maemo.org - Talk - Pidgin - Facebook chat plugin

Hello there, Maemo community!

As a Communicator user since the dawn of time, I've now replaced my E90 with a N900. I miss the keyboard and the raisable display, but otherwise N900 is a nice little piece. This is my debute in the Maemo community. Say hi.

Anyway, now I've finally managed to get Facebook Chat to work as a plugin to the built-in Contacts/Conversations. As a bonus, I also got MySpace IM to work.

I did it without any coding, just editing or adding configuration entries and files (using other haze plugins as templates). Below is how I did it. The summary does not include basic Linux things like how to traverse the filesystem, how to edit files, how to gain root on N900 and similar. If you don't already know how to do those things, you're probably better off waiting for the protocols to be packaged and added to a repository. And if you know how to do those things, I'm sure that you also know how to make a backup (and how to reflash your phone). You've been warned.

There seems to be a lot of text below, but most of it is cut'n'paste, so use scp or ftp to transfer the files to a computer (with a real keyboard) for easier editing.

1. Download and install the Json package .deb required by the Facebook plugin (couldn't find it in any repository) as mentioned earlier in this thread.

2. Download the Facebook plugin from http://pidgin-facebookchat.googlecod...ookarm-1.64.so and put it in /opt/maemo/usr/lib/purple-2/
(Files for MySpace is already in place, but not enabled in the config files for some reason.)

3. Put a symlink to /opt/maemo/usr/lib/purple-2/libfacebookarm-1.64.so in /usr/lib/purple-2/

4. Edit the file /usr/share/telepathy/managers/haze.manager and add the following sections:

Code:

[Protocol facebook]

param-account=s required

param-password=s required

param-show-history=b

param-use-groups=b

param-hide-self=b

param-set-status-through-pidgin=b

param-get-notifications=b

param-notifications-feed-url=s

param-manage-friends=b

default-show-history=true

default-use-groups=true

default-hide-self=true

default-set-status-through-pidgin=false

default-get-notifications=false

default-notifications-feed-url=

default-manage-friends=false



[Protocol myspace]

param-account=s required

param-password=s required

param-server=s

param-port=i

default-server=im.myspace.akadns.net

default-port=1863

5. Add the file /usr/share/osso-rtcom/facebook.profile containing:

Code:

[Profile]

Manager=haze

Protocol=facebook

IconName = im-facebook

DisplayName = Facebook

ConfigurationUI = haze-plugin

SupportsInvisible = 0

Capabilities = chat-p2p, supports-alias, supports-avatars, supports-roster

VCardDefault = 1

VCardField = X-FACEBOOK

SupportedPresences = offline,available



[Presence available]

Name = Online

IconName = general_presence_online

Type = 2



[Presence offline]

Name = Offline

IconName = general_presence_offline

Type = 1

6. Add the file /usr/share/osso-rtcom/myspace.profile containing:

Code:

[Profile]

Manager=haze

Protocol=myspace

IconName = im-myspace

DisplayName = MySpace

ConfigurationUI = haze-plugin

SupportsInvisible = 0

Capabilities = chat-p2p, supports-alias, supports-avatars, supports-roster

VCardDefault = 1

VCardField = X-MYSPACE

SupportedPresences = offline,available



[Presence available]

Name = Online

IconName = general_presence_online

Type = 2



[Presence offline]

Name = Offline

IconName = general_presence_offline

Type = 1

7. Edit the file /home/user/.rtcom-accounts/accounts.cfg and add the following sections:

Code:

[haze/facebook/yourname_40yourdomain_2eyourtld0]

manager=haze

protocol=facebook

DisplayName=

param-password=yourpassword

param-show-history=true

param-use-groups=true

param-hide-self=true

param-set-status-through-pidgin=false

param-get-notifications=false

param-manage-friends=false

param-account=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

Profile=facebook

condition=ip-route-1

Enabled=true

AvatarMine=

Nickname=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

HasBeenOnline=true

NormalizedName=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

ConnectAutomatically=true



[haze/myspace/yourname_40yourdomain_2eyourtld0]

manager=haze

protocol=myspace

DisplayName=

param-password=yourpassword

param-account=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

Profile=myspace

condition=ip-route-1

Enabled=true

AvatarMine=

Nickname=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

HasBeenOnline=true

NormalizedName=yourname@yourdomain.yourtld

ConnectAutomatically=true

Replace yourname, yourdomain and yourtld with the real ones from the email you are using as the Facebook/Myspace login, and replace yourpassword with your real password (in clear text). Make sure to keep _40 (for the @ sign), _2e (for any dots), and the 0 at the end!

8. Create the following directories, make them all owned by user:users and chmod them all to drwx------:

Code:

/home/user/.rtcom-accounts/haze/facebook

/home/user/.rtcom-accounts/haze/facebook/yourname_40yourdomain_2eyourtld0

/home/user/.rtcom-accounts/haze/myspace

/home/user/.rtcom-accounts/haze/myspace/yourname_40yourdomain_2eyourtld0

Same here: Replace yourname, yourdomain and yourtld with the real ones from the email you are using as the Facebook/Myspace login. Make sure to keep _40 (for the @ sign), _2e (for any dots), and the 0 at the end!

9. Reboot

Notes:

1. §7 and §8 might not be needed. After §6, the GUI for adding accounts recognized Facebook and MySpace, but the sign in button didn't work (it got grey and nothing happened). So I added the accounts the hard way. It still didn't work. So I rebooted, and then it worked. It might be that the reboot is enough, and after that you might be able to add accounts using the GUI.

2. I'm not sure that all the configuration entries above are actually doing what they seem to be doing. But I know that they all combined made the plugins work.

Issues:

1. The Facebook plugin only see online friends. But when your friends go offline, at least they stay in your address book (marked as offline). So after you and your friend have been online simultaneously once, they're in there (at least if you merge them or give them a firstname/lastname). Which, by the way, is the same behavior as in Pidgin on a PC, and I believe it's a Facebook Chat limitation.

2. I have 14 MySpace friends, but I only see 8 of them. They're all offline, so it's not for online/offline reasons. It might be due to the other 6 having IM disabled or something?

3. There are no advanced settings for the MySpace account The server and port settings in the configuration entries above aren't there (the view is empty after tapping the advanced settings button). I don't know where I found those two settings, but I remember that it was in some already existing file on the N900. The Facebook advanced settings configuration entries above are taken from the GUI after I got that part working (I just replaced spaces with dashes and made them all lowercase), so no promises that they do what they say..

4. Avatars don't work for MySpace (Facebook avatars and statuses work fine).

I have not tested chatting yet (no, it's true!), so all I know is that the above made my friends appear in the address book, and I can merge them with their existing address book entries. At least that means my N900 address book and Facebook/MySpace can understand eachother to some degree.

The above is taken from my memory. I don't trust my memory, so you should neither. I might have forgot something, or got something wrong. But if you like screwing things up (like me), go ahead and try the above.

Regards
/P