Methods
GetParameters | (s: Protocol) | → | a(susv): Parameters | |
ListProtocols | () | → | as: Protocols | |
RequestConnection | (s: Protocol, a{sv}: Parameters) | → | s: Bus_Name, o: Object_Path |
Signals
NewConnection | (s: Bus_Name, o: Object_Path, s: Protocol) |
Properties
Interfaces | as | Read only |
Types
Connection_Manager_Name | Simple Type | s | |
Protocol | Simple Type | s | |
Conn_Mgr_Param_Flags | Flags | u | |
Param_Spec | Struct | (susv) |
Description
A D-Bus service which allows connections to be created. The manager processes are intended to be started by D-Bus service activation.
For service discovery, each Telepathy connection manager must have a connection manager name (see Connection_Manager_Name for syntax).
The connection manager must then provide a well-known bus name of
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.cmname
where cmname is its connection manager name. If it makes sense
to start the connection manager using D-Bus service activation, it
must register that well-known name for service activation by installing
a .service file.
Clients can list the running connection managers by calling the ListNames method on the D-Bus daemon's org.freedesktop.DBus interface and looking for names matching the above pattern; they can list the activatable connection managers by calling ListActivatableNames, and they should usually combine the two lists to get a complete list of running or activatable connection managers.
When the connection manager is running, it must have an object
implementing the ConnectionManager interface at the object path
/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/ConnectionManager/cmname
.
Connection managers' capabilities can be determined dynamically by calling their ListProtocols method, then for each protocol of interest, calling GetParameters to discover the required and optional parameters. However, since it is inefficient to activate all possible connection managers on the system just to find out what they can do, there is a standard mechanism to store static information about CMs in ".manager files".
To look up a connection manager's supported protocols, clients
should search the data directories specified by
the
freedesktop.org XDG Base Directory Specification ($XDG_DATA_HOME,
defaulting to $HOME/.local/share if unset, followed by
colon-separated paths from $XDG_DATA_DIRS, defaulting to
/usr/local/share:/usr/share if unset) for the first file named
telepathy/managers/cmname.manager
that can be
read without error. This file has the same syntax as a
freedesktop.org Desktop Entry file.
Clients must still support connection managers for which no
.manager
file can be found, which they can do by activating
the connection manager and calling its methods; the
.manager
file is merely an optimization. Connection managers
whose list of protocols can change at any time (for instance, via
a plugin architecture) should not install a .manager
file.
For each protocol name proto that would be returned by
ListProtocols, the .manager file contains a group
headed [Protocol proto]
. For each parameter
p that would be returned by GetParameters(proto), the
.manager file contains a key param-p
with a value
consisting of a D-Bus signature (a single complete type), optionally
followed by a space and a space-separated list of flags. The supported
flags are:
required
, corresponding to Conn_Mgr_Param_Flag_Requiredregister
, corresponding to Conn_Mgr_Param_Flag_Registersecret
, corresponding to Conn_Mgr_Param_Flag_Secretdbus-property
, corresponding to Conn_Mgr_Param_Flag_DBus_Property
The group may also contain a key default-p
whose value is a string form of the default value for the parameter.
If this key exists, it sets the default, and also sets the flag
Conn_Mgr_Param_Flag_Has_Default. The default value is formatted
according to the D-Bus signature as follows:
- s (string)
- The UTF-8 string, with the standard backslash escape sequences supported by the Desktop Entry Specification (the "localestring" type from the Desktop Entry Specification)
- o (object path)
- The object path as an ASCII string
- b (boolean)
- "true" (case-insensitively) or "1" means True, "false" (case-insensitively) or "0" means False
- y, q, u, t (8-, 16-, 32-, 64-bit unsigned integer)
- ASCII decimal integer
- n, i, x (16-, 32-, 64-bit signed integer)
- ASCII decimal integer, optionally prefixed with "-"
- d (double-precision floating point)
- ASCII decimal number
- as (array of string)
- A sequence of UTF-8 strings each followed by a semicolon, with any semicolons they contain escaped with a backslash (the "localestrings" type from the Desktop Entry Specification)
Currently, no other D-Bus signatures are allowed to have default values,
but clients parsing the .manager file MUST ignore defaults
that they cannot parse, and treat them as if the
default-p
key was not present at all.
It is not required that a connection manager be able to support multiple protocols, or even multiple connections. When a connection is made, a service name where the connection object can be found is returned. A manager which can only make one connection may then remove itself from its well-known bus name, causing a new connection manager to be activated when somebody attempts to make a new connection.
Methods
GetParameters (s: Protocol) → a(susv): Parameters
Parameters
- Protocol — s (Protocol)
Returns
- Parameters — a(susv) (Param_Spec_List)
Possible Errors
- Not Implemented
ListProtocols () → as: Protocols
Returns
- Protocols — as (Protocol_List)
RequestConnection (s: Protocol, a{sv}: Parameters) → s: Bus_Name, o: Object_Path
Parameters
- Protocol — s (Protocol)
- Parameters — a{sv} (String_Variant_Map)
Returns
- Bus_Name — s (DBus_Bus_Name)
- Object_Path — o
Request a Connection object representing a given account on a given protocol with the given parameters. The method returns the bus name and the object path where the new Connection object can be found, which should have the status of Connection_Status_Disconnected, to allow signal handlers to be attached before connecting is started with the Connect method.
