/[http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDE+Community+World+Summit|aKademy] / [http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Talks+@+aKademy|Talks] / Kopete Talk

-=Kopete by William Stephenson=-

Kopete, the KDE instant messenger.

Previously KDE had different IM clients for each network.  Clients existed mostly as standalone applications.  They had multiple interfaces.  A group of developers got together to sort it out.

Makes full use of the KDE technologies, look and feel and integrates with the rest of KDE.  Multi-protocol so reduces differences between instant messenging.

Plugin based so easy to extend, powerful API.

One feature is metacontacts, sorts out people who have different protocols or ways of communicating, picks one which is online to talk to them.  Contact list is flexible, deliberatly no skinning but can show lots or little information.

Uses tooltips and KDE addressbook.

New in KDE 3.3 custom notifications, stops instant messenging being distracting.  Built on top of normal KDE notifications.  Demonstrates this feature.  

KDEPIM integration has been expanded in 3.3.  Associate IM contacts with address book, store IM addresses.

There is a generic KDE instant messenging interface to get information from the program.  Also implemented by Konversation.

Lots of work on the protocol plugins in 3.3.  Jabber groupware works including piercing firewalls and NATs.  Custom smileys.  New e-mail notifications.  File transfer in Gabu-Gabu.  Latex plugin lets you type message in latex and send a mathematical function etc to your friend, rendered fully.

William has been working for SuSE writing a plugin got Novell Groupwise.  Lotus plugin also being worked on.

They are talking about using Gallager interface on Gnome.  KDE address book integration should go further and be more intuitive.