[Feature Request] Ubuntu integration: Application Indicator, Messaging menu, Launcher shortcuts

[omyno]

• Application Indicator
  This provides access to key features of Bitmessage.
  • mono icon (compare /usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-dark/status/24)
• Messaging menu
  The entry could look like this:
  • Pybitmessage
    • New message
    • Contacts
    • 1 new message (from John Doe)
• Launcher shortcut
  This is very easy to implement when the application supports command line options.
• Notify OSD
  This informs the user about new messages and connection loss.
• Most importantly, Ubuntu users have no easy way to install Pybitmessage. Even though it may be too early to get Pybitmessage into the Debian repositories, there are several options to make it more convenient to install this application:
  • Provide a single official .deb file
  • Provide a portable statically linked executable
  • Provide a PPA

Creating a Debian package is simple. There's a script called debian.sh which can be run. If someone nominates a location to upload to I can create a deb if necessary.

On PPAs I think this requires a project in Launchpad, but that wouldn't be a problem because you can set Launchpad projects to automatically import code from Github.

The "executable" exists in the current Debian packaging. It's called "pybm" and gets installed to /usr/bin. Appropriate menu items/icons also get installed.

I think the Ubuntu integration is a good idea, and I might also have a go at making a KDE Bitmessage widget.

[omyno]

Thanks for your comment. All these issues combined may even justify creating a new client/interface for Bitmessage as I don't know if Atheros has any interest in adding these features.

IMHO naming the executable "pybitmessage" instead of "pybm" would be more intuitive.

On PPAs I think this requires a project in Launchpad,

No. A PPA does not necessarily need a project, just a registered launchpad user who signed the Ubuntu code of conduct.

The current .deb packaging instructions in debian/rules are not good yet as they copy all .py, .ui and image files into /usr/share/applications. This directory is reserved for .desktop files.

I could rename it to pybitmessage. My thinking was that if you're going to be launching it from the console then to keep the typing to a minimum.

I am a registered Launchpad user who has accepted the CoC, so I could probably set up a PPA if nobody else does.

Could you advise on where the standard location for installed applications is in Ubuntu (I assumed it was applications).

To be Debian compliant I should also create a manpage, although that could be quite minimal and maybe just point to the wiki.

[omyno]

Thanks for your effort! I would suggest /usr/share/pybitmessage for those files.

I noticed that /usr/bin/pybm currently is just a two-liner bash script. I don't know the best practice for python applications, but /usr/bin/pyrenamer could serve as a better template for /usr/bin/pybitmessage.

https://github.com/fuzzgun/PyBitmessage/commit/59211053dc8a3f2241e168be19520efac83ed159

If there is to be an application indicator then what should be on it?

Maybe send message, add address, block address, subscribe to broadcast.

Possibly the indicator icon could change colour depending upon the network status.

[omyno]

I don't know if we want redundancy for the app indicator vs. messaging menu (see entries below that are prefixed with #). So the main purpose of the app indicator will be to be able to show/hide Pybitmessage so it does not sit in the launcher the whole time (see screenshots below).

1. Unclickable entry that shows information about connectivity. Most users won't care about the number of connections, they just want to know if the program works or not, so i suggest showing "Connected", "Connected (behind Firewall), "Not connected".
   Here we can also show the status of the current message(s) being sent: Sending message ...
2. Show Bitmessage (This entry only makes sense when closing the Pybitmessage window hides it into tray/indicator which does not seem to be implemented for Linux yet)

3. Send message

4. Subscribe to broadcast

5. Address book (instead of "add address")

6. Quit

I hope "block address" won't be needed as often so i wouldn't include it here.

That sounds ok. I think that the recent PyBitmessage-Daemon could be modified such that it uses the API to update the indicator. That would mean that the indicator stuff could be separate from the main program. If the API wasn't configured then either some defaults could be created automatically by the indicator, or upon install it would prompt the user to enter an API password.

[omyno]

It looks like all that is needed is to create a QSystemTrayIcon. sni-qt will then automatically "render that tray icon as a KDE Status Notifier Item, which the Application Indicator service will pick up and show in the Ubuntu menu bar." (source)

Ok, since that's just Qt then no separate program or API calls would be needed.

Application indicator is now operational in pull request #133

The way that the connection status is indicated could be changed. Currently it's just text. Another way to do it might be to have red, yellow and green versions of the bitmessage icon and switch between them. What would the Ubuntu "designers" do? Ideally the appearance and functionality should be as slick as possible so that using encrypted mail becomes a no-brainer.

Moving along to the messaging menu this looks fairly Unity specific. Is there a Qt way of accessing this?

[omyno]

• The app indicator works for me. Great work! In the future, the first entry could also show when a message is being sent. Ideally, the entry "Connection ..." would also be non-clickable, but I don't know if sni-qt supports this (or if there's a bug ...).
  EDIT:

  What would the Ubuntu "designers" do?

  The Wiki states that dynamic objects should have icons, so the traffic light symbol would be fine.

• Regarding the messaging menu:

  • Python API documentation is here.

  • First we can just create the file $HOME/.config/indicators/messages/applications/pybitmessage which contains nothing but the path to the .desktop file in it:
    /usr/share/applications/pybitmessage.desktop

  • Ideally we want the user to be able to disable the messaging menu entry in the pybitmessage settings.

  • Qt way: I found a launchpad project that provides Qt bindings for the new messaging menu. It wraps the libmessaging-menu API into the Qt object system. I hope this will help you somehow. We can bundle the package in the PPA. Here's how to get it:

    sudo apt-get install libmessaging-menu-dev
    bzr branch lp:messaging-menu-qt && cd messaging-menu-qt
    cmake .
    make
    sudo make install
    

  __EDIT__: messaging-menu-qt is [being used](https://github.com/euroelessar/qutim/tree/master/plugins/indicator/src) in Qutim.

* One last note: The directory /usr/share/applications/pybitmessage isn't needed anymore. Here's a [patch for Makefile](http://sebsauvage.net/paste/?2f1e6072f163c8ae#dJZjgqCWLL1T930kXD9tIgZFdDnuS3evtuGGtsBsIew=).

It looks like libmessaging-menu-dev is Ubuntu specific and so would cause problems for anyone trying to install the package on a Debian system.

[omyno]

True, it's just relevant to Ubuntu (and elementary OS ...) . This means the PPA will need a different dependency list and include messaging-menu-qt.