Good news, Facebook fans! I've just finished adding Facebook Chat support to Adium for the next release :)

Adium 1.2.5 is now available! This is a great bug fix release, correcting problems with Yahoo! Japan and ICQ connectivity, contact list tooltips when using Spaces in 10.5, and certain Jabber authentication setups, among many others. 22 fixes in all. This will likely be the last release in the Adium 1.2 series as we move toward a 1.3 beta; more on what to expect from Adium 1.3 another time. Quack on, my friends. Quack on.

Don't forget to read Contributing to Adium to learn how you can submit patches and code, help hunt down bugs, and donate to support the project!

We greatly appreciate the donated resources of our excellent site and code host NetworkRedux and our download host CacheFly. :)

Labels: 1.2, 1.2.5, release

This year, Adium has accepted three student proposals for Google Summer of Code. One will add a valuable new feature, while two relate to automated testing, which will both improve Adium's reliability and allow us to spend more time working on new features and less time fixing regressions. Why two projects related to testing? Part of it is just that both students were pretty amazing, but there are strategic reasons as well.

Branton's project will take the relatively conservative path of extending our existing testing infrastructure; this may include creating Mock Objects for much of Adium's internals. A difficult task, but one that will almost certainly be beneficial. At the same time as extending our test system, Branton will also be documenting our code, which should make it more accessible to new contributors and easier for us to work with.

Contrasting with this, Arcadio intends to take a different approach; creating a brand new testing framework implementing the Behavior Driven Development approach, and applying it to Adium. If successful, it will give us and other Mac software projects an entirely new set of tools to approach testing with, but it is a somewhat riskier project.

For our only non-testing related project this year, Geoffrey plans to create a framework implementing something similar to Apple's data detectors feature in Leopard. This will do textual analysis of all messages and use that information to provide contextually relevant actions you can do. Even better, the plan is to make this framework usable in other apps, so this functionality should begin showing up all over the place.

Labels: awesome, GSoC08

We'd like to give a big shout out to Ian Baird from Skorpiostech, Inc. for generously donating licenses for Changes.app to the project. It's a great application for viewing changes to files and folders. If you write code, you need to check it out.

Head on over to the website and give it a try!

Labels: changes.app, donation, sponsors

As of Adium 1.2.4, the Adium binary is signed. This means that our cryptographic signature is embedded in official releases of the application, and that any changes to that bundle will invalidate the signature and thereby alert your system (assuming it is running Mac OS X 10.5 or later) that the integrity of the program is compromised. One of the most obvious advantages of this besides basic security is that you should no longer be prompted to allow new versions to access your keychain items; the security layer can tell with confidence that Adium 1.2.5 is signed by the same folks who signed Adium 1.2.4 and that it should be allowed without question.

If you mess with the Adium binary in any way, you will invalidate the signature, and access to secure resources — specifically keychain items where your passwords are stored — will be disallowed by Mac OS X. Don't do that.

A prime example (seen in our IRC support channel recently) are the programs such as Monolingual designed to "slim down" Universal Binary (a.k.a. “fat binary”) programs which have both PPC and Intel code. Removing part of the code invalidates the signature. This leads to warning messages.

Apple is encouraging all developers to sign their applications; this won't be a (non-)problem restricted to Adium. Since only copies of Adium built by the Adium team in our super-secret underground lab are signed, you can of course make your own build and change it however you want — this includes removing one architecture or the other.

While you're at it, get involved in development! :)

Labels: best practices, code signing, keychain, security

The nominations are in for About.com's IM Best awards and your favorite green duck has managed to snag a spot in 3 different categories.

We are nominated for:
-Best Mac Instant Messenger (Yahoo is currently in the lead...)
-Best Third-Party IM
-Best IM Developer(s) of the Year

Be sure to head on over to IM Best Awards 2008 to cast your vote. Voting ends at Noon EST on Saturday April 19th.

Labels: 2008 IM Best, awards

As phatmonkey commented on Evan's post (so swiftly that s/he posted that comment before I had even opened up the New Post window!), Google just extended the student application deadline for Google Summer of Code by one week.

The new deadline is 2008-04-07. If you want to be a student in GSoC this year, you need to have your application in by that date.

Remember, you can apply with any idea you want—you aren't limited to our list of ideas. We encourage original ideas that we never thought of.

Labels: GSoC, GSoC2008

The deadline for Google Summer of Code proposals is today at 1700 Pacific (12:00 AM UTC 1 April, 2008). This is a great opportunity for students to get involved in open source through a paid summer internship sponsored by Google. Do you want to know more?

We released Adium 1.2.4 today. This is a minor release including improvements to several IM services (AIM direct connect, Yahoo! file transfer, Google Talk buddy icons, ICQ status notes, and MSN contact visibility), as well as crash fixes, visual improvements, and the long-requested ability to make the contact list completely transparent. The full change list is, as always, available on our support wiki.

Labels: 1.2, 1.2.4, release

In addition to the CNET award that Adium was nominated for, I was also contacted by about.com's IM guru to tell us that they were now accepting nominations for the 2008 IM Best Awards.

