953505 - Universal, Transportable Chat History/Log

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Chat Core :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 54 by nexxuscommand AT yahoo.com at 2008-04-25 01:00:00 UTC ***

Quick background. 

I have been using IM's for a long time, and one thing that has bugged me the most, other then a non universal IM client, the ability to story IM permanently. I like keeping logs of what was talked about. The ones that do have the chat history/log don't have the ability to sync histories between two locations i.e. installs on two or more different systems. It would be nice to have the ability to forward all histories from say, work to home, and vise-versa. Via e-mail or some backup device i.e. usb drive.

Implementation.

How would we implement such a beast? Well my idea would be to leverage the same database sql-lite that is being implemented into FireFox 3. Not only is this a good repository for the history, but with some clever scripting you will be able to pull a differential or script out a time range to backup and send to the alternate instance. When you run the differential on the alternate system it will remove duplicates and insert new messages, thereby synchronizing the systems. Worst case scenario is that you would have to copy the entire database and then move it to the new location and then merge the database together. 

Potential additional benefits. 
You can migrate profile changes between systems when you sync the data.

Comment 1

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 54 at 2010-09-29 20:19:55 UTC ***

I'm working to adapt Firefox Sync to sync every necessary setting and option between different instances of Instantbird.

Setting this bug to block the "Sync" bug.

Comment 2

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 54 at 2010-09-30 08:51:18 UTC ***

The initial report seem to request a way to export the whole history into a single file that can be carried around (USB drive, ...). So the requested feature seems to be an import/export of the logs.

However the report also mentions using it for syncing, so I'm not sure if the transportable history file is the real request or if the real request is sync, with the transportable history file being only a proposed way to implement it.

Comment 3

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 54 by nexxuscommand AT yahoo.com at 2010-09-30 18:49:34 UTC ***

Hopefully this may clear up the request.

At the time of the request the Mozilla Sync system was not developed. So the concept of an online backup never crossed my mind. That being said, because IM is nothing more then text and as such relatively small, it probably should be backed up to the net, like history or favorites etc...

Comment 4

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 54 at 2011-03-09 20:33:49 UTC ***

Mass-change: Reassigning to nobody all the bugs in the NEW or UNCONFIRMED status where I'm the assignee because I used to be the default assignee of the component.

Comment 5

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 54 by dodobird AT mailinator.com at 2012-02-16 23:58:21 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #1)
> I'm working to adapt Firefox Sync to sync every necessary setting and option
> between different instances of Instantbird.
> 
> Setting this bug to block the "Sync" bug.

Please make sure that is optional and not a default. I am very annoyed how  Yahoo and AIM both have removed the option of storing chat logs on the computer, they both are going for on server storage. If you can not get sync to work you can always simply suggest people use the program DropBox to keep the files in sync and just have an option to make a DropBox folder the destination of the log files. It would save you a lot of effort.

Comment 6

[Patrick Cloke [:clokep]]

*** Original post on bio 54 at 2012-02-17 00:20:16 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > I'm working to adapt Firefox Sync to sync every necessary setting and option
> > between different instances of Instantbird.
> > 
> > Setting this bug to block the "Sync" bug.
> 
> Please make sure that is optional and not a default. I am very annoyed how 
> Yahoo and AIM both have removed the option of storing chat logs on the
> computer, they both are going for on server storage. If you can not get sync to
> work you can always simply suggest people use the program DropBox to keep the
> files in sync and just have an option to make a DropBox folder the destination
> of the log files. It would save you a lot of effort.

This would of course be optional and "Syncing" logs implies they'd be stored both locally (everywhere that you sign into) and on a server.

Comment 7

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 54 at 2012-02-17 11:06:04 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #5)
> If you can not get sync to
> work you can always simply suggest people use the program DropBox to keep the
> files in sync and just have an option to make a DropBox folder the destination
> of the log files. It would save you a lot of effort.

For information, we are considering using dropbox to store logs "in the cloud" but this is in no way a replacement for sync. Storing information on DropBox can lead to serious privacy issues, so we could like to encrypt the log files before they go to dropbox's servers, and Sync could be used to exchange between various instances of Instantbird the necessary information to make use of the encrypted files stored on dropbox.

Comment 8

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Mass-change: It looks like the BIO->BMO migration script didn't handle the "Reset Assignee to default" case.

Comment 9

[Patrick Cloke [:clokep]]

Without having a standard for what this log would look like I'm not sure what to do here.