Re: [Ayatana] Message Indicator: Listing apps in menu even if they are not on

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark.shuttleworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Taking this thread up again after two weeks vacation, sorry if there's been a resolution in another thread already.

Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:

Currently this how I would expect it to work: The message indicator
will indicate if there is a message there. If there are no messages,
there is no indication. No reason to go to the message indicator. No
reason to go there to launch an application. If there is a message
there, then you go to the message indicator and it tells you what
messages you missed. If you missed a message, want to see more about
it, you click on the message item and it takes you to where you need
to be. If the application is running, then you go to the app or
whatever. If there is a message for an application *not* running,
clicking on the message item will launch the application and load the
message. The latter is an acceptable shortcut to an application
because it is simply supporting the primary activity of the message
indicator: helping users view missed messages, regardless if the
application/service is running.

If an application has *no* messages, there should be no reference to
that application anywhere in the message indicator, regardless if it
is running or not. This includes shortcuts to launch applications. But
the v2 plans for the message indicator wants to provide a shortcut to
applications, regardless if they are running and if they have
messages. Why do users need this? All the message indicator should do
is support messages.
  

The thing that precipitated this was the desire to make it easy to initiate an IM through the same workflow. The user (a) doesn't want to have to know if Quassel is running, (b) doesn't want the IM app in the alt-tab list unless there are active conversations , and (c) wants to be able to initiate an IM quickly. Adding an entry to the menu which brings up the buddy list (a starting point for new IM conversations) was the first use-case that lead to launching-capability in the messaging menu.

This goes back to my original question of if the message indicator is
turning into something more than an indicator, such as a message
center/dashboard. If not, then there shouldn't be shortcuts to launch
applications, all it does is confuse the purpose of the message
indicator. If it is, then the entire interface will need to be
reevaluated for this repurposing.
  

I agree that it is going beyond mere "indication". I am for the moment uncomfortable with the term dashboard because they tend to represent a lot of long-term status info (how many messages are in each folder, etc) that doesn't "fit" in the tight, action-oriented menu we envisage.

Mark

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