[Adium-devl] Privacy user interface

[Kiel Gillard]

Hi guys!

I have given some thought to an easier to use implementation to the  
Block List Editor (BLE) recently and am emailing you to get some  
feedback from my ideas and possibly finish the UI for privacy in  
Adium, as it seems the interface between the protocols and the UI has  
been implemented by Augie.

Currently, all the privacy settings are located in the BLE window.  
However, I feel that the purpose of the BLE is to add or remove  
denied contacts. The privacy settings for the account (for example,  
"allow anyone") seems to belong in the respective account's  
preferences, as this setting is not likely to change with frequency.  
Also, I find the account privacy states in the pop up button  
difficult to understand by just glancing at them.

I have determined how to overcome these problems that I have  
identified. I felt the only real account privacy states, as far as  
the user is concerned, is: "Allow anyone to chat with me" and "Allow  
contacts to chat with me". Because a user would not change this  
preference frequently, I felt it was more appropriate for this to go  
in Adium's Preferences. I would like to suggest that a user be  
presented with each option in the form of radio buttons. This  
preference would be available in the Preferences > Accounts >  
{{account}} > Privacy tab.

The advantage of this approach is that for protocols such as MSN, who  
do not provide users this flexibility with account privacy, we can  
simplify the privacy settings by not having privacy options visible.  
If we stay with the current implementation, a user would attempt to  
change the privacy state of an MSN account which is not available in  
the MSN protocol and confuse users.

Remembering that the purpose of the BLE is to add or remove denied  
contacts, I figured the window could be split into two tables: the  
leftmost table could list accounts and the second list contacts  
blocked in the selected account. Augie's sheet can still remain.

The foreseeable problem with this interface is that Adium will have  
to be careful passing around account privacy states back to the  
protocol API. Because the UI is simplifying the privacy for the user,  
Adium's going to need to check if an account has any blocked contacts  
and inform the API of the correct state, otherwise privacy settings  
will not be respected by the protocol. For example, if I chose "Allow  
contacts to chat with me" in the preferences, but had denied a few  
contacts, then I will need to provide the protocol API the account  
privacy state PRIVACY_ALLOW_USERS instead of PRIVACY_ALLOW_CONTACTLIST.

Any thoughts/suggestions/criticisms? Be blunt and/or harsh ;-)

I would be more than happy to implement the rant that I gave above if  
Augie or anyone else doesn't have a claim on it already. I felt that  
I should discuss my ideas before I sit down, plan and implement them  
(especially if it's already being done by someone else). Can I have a  
go? I guess I'm more asking Augie than anyone else. I'd love to work  
on this feature.

Thanks!

Kiel :-)
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other but looking together  
in the same direction."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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