Add support for message threads

[exarkun]

This is a feature request.

Slack has the notion of threads of messages. A message in a channel can be replied to in a way that creates a new thread. More messages can be added to this thread. These messages can appear in the channel of the original message or not (controlled by a checkbox in the Slack web ui).

Make slack-libpurple able to interact with these message threads: to see the threads to which received messages belong and to be able to send messages to a given thread.

[dylex]

Do you have any thoughts for how this would work in the interface (be exposed to the user), given the constraints of what libpurple allows? The only thought I had was to expose threads as an entirely separate channel, but this may actually be more annoying or confusing than the current way of just flattening them all together.

[exarkun]

I don't, sorry. :/ I don't know libpurple at all, nor what constraints are imposed by its interface. I just hoped it would be feasible to offer this functionality.

[dylex]

Basically whatever interface you're using (bitlbee, finch, pidgin, adium, etc.) is what we're stuck with: the prpl can really just send and receive IMs and chat messages. So, we can't fundamentally change what you see, just which window messages go to and how buddies map to slack conversations.

[fredcooke]

I do, just pop an ID in a message FROM a thread (currently show up inline like they're normal) and provide a way of sending to that ID with a / command. OR, open a new tab/window (more like what slack does and likely easier and cleaner to use and implement) with the original message as context, and any subsequent messages that form the thread beneath. Was going to jump on here and request at least visibility of the fact that those messages are threaded as then you can open a web UI to respond to them without looking like a retard who hasn't realised you're supposed to reply in them :-)

[vn971]

@dylex if we just add a notion of message belonging to a thread, it'll be a big improvement already. Currently, there's no way to tell if a message is a thread reply or a new one.

Thoughts? I think that should be fairly easy..

[fredcooke]

Agreed, if there was some way to ID which message it came from, maybe by original date stamp, that'd be even better. Another potentially annoying option that I would like would be a new tab for each thread you're following/involved in, then they're separate and there's no need to identify as it'd be natural and would also let you reply, which the in-channel option does not. Thoughts?

On Fri, 28 Dec 2018 at 17:08, Vasilii Novikov notifications@github.com wrote:

@dylex https://github.com/dylex if we just add a notion of message belonging to a thread, it'll be a big improvement already. Currently, there's no way to tell if a message is a thread reply or a new one.

Thoughts? I think that should be fairly easy..

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple/issues/76#issuecomment-450383386, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AACQd0D8xIOmSY3Zu3OscBpXASfSiedwks5u9kIOgaJpZM4VLcyC .

[vn971]

@fredcooke I like it! Especially if it's a doable task to implement!

[dylex]

It should be fairly easy just to add some kind of annotation for threaded messages with the timestamp of the original message. I'm happy to do this if it's helpful. It wouldn't give you any way to respond on the thread, though.

Treating threads as separate chats seems much harder, or at least I don't see any easy way to do it, but happy to accept thoughts or a PR.

[vn971]

@dylex if you'll have some experimental code and would need testers, feel free to ping, I'll test. (Arch user here, convenient with compiling.)

[vn971]

Re: 2a9aacf -- nice!!

I think it's a good start! Most importantly, you already know if a reply was threaded or now.

I wonder on one technical side: if people reply to you, would you get a [more verbose] notification? If not, would adding the name of the parent comment-s author help? Like if Alice gets a reply from Bob, the message could be like <Alice 09:15:31> hello, this is a message from Bob.

Other ideas for message format:

Bob Smith: Re: Alice 09:15:31: hello
Bob Smith: Alice 09:15:31↪  hello
Bob Smith: (Alice 09:15:31)⤷  hello
Bob Smith: Alice 09:15:31↦  hello
Bob Smith: 09:15:31↳ hello
Bob Smith: 09:15:31└ hello   (this character is very popular IIRC, e.g. will definitely work everywhere, including viewing history file externally)
Bob Smith: Alice 09:15:31╘
Bob Smith: Re 09:15:31⇘ hello

Just some proposals to consider, in case something feels nice! I personally find the "⤷" character visually appealing. Not sure yet regarding the overall formatting. And I don't know how common this unicode symbol is though...

[vn971]

Made a simple PR with ⤷ character: https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple/pull/90

[ghost]

Take a look at https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple/pull/118 as well, which gives more complete thread support. There are several things that needs some discussing there.

[dylex]

With #118 merged I'm going to close this. We can keep adding specific features as requested.