What features would you like to see in Spark?

Okay, so, in terms of this, i like the idea a lot, and it could be very useful to many users: SPARK-1003

I Would like some “Search bar”, like the MSN, filtering the contacts you’re searching, instead of opening a new window with the results.

Well, this would be difficult to implement in a sense because a lot of things are currently “hard coded” although i do like the idea of skinning BUT Ignite do have a premium skinning service (correct me if i’m wrong) so, this may contradict that.

As for clearification, the dockable buddy list should be an option, same with the width size. Right now I cannot dock or make the buddy list any smaller than it lets me (on Pidgin I can make the buddy list 5x5, if I really wanted to).I understand everyone will not like it, and never intended on it being a standard. I do not know the complexity of making this an option, but I think many users would like it. After having a dockable buddy list, there is no going back to a non-dockable buddy list. Its really nice to maximize a window, and it does not cover up the buddy list. If you need a screenshot let me know, I will find one on the net or take one myself. Maybe you could test out Pidgin to see exactly what I mean, its under the plugins, within the Windows Options.

As for the tabs, I like the idea of reordering them, Pidgin has that now, but what I mean is the location of the tabs. With Pidgin, you can have the line up vertically on the left or right side of the chat window.

Moving the gateway icons off the quick function might help, only time will tell. Maybe a setting to enable/disable the icons would be a way out. I know that most people in my company would never use tasks or notes, and I don’t see anyone using the conference rooms. It would be idea if we could disable the ones we do not use.

You mean like pressing CTRL + F in the contact window? but as a separate bar?

AlanS17 wrote:

Offering a bit of personalization would increase the adoption rate. It’s a comfort feature that I think people would appreciate.

Take a user’s desktop for example. Even in most corporate environments, people can leave files on their desktop as they see fit. And they can define their own directory structure inside My Documents. So why would a personalized user list be such a stretch?

Well. I’m not insisting. Every organization has its own procedures. Just feels not right to me, to let users to edit predefined groups. It would be a lot of mess in our environment

Client management plugin for Openfire should be out these days. Though i dont know all features. There should be a client restriction (you can select what clients are allowed to connect to server). Also i remember there were some Spark options management in enterprise plugin. So maybe there will be some control over Spark. Will see.

winsrev wrote:

You mean like pressing CTRL + F in the contact window? but as a separate bar?

This is interesting. Some time ago i was asking to make Find window wider vertically, because not all search results fits (only 10 or so). So maybe it could be better if after pressing Ctrl-F new bar appears and it filters contacts in roster window itself (maybe even retaining group structure), and not in separate window. Though i do like that i can search even in chat window without having to go to roster window… Current behavior is fine for me. Could be a wider window only.

Anyway, just dont make “jumping” search, when it jumps through the contacts as you type name. Very unproductive. Exodus does like that…

Those 2 basics IRC commands in MUC :

/nick

/join

For join, see how gajim do :

If i’m on main@conference.server.org and I type /join games, I’m going to games@conference.server.org. And if I type /join toto@conf.otherone.org, I go to toto@conf.otherone.org.

It would be cool to add the away function too but that’s not as important than nick and join.

That’s pretty nothing but people like to be able to change their name without clicking everywhere.

I was actually asking this question prior to seeing this post.

How about the ability to make your own buttons, with the possibility of canned responses…

Hmm, well, i was just thinking about this, personally i feel some some use could come from the bottom search bar, so, as you type in the bottom search it filters your roster list but, if you press enter that it returns the roster list to how it was before and loads up the server search.

I’m guessing i’ve described the “jumping” thing? which is not what you want but i feel it could stop users from server searching users they already have (more than likely there’ll be an option to turn it off)

Hey,

So, making MUC/Group Chat a bit more like IRC i’m sure wouldn’t be a problem and would more than likely be something that the community would like to see, so, i’d be happy to do /join but i’m not so sure about /nick as it’ll change their nickname for the whole of spark not just the MUC.

I mean, i’m sure group chat custom name could be implemented that would allow a different name to be sent to the MUC while retaining sparks other information.

Personally i don’t see any use for this or how Spark users could benefit, unless i’m completely missing the point here? I mean, even if that was done really, only text responses would be implemented at first.

An easy way to modify the client without having to recompile it, for example an online branding wizard that allows you to select customization options before downloading the client.

This would be especially good for simple operations, such as disabling the server field or changing a few icons or colour scheme

It’s interesting idea. Though i’m not sure (especially about novice users). Well, it will make Ctrl-F feature visible, cause most of the users dont know about it.

Maybe i should explain more, that “jumping” thing In Exodus you press Ctrl-F, and then start typing in search field. As there appears a match focus in the roster is moving to that user. And that’s all. Fine, if you have only one John Doe. But if you have 10 Johns, you would have to type first name, space, and start typing second name, so it would jump to the correct user. In Spark it is better that you see all possible matches at once, so you can just press the user you need.

First of all, please fix as many bugs as possible

Just few feature requests which i remember right now:

  1. Search support for history. History is very important. It would be better to support some JEPs to retrieve history from server. Openfire already has that feature (server-side logs)

  2. Nick completion in MUCs by pressing Tab (as other IRC/IM clients do)

  3. Configurable notifications from MUCs (as all IRC clients do; e.g. when someone types user’s name; Exodus has very configurable notifications)

  4. Better support of system tray. One important thing is hiding all chat windows into the tray as Skype does. Very useful. Hide windows by pressing Escape/ALT-F4, Minimize/Close buttons (should be configurable)

  5. Two important bugs to fix: Nested groups and groups in general (there are some bug reports in the tracker) and SIP support under Linux (look at the http://www.sip-communicator.org/, they have working support of VoIP under Linux)

Yeah, so, basically, i’ve put this in the Jira as SPARK-1005

I’m sure that will appeal to most people.

Well, really, only two ways of this would be possible:

You select all the stuff you wanna change before you download (but, it has to be compiled which there probably isn’t resources for anyway) or to heavily change spark and use config files which could get messy, plus, there’s already a premium Spark Skinning service.

Hello!

winsrev wrote:

plus, there’s already a premium Spark Skinning service.

Well, NO, its not (any longer) !

Although the deep link at http://build.jivesoftware.com/skin/ still works, it keeps reporting

“There are no builds at this time!” after saving the config and jumping to the downloads page.

Back on topic: Before getting in new features i also would like to see old bugs being sorted out.

  • File Transfer ist still way off to be rock solid, pls see all these reports about filename length, lengths of path (default path under Windows causes troubles as it is very loooong already)

  • There are quite a few issues with dual homed servers like mine, when clients come in via different subnets (on different NICs)

  • I get the feeling, that toasters still get the cursor, as my emails get screwed up, when toasters happen during typing an email. But this could also be a human thing.

Bye

Starry

Okay, so, here’s my opinion:

  1. Not all servers log messages, the only related issue is this experimental XEP; http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0136.html

  2. Not entirely sure what you mean by “nick completion”

  3. That could get messy, although i will think about it

  4. I think that this could be difficult to implement because of the way that Spark works, it definitely could be implemented at some point though.