Archive for the ‘Pidgin’ Category
Pidgin’s Buddy pounce, a powerful Notification Feature
Consider this scenario - you want to have an imp. discussion with someone on your chat list and the person is marked away. You are wondering if there is any way you could be notified when he returns. Of course, we can leave a message but it won't be any more useful than a short email if you are sleeping or away. Now you would ask,"Then how would a notification be of any use if I am sleeping :P?". Well, what if the notification is audio-visual - a song, horror sound, annoying alarm etc. No, I am not dreaming, it can be easily done using Pidgin's Buddy pounce.
This is one of the finest Pidgin features. Not just a notification for being available, you can easily configure it to add notifications which will let you know when the person signs on, goes offline, goes away, becomes idle or sends you a message.
And not just a pop up notification or playing a song, you can even trigger a command or send him a message.
How to add a buddy pounce
In order to add one, right click on a user and select "Add Buddy Pounce..." option. You will see the following window.
The conditions are under the "Pounce when buddy" category and the actions to be taken are under the "action" category. Once you are done, just hit add.
In order to view all the active buddy pounces, go to Tools-> Buddy pounces. Once the condition is met and you are notified, the concerned buddy pounce will be removed.
Finch, a command line alternative to Pidgin
I don't know in which scenario should I suggest you to use a console based IM client but I came across Finch for the first time while trying to save my laptop's battery life during power cuts by shifting to old school console 
. I am not sure whether my basic aim was fulfilled or not but it was fun seeing what ncurses could do :).
For starters, you don't need to start configuring finch just like you did with Pidgin the first time. It automatically takes all the required information from your home directory's .pidgin folder. This means, its exactly like Pidgin but on console. So, if you have been using Pidgin then you won't need to do any configuration on finch.
Install finch
In order to install it on Ubuntu/Debian based systems either click this (help -> apturl, apt protocol) or run the following command in the terminal.
[shredder12]$ sudo apt-get install finch
I am not sure about Fedora/RedHat systems but try running this.
[shredder12]$ su -c 'yum install finch'
Now, in order to launch it just run the command finch on the terminal.
Finch shortcuts
Some basic key shortcuts are:
| Alt + a | Bring up a list of available actions. You can use this list to access the accounts window, plugins window, preference window etc. |
| Alt + n | Go to the next window |
| Alt + p | Go to the previous window |
| Alt + w | Show the list of windows. You can select and jump to any window from the list. |
| Alt + c | Close the current window. |
| Alt + q | Quit Finch. |
| Alt + m |
Start moving a window. Press the cursor keys to move the window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape. |
| Alt + r | Start resizing a window. Press the cursor keys to resize the window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape. |
These are just the basic ones which should be enough but a complete list check out its man page
[shredder12]$ man finch
Pidgin 2.7 is here with some Bug Fixes and new Features
Good news for all the pidgin fans, Pidgin developers have announced the release of the brand new Pidgin 2.7.0. This release brings a lot of protocol support improvements, bug fixes and new features. Major changes include a better search dialog, better integration in the notification area, fixing some msn relates security issues and a lot more.
Pidgin 2.7 Highlights
- Markup in buddy names is now supported.
- GtkStatusIcon for docklet provides better integration in the notification area.
- Some improvements in the "Message Timestamp Formats" plugin.
- Ctrl+shift+v to 'paste as plain text'.
- IPv6 support for Bonjour protocol.
- New button added for sending buzz or nudge on supported protocols.
- The denial of service vulnerability in the msn protocol dealing with emoticons has been fixed.
- Bye Bye to msn protocol version 9.
For a whole list of features and fixes, read the full releaselog.
Install Pidgin 2.7 on Ubuntu
Pidgin 2.7 ubuntu deb package is not available in the pidgin-developers PPA, so you can either wait for them to come up with it or you can add the PPA of Andrea Piccinelli and enjoy the new Pidgin 2.7. Here is the PPA overview page of Andrea, use the instructions on installing a software using ppa in ubuntu to get it done.
Install Pidgin 2.7 on Fedora
Fedora 6 or 7 users can add this pidgin.repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory and run.
[shredder12]$ su -c 'yum install pidgin'
for users of Fedora 8 or above, you will have to go for either installation through source or wait for a rpm to arrive in the repos. In case someone knows of a latest rpm, do leave a comment.
Great plugin for Pidgin
After testing out the plugin pidgin-embeddedvideo, im thinking I will keep it. Its nice and easy to use and to turn off.
As you see in the pic above, it generates a embedded video for you inside pidgin and you don’t need to start any browser.
To try it out, open a terminal and write:
sudo conary update pidgin-embeddedvideo=@fl:2-devel
How to enable Facebook Chat in Pidgin
I am an Instant messaging addict. Its the fastest way I can contact with most of my friends and work mates. Many of my facebook friends are not available on gtalk and I never wanted a separate tab for facbeook chat. The only solution I liked was to somehow integrate FB chat in Pidgin. I used the Facebook chat plugin but that didn't work for me. Thanks to FB developers who added XMPP/Jabber support for Facebook chat and now we can easily enable FB chat in Pidgin.
I am assuming that Pidgin is already installed. Just follow the steps below to enable Facebook chat in Pidgin.
Open Pidgin. Go to Accounts -> Manage accounts and select Add user.
Now, select XMPP protocol from the drop down menu, enter your facebook username in the "username" field and chat.facebook.com in the domain field.
And now, click the advanced tab in the same window, uncheck Require SSL/TLS field and enter chat.facebook.com in the connect server field.
Now, click save and the new account will be created. Pidgin will automatically try to connect using that account, if its enabled. If everything goes right, you will be prompted for a password, ofcourse if you haven't already done that while creating the account.
What are you waiting for now.. 
, just enter your password and enjoy Facebook chat in Pidgin.
Pidgin in Jaunty
This is just a quick update about how Pidgin interacts with the rest of the Jaunty desktop. Before we had the following problems:
- Pidgin icon sits in notification area when not notifying
- Pidgin status can be changed in both the FUSA and in the Pidgin icon
- Removing icon gets rid of buddy list's hide-ability
The first point extends into "if Pidgin and Evolution and Empathy and Xchat and ... are all trying to show that you have new messages, that's a lot of icons." The solution that's implemented in Jaunty includes the addition of the messaging Indicator Applet. So far it only works for Pidgin and Evolution (first priority as default apps, I'm guessing), but eventually the others should be added. Ryan's working hard on making sure it works for @-replies in Gwibber as well. Then you can have just this one applet, and eventually, all your messaging stuff will go there. The Indicator Applet is not on the panel by default. You can right-click the panel and hit "Add to Panel" to get it.
On new users, the icon defaults to not showing in the notification area.
When I proposed removing the icon by default, there was an uproar of "but we want to hide the buddy list instead of minimizing it!" A few people I talked to on the bug report, blog comments, and elsewhere online agreed that if there was one applet that could work for all the IM clients to show and hide, that might be pretty nice. Someone noticed. The Indicator Applet does this too. Thanks to whomever made that work.
One note: this is like with Rhythmbox. If you click the X, that's still "close," and for a very good reason. If the X doesn't mean close, it is possible for the buddy list to be hidden in KDE (or in a GNOME session where the user hasn't added the Indicator Applet) with no way to bring it back! I don't use the notification area icon, so when Pidgin started being able to hide when it's not there (so the Indicator Applet could control it), I could see "X is now online" notifications and receive IMs but not get my buddy list to stop being invisible. Thank you very much to Ted Gould for fixing it so that the buddy list only hides from either the icon or the Indicator Applet, and not constantly.
