wants to get our presence.
– Edit/View contacts information.
– Get name and topic properties for chatrooms.
– Log chats and display 10 last messages when opening a new chat.
– Set presence to available for protocols that do not supports presence
(SIP, IRC).
– Lots of bugs fixed.

Bugs Fixed:
===========
– Fixed #439931, Segmentation faults when trying to add MSN account. (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #444135, crash, when maximizing window with IRC channels (Xavier Claessens)
– Fixed #444680, empathy svn122 build error — patch attached (Matej Cepl)

Translations:
=============
– Updated sv: Daniel Nylander
– Updated es: Jorge Gonzalez

09 June 2007
Empathy team

Empathy 0.6 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.6/

22893f1b97ceb540f9bffcfe6dd68369  empathy-0.6.tar.gz
d8b51a02718f4e28a9916d54f3a9a3c0  empathy-0.6.tar.bz2


What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a
GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia's Mission Control,
and reuses Gossip's UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by
providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of
powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

Where can I find out more?
==========================
You can visit the project web site:
http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

What's New?
===========
 - Join room when clicking on favorite rooms.
 - Do not restore away presence message when coming back after the user set
   manually to away.
 - Set parent window when poping a new window/dialog.
 - Implement favorite chatroom menu.
 - Do not highlight contacts already known when creating the contact list.
 - Do not set status message to "Extended autoaway", let user's message
   unchanged.
 - Many bugs and leaks fixed.


Bugs Fixed:
===========
- Fixed #442639, Crashed after switching to Away (Xavier Claessens)

Translations:
=============
None

Manual Translations:
====================
None


01 June 2007
Empathy team

Empathy 0.5 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.5/

23143686a879b927d456ea8a7b8c4c6c  empathy-0.5.tar.gz
e363689295c78ad62d323111a0176ea5  empathy-0.5.tar.bz2


What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a
GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia's Mission Control,
and reuses Gossip's UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by
providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of
powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

Empathy homepage: http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

What's New?
===========
 - Do not highlight groups when adding them in the roster.
 - Do not create new GossipContact object in presence/avatar/alias changed
   signal if we don't already know that contact from a contact list channel.
   This should fix DBus max pending calls limit reached in some cases.
 - New icon for empathy-new-message, empathy-group-message and
   empathy-proto-irc.
 - Chatroom support. New objects: GossipNewChatroomDialog, GossipAccountChooser,
   GossipGroupChat
 - If we are offline do not set away on idle. If we are already away restore to
   available when we are no mode idle. Do no modify status message.
 - Fixed message displaying with fancy themes.
 - Many bugs fixed.


Bugs Fixed:
===========
None

Translations:
=============
None


25 May 2007
Empathy team

Here is the first empathy release made by imendio’s maintainer script.

Empathy 0.4 is now available for download from:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/empathy/0.4/

218067f7ea79bb63b795756e959afc75 empathy-0.4.tar.gz
e965e57924607482f6d91bb578802a46 empathy-0.4.tar.bz2

What is it?
===========
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia’s Mission Control, and reuses Gossip’s UI. The main goal is to permit desktop integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.

What’s New?
===========

• contact list refactoring: EmpathyContactList is an iface implemented by EmpathyTpContactList, EmpathyContactManager and EmpathyTpChatroom. GossipContactList splitted into GossipContactListStore and GossipContactListView, it can display any object implementing the EmpathyContactList iface. Make possible to set custom functions to define the groups of a contact, by default it gets the “group” property of the GossipContact object. This make possible to reuse the contact list UI from the main window for chatrooms where groups are the role/affiliation of the contact on that room.
• Auto away when gnome-screensaver says the session is idle and extended away 30min after that.
• Display ChatState when the contact is composing.
• Bugbuddy now reports crashes to GNOME Bugzilla.
• New program icon.
• Setting i18n support and importing po files from gossip.
• Add an example label for jid.
• Do not open chat window twice for the same conversation.

Bugs Fixed:
===========
None

Translations:
=============
– Updated sv: Daniel Nylander
– Updated en_GB: David Lodge
– imported from Gossip

20 May 2007
Empathy team

Empathy 0.3 just released!!!

What is it?

Empathy is a GNOME client for Instant messaging, it uses telepathy, nokia’s
mission control and reuses gossip’s UI. The main goal is to permit desktop
integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries.
libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any
GNOME application.

What’s New?

• Artwork for protocols and status icons
• New EmpathyStatusIcon object to change status and show/hide main window
• Sync with last Gossip UI
• Many bugfix and code cleanup

Empathy is now hosted on GNOME servers.
Bugzilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/browse.cgi?product=empathy
SVN: http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/empathy/trunk/
FTP for tarballs: Coming soon.

You can find tarballs at http://projects.collabora.co.uk/~xclaesse/

Empathy is now open for bug reports, please test it and report bugs!
Contributions are also welcomed!

There were a discussion about integring soylent work into libempathy. It would be really great to merge IM contacts from every account/protocol with Evolution’s address book!

Of course what you all want is a screenshot!

Hi GNOME lovers,

I started a new GNOME project 2 months ago, it’s a IM client designed for the GNOME desktop. It is not yet-another-xmpp-client, Empathy is a telepathy client using nokia’s mission-control (MC) and reusing gossip‘s UI. This project was previously known under the name of Grapevine.

Empathy is subdivised into two libraries (libempathy and libempathy-gtk) and 3 programs, everything is implemented in C language:

• libempathy: An abstraction layer on top of libtelepathy and libmissioncontrol. It provides high level API to easily build an UI on top of it.
• libempathy-gtk: A collection of GTK widgets build on top of libempathy. All applications are very simple because they just have to show those widgets to the user. Those widgets are forked from Gossip.
• empathy-accounts: Create/edit accounts settings.
• empathy-contact-list: Show a list of online contacts.
• empathy-chat: When a new chat (or chatroom) is created (someone sends us a message for example), MC will start this program and it will be responsible of showing the conversation to the user.

Those programs are very simple, less of 100 C lines code! They just creates widgets from libempathy-gtk. Those widgets can easily be embeded into other GNOME applications in order to integrate IM into GNOME desktop applications.

2 examples of usage of libempathy-gtk for other GNOME applications:

• Evolution could display the avatar of a contact and propose to answer to an email using IM. It’s really possible with little work.
• Nautilus could provide a “Send To” menu item, when right-click on a file, that shows a list of online contacts and sending the file directly.

Everything can be done regardless of the protocol used, thanks to telepathy Connection Managers.

There is already 2 Google SoC projects related to Empathy:
Simple user-to-user file transfer without configuration in a LAN
VoIP and video call client using Telepathy

I’m pleased to announce the first public release of Empathy !!! It currently supports contact-list, avatar, alias, groups, presence and private chat. More to come on next releases. See the first screenshot, download tarballs or checkout darcs repository. The project will soon move to GNOME svn and bugzilla.

If you want to help on making empathy rock feel free to check the TODO file included in source code.

Empathy is sponsored, inspired and loved by Collabora.