Status Update: February 2011 - March 2011

Done:

  • Contact merging (bug 698).  If you talk to the same person on multiple IM networks you can now combine the buddies from each network into a single contact.  When opening a new chat the buddy that is online will be chosen automatically and the conversation window will automatically change to another buddy if they switch to a different IM network.
  • Tags have begun to be implemented (to replace the groups concept in the current buddy list).  Tags can be hidden by clicking the “x” on the right side of the buddy list, all buddies from this tag will go into an “Other Contacts” tag automatically, which is shown at the bottom of the buddy list.
  • The buddy list can now be closed on Mac without Instantbird quitting (bug 24). It can be reopened from the Dock.
  • Offline contacts vs. unknown contacts are now differentiated with icons.
  • Instantbird has been upgraded from libpurple 2.7.9 to 2.7.11. Changes of note include a fix for adding buddies in MSN (see all changes at their change log).
  • Dark variant of the “Simple” skin (bug 710).
  • For Developers:
    • Extensions are now able to register commands (bug 118).
    • A general JavaScript socket object has been included (bug 673).
    • Instantbird 0.3a2pre nightlies are now based on the mozilla-2.0 branch instead of the mozilla-central trunk (commit). This is the version of the Mozilla source that is used in Firefox 4.x.

Known Issues with Nightly Builds (0.3a2pre):

  • No feedback when an extension fails to install (bug 712).
  • Sounds do not work when the buddy list is closed on Mac (bug 731).
  • Commands do not work in protocol overrides (i.e. GTalk, Facebook) (bug 697).
  • Twitter dumps too much information to the error console (bug 681).

2 thoughts on “Status Update: February 2011 - March 2011

  1. Next time around can you add an option to minimize to notification window for Windows implementations? I would like to keep it on like other instant messengers, but not have it clutter up on the task bar.

    Normally hitting the ‘X’ button at the top would minimize to notification window and not close the application.

  2. @Herman: we made this change very recently, it’s the new default behavior. You can try it in current nightly builds (or wait for Instantbird 0.3 alpha 2 which should be released soon). :)