Search Contacts Option

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is not an issue, but a feature suggestion.

I love your app, but finding contacts to dial is quite cumbersome. The stock 
android dialer has at least the search button functional as an aid.
How about this feature: instead of plain number field where the keyed numbers 
go, you implement an AutoCompleteTextView where I can start typing a contact 
and their numbers appear. I click on a number to select it, then change the SIP 
provider if I wish and place the call. Much faster to dial someone and a fairly 
simple in nature. 

If you need some aid with the auto complete, I can give you a hand, my email  
is the backwards spelled here: vehcyab(at)gmail.com

Original issue reported on code.google.com by bayc...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2011 at 11:57

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yes would be a nice enhancement indeed.
That's not critical at all cause as I repeat since the begining of the project 
the way to use a SIP application is not to have contact inside the application.
The android approach is to make apps interact with each other. And the 
integration with the contact app of your phone (the stock app or any contact 
app) is already very good. The access inside csipsimple is "only" for those who 
don't want integration of CSipSimple with the rest of android but should be a 
minority of people !

I think that providing contacts from the app is a misuse of possibility of 
android. Android is an OS really really well designed for that kind of 
integration. 
For example what you use to dial and manage your contact is not the telephony 
application. It's the Contact application that interact with the Telephony 
application and when CSipSimple is installed with the SIP application !!!

There is no frontend for the telephony application. In an ideal world I'd not 
have to put any frontend for CSipSimple. 
I did cause the stock android contact app is not well designed to manage 
several backends for outgoing calls and cause some users have bad habits with 
other SIP apps that "force" them to dial inside the app...

However, as far as CSipSimple integrate contacts yes, we could imagine several 
things....
I'll rework a little bit how CSipSimple allow to dial from contacts and from 
text SIP uri. (I'll do one merged pickup - uri tool that may also allow to 
search through call logs).
Once done, if you want to contribute and add the autocomplete feature you'll be 
welcome :D... CSipSimple is a true opensource project and contributions are 
welcome :).

So I accept the issue in a low priority. I'll notify you on the issue once I've 
refactored pickup sip uri tool. And if you want to have a look and propose some 
better contact picker than the simple and reliable one obtained by the android 
pickup contact intent you'll be welcome.

You can also contribute to the core android project and modify the default 
pickup contact view so that it allow to autocomplete.... In theory it should be 
the right place to do that cause it will benefit *all* android apps that pickup 
a contact using the standard, optimized and reliable intent.

(And I think that such a modification would be accepted by the android 
opensource project... that's not so hard to contribute to android ... I did one 
patch for music and was accepted without problems)

Original comment by r3gis...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2011 at 12:09

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Low, Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium, Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I completely agree with you that re-coding what is already in android
is futile. I am working on a free messaging app right now and want to
make the selection of a contact as easy as it is possible. All
contacts shall stay within the stock contacts app and they only shall
be accessed through a lookup to select the recipient. Here is my code,
it is functional, but not optimized yet.

What are the main points:
- click in the text field to type for a name;
- filter the contacts database for matches;
- click on a number to paste it into the auto complete box;
- on the preferences screen there is a filter that allows to show all
numbers, mobile numbers only, or SIP numbers in your case;

I came to this idea when I had to dial a few SIP address numbers,
every time I have to retype or go through the long contacts list which
is rather slow. Google is all about search, I wonder why their phone
app does not have functional search box right up top.

If I have missed something, hit me back, you're doing a heck of a job!

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2011 at 12:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Ok (I've not received your code cause email to issue list doesn't accept 
attachement I think (you can send directly to developers(at)csipsimple.com) and 
tell me if you are agree with releasing that under GPL license ;).

Just quick tip : on android you can actually search through contacts :
Use the search widget (not the websearch one, the android search one). 
You have to add contacts in search databases (when you click on the little "G" 
drop down you can select sources of search -- contacts should already be there) 
that you want to search through contacts too, but once you search on this 
widget on home screen it will autocomplete with your contacts... and many other 
things if it found, there is actually an api so that a third party app can 
register here and provide a way to search in it's own database !
Then you can simply choose to click on the user badge and make a call from 
there :).
This feature was added in android 1.6 and is the "core" of android (cause it's 
developed by google). 
It's the reason why this search bar is by default on home screens.... it allow 
to search in SMS, in contacts, in web, in music, in twitter, applications and 
with voice search, mails, apps.... 
It also prove how well is designed android and it's intent system that allow 
apps to inter-work with each other.

In 2.3 as SIP uris will be supported by contacts it will be even better (and 
text uris will be accepted too ;) )

Original comment by r3gis...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2011 at 12:42

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I sent it, let me know if you have again problems with the attachments again.
Think about processes in the order of a human being. Let's take this
as an example: "I want to call Sarko."
First comes the action, you are looking for an app to place the call
through, then you are looking for the person, then you are looking for
the proper number label, then you are looking for the cheaper option,
network or SIP call. If you handle the interactions in the order a
person thinks, your app becomes 'intuitive' to use.

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2011 at 1:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Actually I first look for the person, then select the number, then pick the 
route (mobile or one of the registered SIP accounts) which in the end picks the 
"app" to place the call. At least on my phone (HTC Sense UI) the people search 
is keystroke by keystroke live. Once you find the person, tap and you see his 
contact info. Pick a number and tap, you see the outgoing call selector, pick 
the route and you're calling.

Original comment by dc3de...@gmail.com on 7 Jan 2011 at 4:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yes, but this becomes a little bit annoying if you call only once in a
while over SIP and most of the time via the network.
I was thinking further about this yesterday, probably the best option
would be to enable the search button and pop up a new screen to select
a contact number, just like the stock android caller app.

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 7 Jan 2011 at 7:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Have you touched the little "people" icon at the top right of the CSipSImple 
dialer screen? It opens the contact selector with the search box at the top. 
Selecting a contact results in a SIP call or maybe selecting from multiple SIP 
accounts. 

I recently added a hack where if you set a custom IM of type 'SIP', that 
address will appear in the phone number selector after selecting a contact from 
that little people icon. So if you put baychev@somesip.aa.bb, you'll be offered 
sip:baychev@somesip.aa.bb as one of the 'numbers'. I use real sip addresses for 
a few of my frequent contacts, very handy to bypass any SIP provider or "phone 
company" and address any extension at the other end if you know it. Oh, and 
with SRV support you really have it all. The native dialer is useless for these 
things.

Original comment by dc3de...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2011 at 3:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

i havent noticed this and have SIP phone number labels, thanks for the tips.

box

of the 'numbers'. I use real

native

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2011 at 5:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

pardon me for bothering you with such stupid questions, but i added as a SIP
IM one of my sip addresses and it does not show up in the Choose Number
dialog for the contact.

Can you explain this SRV thing a bit more? i have an account with
sip2sip.info and was able to call another  account in the same domain and
iptel.org as well, but not numbers at paid services as pennytel.com. and
when i enter a sip address of  a paid service, i can dial another paid
service, but not a free one as sip2sip.info

box

of the 'numbers'. I use real

native

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2011 at 5:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hello,
One suggestion: automatically backup calling filters to the SD card or
the internal memory so they are persisted between reinstalls.

Original comment by bayc...@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2011 at 11:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

You can already use the backup feature available in account list.

Original comment by r3gis...@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2011 at 3:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Nightly now include an auto-complete field + the full contact list in text 
dialer mode.
Last step will be to have auto-complete working on sip uris and im of type sip 
(for < 2.3 devices).

Original comment by r3gis...@gmail.com on 10 Apr 2011 at 10:40

• Changed state: NextRelease