Re: [Ayatana] What do app authors do for Account Dialogs?

[Allan Day <allanpday@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2010-10-08 at 15:42 +0100, Luke Benstead wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm sort of thread hijacking a little here (apologies for that), but
> this is actually close to something I've been meaning to bring up here
> for a while.
> 
> On my phone, when I set it up for the first time I was asked if I want
> to set up certain accounts (e.g. flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc.) and
> by doing so I unlocked features (e.g. downloading contact pictures,
> uploading pictures to flickr etc.).
> 
> What with Ubuntu becoming "social" I'm wondering if we should be doing
> something similar, a sort of online account manager which manages the
> accounts across the desktop.
> 
> Here's my thinking, imagine the first time you login to Ubuntu you are
> provided with an account setup wizard that allows you to register
> accounts for different purposes. For example:
> 
> * Imgur, Flickr, ImageShack, Picasa TwitPic, FB* (image hosting
> services)
> * Twitter, Facebook*, Identica, Google Buzz (social networking)
> * Ubuntu One, Dropbox (file hosting services)
> * Google Talk, MSN, Jabber (IM services)
> * Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo (email services)
> 
> Adding each of these would add them to the appropriate application
> (e.g Gwibber, Evolution, Empathy) but would also unlock features (e.g.
> Right clicking and image in Nautilus might have a "Share on Flickr"
> option). 
> 
> I think some kind of global account system, with an API would allow us
> to code some really cool stuff into the desktop. So, as a concrete
> example, Shotwell might be able to query for a list of available image
> hosting services that the user has accounts for, and provide an
> "Upload to..." option.
> 
> I'm also thinking that the account manager itself could use a
> extension system for the accounts, so installing packages like
> account-manager-flickr would add it to the account manager... or
> something like that.
> 
> Anyway, sorry to take this slightly OT, just thought I'd throw this
> out there,
> 
> Luke.

I totally agree about the desirability of this feature. Which is why I'm
glad that it's being worked on for GNOME 3.0. :) Initial mockups can be
found in the GNOME design repository [1].

Feel free to drop by #gnome-design (irc.gnome.org) if you'd like to
discuss this with the designers.

Best,

Allan

[1]
http://gitorious.org/gnome-design/gnome-design/blobs/master/mockups/control%20center/web-services/web-services.png

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