The parameters which must and may be provided in the parameters dictionary can be discovered with the GetParameters method. These parameters, their types, and their default values may be cached in files so that all available connection managers do not need to be started to discover which protocols are available.
To request values for these parameters from the user, a client must have prior knowledge of the meaning of the parameter names, so the following well-known names and types should be used where appropriate:
- account (s)
- The identifier for the user's account on the server
- server (s)
- A fully qualified domain name or numeric IPv4 or IPv6 address. Using the fully-qualified domain name form is recommended whenever possible. If this parameter is specified and the account for that protocol also specifies a server, this parameter should override that in the user id.
- port (q)
- A TCP or UDP port number. If this parameter is specified and the account for that protocol also specifies a port, this parameter should override that in the account.
- password (s)
- A password associated with the account.
- require-encryption (b)
- Require encryption for this connection. A connection should fail to connect if require-encryption is set and an encrypted connection is not possible.
- register (b)
- This account should be created on the server if it does not already exist.
- ident (s)
- The local username to report to the server if necessary, such as in IRC.
- fullname (s)
- The user's full name if the service requires this when authenticating or registering.
- stun-server (s)
- The IP address or FQDN of a STUN server to use for NAT traversal, without any ":port" suffix.
- stun-port (q)
- The UDP port number on the stun-server to use for STUN. Only significant if the stun-server is also supplied.
- keepalive-interval (u)
- The time in seconds between pings sent to the server to ensure that the connection is still alive, or 0 to disable such pings.
Every successful RequestConnection call will cause the emission of a NewConnection signal for the same newly created connection. The requester can use the returned object path and service name independently of the emission of that signal. In that case this signal emission is most useful for, e.g. other processes that are monitoring the creation of new connections.
Possible Errors
- Network Error
- Not Implemented
- Not Available
- Invalid Argument
Signals
NewConnection (s: Bus_Name, o: Object_Path, s: Protocol)
Parameters
- Bus_Name — s (DBus_Bus_Name)
- Object_Path — o
- Protocol — s (Protocol)
Properties
Interfaces — as
A list of the extra interfaces provided by this connection manager (i.e. extra functionality that can be provided even before a connection has been created).
No interfaces suitable for listing in this property are currently defined; it's provided as a hook for possible future functionality.
To be compatible with older connection managers, if retrieving this property fails, clients SHOULD assume that its value is an empty list.
Types
Connection_Manager_Name — s
The name of a connection manager, found in its well-known bus name and object path. This must be a non-empty string of ASCII letters, digits and underscores, starting with a letter. This is typically the name of the executable with any "telepathy-" prefix removed, and any hyphen/minus signs replaced by underscores.
Connection manager names SHOULD NOT be the same as the name of the protocol they implement.
This is likely to lead to conflicts between different implementations of the same protocol (or indeed inability to distinguish between the different implementations!). The Telepathy project traditionally uses some sort of pun (Haze is based on libpurple, Salut implements a protocol often called Bonjour, and Wilde implements the OSCAR protocol).
Connection manager names SHOULD NOT be the same as the name of a library on which they are based.
We often abbreviate, for instance, telepathy-haze as "Haze", but abbreviating telepathy-sofiasip to "Sofia-SIP" would cause confusion between the connection manager and the library it uses. Please don't repeat that mistake.
Protocol — s
An instant messaging protocol. It must consist only of ASCII letters, digits and hyphen/minus signs (U+002D "-"), and must start with a letter. Where possible, this SHOULD be chosen from the following well-known values:
- aim - AOL Instant Messenger (OSCAR or TOC)
- gadugadu - Gadu-Gadu
- groupwise - Novell Groupwise
- icq - ICQ (OSCAR)
- irc - Internet Relay Chat (RFC 1459, 2810-2813)
- jabber - XMPP (RFC 3920, 3921) or Jabber
- local-xmpp - Link-local XMPP (XEP-0174) (Bonjour, Salut)
- msn - MSNP (Windows Live Messenger)
- myspace - MySpaceIM
- mxit - MXit
- napster - Napster
- qq - Tencent QQ
- sametime - IBM Lotus Sametime
- silc - SILC
- sip - Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), with or without SIMPLE support
- skype - Skype
- tel - telephony (the PSTN, including GSM, CDMA and fixed-line telephony)
- trepia - Trepia
- yahoo - YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger)
- yahoojp - Japanese version of YMSG
- zephyr - Zephyr
Conn_Mgr_Param_Flags — u
- Required (1)
- Register (2)
- Has_Default (4)
- Secret (8)
- DBus_Property (16)
This parameter should be considered private or secret; for instance, clients should store it in a "password safe" like gnome-keyring or kwallet, omit it from debug logs, and use a text input widget that hides the value of the parameter.
(Clients that support older connection managers may also treat any parameter whose name contains "password" as though it had this flag.)
com.example.Duck.Macaroni
with this flag
corresponds to the Macaroni
property on the
com.example.Duck
interface. Its value can be queried
and possibly changed on an existing Connection using methods on the
org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties
interface.
Param_Spec — (susv)
- Name — s
- Flags — u (Conn_Mgr_Param_Flags)
- Signature — s (DBus_Signature)
- Default_Value — v