empathy started automatically on incoming message

Ken ... thoughts on how to handle this?

I think this is an issue with the indicator-session-applet talking to mission-control (via libempathy) to set the status. It supports pidgin as well, but I don't think it makes a decision which to use. Perhaps it should. So it sets your status as online, which tells mission-control you are only. It does not need empathy to be running to do this, and you appear to be online to your contacts. If they send an email, telepathy handles the incoming message because it is online even though you have no client running and spawns the client so you can read the message.

Overall this is pretty cool behavior, but we should be able to make a decision how you would prefer to handle your messages.

Let's get thoughts from Ted.

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 12:27 AM, Ken VanDine <email address hidden> wrote:
> I think this is an issue with the indicator-session-applet talking to
> mission-control (via libempathy) to set the status.  It supports pidgin
> as well, but I don't think it makes a decision which to use.  Perhaps it
> should.  So it sets your status as online, which tells mission-control
> you are only.   It does not need empathy to be running to do this, and
> you appear to be online to your contacts.  If they send an email,
> telepathy handles the incoming message because it is online even though
> you have no client running and spawns the client so you can read the
> message.
>
> Overall this is pretty cool behavior, but we should be able to make a
> decision how you would prefer to handle your messages.

Is this autospawning behavior configurable, i.e. can I turn it off? I can see where it could very nice for some people, but I really don't need programs automatically starting up when I get emails or IMs. It's super confusing and quite invasive. I use my Ubuntu machine at work and I don't need the latest tweets/dents/Ubuntu email popping up and starting programs while I"m showing my boss something.

Jordan,

The reason you see this is because you have your status set to Available in the session menu. It's an easy matter to change this globaly:
Go SessionMenu -> Set Status -> Offline

and incoming messages will not open Empathy and you will appear offline.

On Tue, 2009-10-06 at 04:27 +0000, Ken VanDine wrote:
> Let's get thoughts from Ted.

From IRC:

(09:10:06 AM) kenvandine: ted, bug 444170
(09:10:07 AM) mup: Bug #444170: empathy started automatically on
incoming message <amd64> <apport-bug> <Session Menu:New for ted>
<indicator-session (Ubuntu):Confirmed for ken-vandine>
<https://launchpad.net/bugs/444170>
(09:10:24 AM) ted: kenvandine: Is that a bug or a feature?
(09:10:33 AM) kenvandine: well... more like a disaster :)
(09:10:52 AM) ted: kenvandine: It's just that the session menu starts
telepathy.
(09:10:58 AM) kenvandine: yeah
(09:11:05 AM) ted: So we don't want that then?
(09:11:10 AM) kenvandine: well
(09:11:23 AM) kenvandine: i like that feature
(09:11:24 AM) kenvandine: but
(09:11:30 AM) kenvandine: we need a way to deal with pidgin users
(09:11:49 AM) ted: What do you mean?
(09:11:54 AM) ted: It doesn't start Pidgin.
(09:11:57 AM) kenvandine: although... if you have no accounts configured
in telepathy... i guess you won't get IMs that way anyway
(09:12:00 AM) kenvandine: i know
(09:12:15 AM) ted: Yes. You have to have accounts enabled.
(09:12:26 AM) kenvandine: if you are a pidgin user, and you get an IM...
it starts empathy
(09:12:30 AM) kenvandine: so maybe that is the answer
(09:12:39 AM) kenvandine: if you don't want to use empaty, don't enable
it :)
(09:12:44 AM) ted: Exactly.
(09:12:55 AM) kenvandine: actually
(09:12:59 AM) kenvandine: one step better
(09:13:18 AM) kenvandine: what if we first try to set status in pidgin,
if pidgin is running don't touch telepathy?
(09:13:56 AM) kenvandine: i could see people experimenting with empathy,
and assuming if they exit the program and use pidgin
(09:13:59 AM) ted: That seems a little crazy to me, as the behavior
changes based on whether Pidgin is running?
(09:14:01 AM) kenvandine: they will only be using pidgin
(09:14:10 AM) ted: I don't know how a user would discover that.
(09:14:15 AM) kenvandine: yeah... not claiming to have all the
answers :)
(09:14:28 AM) ted: The answer is to uninstall Pidgin on upgrade :)
(09:14:40 AM) kenvandine: :)
(09:15:50 AM) ted: So, none the less, it's fixable. I like it the way
that it is, but you guys can choose. Personally, I'd document how to
disable accounts in Empathy so that you're working on migrating
people... it's the final end goal.
(09:16:02 AM) kenvandine: ted, let me talk to rick
(09:16:19 AM) kenvandine: i tend to agree

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-session - 0.1.7-0ubuntu1

---------------
indicator-session (0.1.7-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * Upstream release 0.1.7
    * Changing the icon so that if you are disconnected it is
      'system-shutdown-panel' and making sure that we see it
      sometimes by not allocating the EmpathyAccountManager isn't
      allocated until status is set. (LP: #432635)
      * Also fixes by happenstance: (LP: #444170 and LP: #437065)
    * Handling the locking of the screensaver so that we ensure
      the screensaver is active before suspending. Also, we
      throttle it to ensure it doesn't start until after suspend.
      (LP: #444391)
    * Asynchronized the menu handling so that it's in the right
      order with async startup. (LP: #440484)
    * String change, "New Session" to "Switch User" (LP: #444494)
  * Removed debian/patches/switch_user_lp-444494.patch

 -- Ted Gould <email address hidden> Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:12:07 -0400

I think this is still a bug.

If the user menu (indicator-session-applet?) is so keen on interacting with Empathy and Empathy alone, it should ignore Pidgin's status changes. I believe it should remain grey when pidgin starts up, and perhaps not even show the little baloon icon at all when Empathy/telepathy/whatever is not active and online. Personally, I don't care much for the duplicate status options or indicators, and I don't care much for the no-option type of program Empathy is, so I really dislike being forced to reconsider by situations like this one.

Anyway, I think it's definitely wrong that the applet matches the same status that you enter through Pidgin, but when you change the status through him, it insists on starting up Empathy.

@Josip Are you saying that with all accounts disabled in empathy, empathy is still being spawned?

Uhm, no, I did not disable anything in Empathy. I removed the indicator-applet, that worked out much better for me.

I don't know, for me, this is still a bug. How was I supposed to know this? Why, in the first place, would the indicator-applet be spawning anything? Why isn't the choice of an IM client mine?

I'm not able to give it a try right now, I'll get back to you when I do.

This isn't really related to the indicator-applet, it is related to the session applet which can set your status. With empathy, the underlying telepathy framework has the ability to be "online" when the empathy client isn't running. The session applet can set your status to online. If it does that, and you receive a message it could then open empathy as a "handler" for incoming messages. I am not sure what status the session applet defaults to on login, but I suspect the last known state.

@Ted, can you clarify that?

the issue is definitely fixed in Ubuntu-10.10