Not relying on `deltachat-desktop`

[decentral1se]

Just a placeholder for potential paths forward running the rpc-server here instead of relying on people installing the electron app first. I understand this requires quite some work but wanted to raise it here for visibility.

https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop

Thanks for the great work so far!

[trufae]

yeah that's planned, i just took the easiest way possible to get this thing to work without having to implement all the account creation and second device stuff, which is black magic to me still.

[Hocuri]

What exactly is black magic to you? How the API for account creation and add-second-device works? If so, I may be able to help :) (unfortunately, we didn't yet manage to properly document this)

[trufae]

Exactly. I didn’t really even tried to dig in there :) but it’s in my TODO, any help, guideness or help is appreciated

[Hocuri]

For account creation:

• Use add_account() to create a new, empty profile. It will return the account_id.
• Call set_config(account_id, "displayname", ...) in order to set the display name chosen by the user.
• Optional: Call set_config(account_id, "selfavatar", path) in order to pass the path to the user-chosen profile image. If the image is already in the "blobs" directory, then it will be renamed so that the filename matches its hash, otherwise it will be copied into the blobs directory.
• Then, call add_transport_from_qr(), passing "dcaccount:nine.testrun.org" for the qr parameter in order to get a working account.

If you want to allow the user to choose another server than nine.testrun.org:

• Link to https://chatmail.at/relays (you can check the official clients how this is best done in the UI)
• Register with the operating system to be opened when the user clicks on a dcaccount: link
• When the user opens such a link, pass it to add_transport_from_qr() instead of "dcaccount:nine.testrun.org"
• You can also allow to scan such a link via a QR code scanner, or to paste such a link via the clipboard

If you want the user to be able to use a classical email as a relay, use add_or_update_transport(), but this is probably not your priority right now.

For adding as second device:

You can again check the official clients for the user flow.

Call add_account(), and then use get_backup() with the QR code that was scanned or pasted from the clipboard. Afterwards, call start_io(). If the user presses on the "cancel" button before this finishes, call stop_ongoing_process(). You can show a progress bar by using the emitted ImexProgress events.

Edit: Note that I didn't try this out; if something doesn't work, then please ask back :)

[trufae]

Thanks! i think ill work on this after the next release. right now i fixed quite some importanbt issues and added useful features that it feels more solid to use. but we cant make it work without shipping our own jsonrpc without handling the account creation process. thanks for the explanations, thats really helpful

[trufae]

Aaaand it’s ready! Please test it if you have a chance! It worked better than expected for me jsonrpc did all the heavy work for me. Thanks for the pointers! It will be good to adjust the jsonrpc path to make it easy for packagers and the flatpak thing. Any suggestions on this?

[Hocuri]

I just tested it, it works very smoothly, congrats 🎉! From a UX point of view, it would be nice to add some more more guidance so that a user who doesn't know anything about how Chatmail works can easily use it, without needing to choose between four options. You can look at how the Delta Chat clients are doing this. Note that at every step, there is a highlighted option, so that a completely new user can click though it without needing to think. And if the user does need to choose, then it's at most 3 options, because research shows that it's a lot harder to choose once there are more than 3 options.

I'm not sure where exactly to put this, but I also wrote down some of my (subjective) insights and suggestions from 6 years of being involved in a messenger project:

1. Choose one or a few reasons for people to use your app over alternatives.

You already have one: Parla is native in Gnome, while the official Delta Chat clients are not. Maybe you decide to add more, like first-class keyboard navigation (the Ctrl+K dialog is already going in this direction, which I love).

This also defines your target groups, i.e. Delta Chat users who want a native Gnome app, or who want first-class keyboard navigation.

Make sure that this list doesn't grow too large, in order not to lose focus. You can't fulfill the wishes of too many target groups at once.

2. Prioritize the needs of the many, not the few.

Most of us are nerds, but most users are not. For most users, things need to be simple and "just work". For example: If you show a dialog to the user with a question, then in many cases they won't know what to choose. This also means that you should keep the UI surface and complexity as low as other constraints allow it.

3. UX-wise, stay as close to alternatives as possible, because this is what most people know (Delta Chat clients, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord).

In order to make it easy for people to switch to your app, it should feel familiar. Also, a lot of research and UX thoughts went into these apps, and you can just adopt the usage patterns. Of course, there can be good reasons to deviate from the other messengers, especially if you need it for the reasons for people to use your app over alternatives.

[Hocuri]

It will be good to adjust the jsonrpc path to make it easy for packagers and the flatpak thing. Any suggestions on this?

I didn't exactly understand what you need here, but also, I'm not too familiar with this area. If I understand more exactly what you need, I may be able to refer you to the people who do know.