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Sociality

Revision as of 15:55, 8 June 2011

The following is a summary of this thread on talk.maemo.org:

• "Sociality | Facebook client in Qt"

For further support and information you might want to check this thread.

General Information

We have seen several Facebook clients for Maemo. E.g. "Facebrick" which development was never finished and stopped working at some point after the Facebook API was changed or Kasvopus which, while being still under development(?), has a nice UI but is limited regarding features.

Sociality is another FB client developed in Qt by the famous, living legend, MohammadAG. It is supposed to include all features that can be included by using the FB API.

"Sociality Homescreen Screenshot"

It´s name "Sociality" is the result of a poll you may check "here".

Currently this app is available from extras-devel

Disclaimer

!!! CAUTION !!!

This project is still in development stage, which means there might still be some risks, downsides and issues to be solved before it is ready for the average user... Please read this summary carefully and evaluate the risks involved for yourself! (Keep in mind that this can cause problems for the phone. Backup your data, backup your config (apps > system > backup) and know how to reflash)

Whatever you do, you are doing it at your own risk!

However, if you want to have a decent Facebook client on Maemo and want to help out here -

You are more than welcome as a tester.

Change Log

Version 0.1-3

• Minor fixes to messages and notifications UI.
• Links now clickable.
• Horizontal scrolling disabled.
• Launching via the icon should work now

Version 0.1-4

• Implemented places and checkin support.
• Notifications count now shown in button's text.
• Added minor animations for avatars.

Version 0.1-5

• Fixed time being shown in UTC instead of local time.
• Added photo and proper photo album support.
• Fixed non-latin character posting.

Version 0.2

• Notes implemented.
• Single album or single photo download.
• Fixed events item layout in portrait mode.
• Attendees button now works in events window.
• Friends window and news feed window use threading to improve performance.
• Friends and avatars are now cached (/home/user/.cache/MohammadAG/sociality).
• Cookies for facebook.com are now saved (/home/user/.local/share/data/MohammadAG/sociality/facebook.cookies).
• All application menu buttons in the main view (Account settings, privacy settings etc...) now work (as per the iOS app, they redirect to facebook.com's site, since there's no API for this).
• Notifications will now have visual, audible, and haptic feedback, clicking a notification will open the notification dialog, all of this is configurable in settings (audible notifications will not sound in Silent profile).
• Youtube videos will now playback inside the application, if you don't like this, simply tap the title bar and open the link in the browser/copy it to your favourite youtube app.
• News feed window shows links properly.
• Places does not cause a segmentation fault if you click done without selecting a place.
• A map widget will show when you select a place to check into.
• Fixed a memory leak.
• Delete button will ask for confirmation.
• Experimental loading widget, thanks to cutetube for the image (this only shows in news feed for now).
• Like button will correctly show unlike if the post is already liked.
• Auto refresh implementation, configurable in settings (0 to disable auto refresh).
• Notifications will be marked as read on facebook.com when they're read
• Added a donate button to the about dialog

Version 0.2-1

• Explicit dependency on q-extras version 1.0.7

Planned / Requested Features

• Using "Facebook"-theme (blue and white) and maybe some eye-candy graphics and animations would be nice instead of a Maemolike UI (black, bold buttons). While some users in the TMO thread seem to prefer a Maemolike UI, the majority seems to prefer blue/white, maybe some kind of themeing can be implemented.
• Refresh-button not in top menubar, but easily accessible in content area with 1-click or by dragging feed down from top
• More button on the bottom of the news feed
• Searching Facebook
• Show who "liked" a post
• Full screen mode option
• Desktop widget | Working on it ~MohammadAG
• Sync contacts (only contacts thats in my phone address book and/or sync all contacts.) Note: There is an alternative dedicated app for this called Hermes: "Hermes"
• Call option beside friend name | Facebook API doesn't expose this ~MohammadAG
• Offline support for news feed and all
• Confirmation dialog for deleting posts
• Save images
• Enable add photos on checkins
• Swiping to be added to photo view for going to next or previous picture.
• Use Volume +/- to alter the font scale
• Friends list in tile mode with bigger profile picture
• Calendar pulling events from FB automatically
• Choice between "Top News" and "Most Recent"

* Enable the facebook notification while the app is closed | this is impossible in the sense the app is closed, however, hiding the app is a possibility ~MohammadAG

• Open status comments as folder trees in _same_ view

App Icon

Currently Sociality uses a default FB icon. Users in the original thread mentioned above provided several suggestions for an icon:

Icon 1 Icon 2 Icon 3 Icon 4 Icon 5

Please feel free to comment, suggest improvements or create own icons using this "thread" :-)

UI Design

MAG asked for support regarding UI design. Users in the original thread provided icons as well as mockups:

Iconset 1

Mockup 1 Mockup 2 Mockup 3 Mockup 4 Mockup 5 Mockup 6 Mockup 7 Mockup 8 Mockup 9 Mockup 10 Mockup 11 Mockup 12

Please feel free to comment, suggest improvements or create own mockups using this "thread":-)

Known Issues

• App Icon is labeled “Facebook” instead of “Sociality”
• Messages in News Feed timeline from friends app/games, stuff like their FarmVille prizes etc.

(Note: These have to be disabled on facebook itself: On a browser, check your newsfeed. Where you get i.e. a Farmville post, click "x" topright to remove it, and a little menu will appear. Click "Hide all by Farmville" and you will never see any notifications from that app again. Do this for each app until your newsfeed is clear on whichever device you choose to read it on. Sorted!)

• Can't add a new place (Not supported by FB API)
• Sociality expects a connection when it sends the refresh signal (configurable in settings), this means if there isn't a connection the dialog will pop up, this is Qt behaviour, not something explicitly set within the app. Either close sociality when you're offline, or disable refresh, or keep an open connection.
• Chat is still experimental
• Notes are not yet editable
• Send messages is not supported by Facebook API
• While in portrait mode, when refreshing the page, the 'Loading' indicator is not at top middle and cover over the top button
• When you type in a friends name, tick them, then type another friends name and tick their name.. you will notice that all previous names being ticked are now unticked, and only the most recent searched friend was ticked... sooo... when you type a name, it removes all ticked friends

Easter-Egg

In Version 0.2-1, for an basic experimental light layout in news feed:

Add white-mode=true

under [main] in /home/user/.config/MohammadAG/sociality.conf

(This is just a basic implementation and doesn't look good since hildon's themes use a black background instead of transparency.)