He writes:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get as guide to Instant Messaging at About.com just so happens to be "Which Instant Messenger is the Best?"

Well, this year, I have decided to allow the readers to answer for themselves through our 2008 IM Best Awards, delivering top honors to all our favorite instant messengers, new developments and the developers themselves.

Now through noon EST, on Friday, March 28, 2008, we are accepting nominations for this honor in all the following categories:

*Best Instant Messenger Experience, measuring overall user experience;
*Most Improved Instant Messenger, based on back-to-back client releases;
*Best Mac Instant Messenger, based on overall user experience;
*Best Third-Party IM
*Best IM Feature
*and Best IM Developer(s) of the Year.

Winners in each category will be given featured Essentials placement for one year on http://im.about.com, in addition to all the bragging rights among the IM community.

If you'd like to show us some love drop Brandon an email and tell him what you think!

Labels: 2008 IM Best, awards, im.about.com

Once again, Adium has been invited to participate in Google Summer of Code. We'll be accepting applications from talented student programmers to work on a variety of interesting projects; Students can either pick an idea from our list or propose an idea of their own (creativity is encouraged!).

For those unfamiliar with Summer of Code, each summer Google sponsors hundreds of open source organizations to mentor students as they work for a summer on a project associated with their organization of choice. Students receive $4,500 USD, a T-shirt, a prestigious item to put on their resumé, and a huge learning opportunity in exchange for 3 months of working on fun open source projects. If that sounds like a great deal to you, get your application(s) in!

In prior years we've had successful student projects improving XMPP support, accessibility, group chat, contact list organization, AppleScript, Bonjour IM, and tabbed chatting. In fact, a large percentage of the improvements in Adium 1.1 and 1.2 are the direct result of student work as part of Summer of Code.

Labels: awesome, GSoC, GSoC08

Adium is a finalist in the CNET 2008 Webware 100 Awards in the communications category. Voting doesn't require any registration so just takes a moment; please consider casting a vote for your favorite duck-themed instant messaging client!

It seems that The Mac Nose has outed our very own Colin Barrett as a wizard! I always thought there was something different about that guy...  And now we know the truth.

Big thanks to The Mac Nose (whoever he is...) for bringing this matter to our attention.

You can read the full story here.

Labels: Hogwarts, wizards

Today, Apple released the iPhone SDK. And, as we expected, we're already being asked whether we intend to write a version of Adium for the iPhone.

The short answer is “yes, but…”.

Developing for the iPhone is similar in many respects to development for Mac OS X. Some of the same frameworks, such as Core Audio, are present. But a lot of them aren't. For example:

• QuickTime (which we use to play sounds) is missing entirely. There's a new Core Audio API to play sounds, but it's Leopard-only, and we don't know whether it's available on the iPhone.
• The Application Kit (on which our interface is built) is replaced with UIKit.
• The iPhone probably does not have Apple Events nor Open Scripting Architecture. In other words, no AppleScript.
• Animation works a bit differently, and is dramatically different from how animation currently works in Adium on Mac OS X.

The hardware poses challenges as well. The iPhone has less memory than Adium tends to use, and has a significantly slower processor (and only one of them). Also, maintaining a network connection over WiFi uses a significant amount of battery, which could pose a problem for long-term use.

So porting Adium to the iPhone will certainly be a lot of work. Large portions, if not almost everything, will need to be completely rewritten or scrapped. Other parts will survive, but undergo extensive changes. This is a lot of work.

Currently, Adium's base system requirement is Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4). Some of the iPhone's features, such as Core Animation, were introduced in Leopard (10.5). Therefore, it's likely that we won't start work on Adium for iPhone until sometime after Adium for Mac requires Leopard.

Also, keep in mind that we'll want to release that version of Adium for Mac and have it proven by users (that means you) before we go applying that knowledge to Adium for the iPhone. You wouldn't want us to port an unstable version, would you? ☺

So, in summary: We want to do it, but it will be a lot of work. We want to put it off for a little bit so that it can be done with less effort and won't interfere with other development priorities. We don't know how long we'll put it off and we don't know how long it will take once we start.

Labels: iPhone

AOL announced Open AIM 2.0 today, and we've had a number of people ask what this means for Adium. I spoke with Michael Hall of instantmessagingplanet.com earlier today; AOL Opens AIM Some More has an explanation of Open AIM and some of my comments on the topic.

Chris Forsythe, aka The_Tick , is retiring from the position of Adium Project Manager after 3 years of hard work in that capacity and several years before that of deep involvement in the Adium community. As Project Manager, Chris helped ensure that the diverse assets of the community - web site, support network, forums, etc. - ran smoothly and aided in directing the project itself. On behalf of the team and all who have benefited from his dedicated efforts, I'd like to thank Chris heartily :)

Eric Richie , who wrote the in-application help for Adium and heads the Ticket Task Force, has volunteered to step up into the position and is the new Adium Project Manager. :)

Adium 1.2.3 is now available. This is a quick bugfix release which exists primarily to address an issue in Adium 1.2.2 which prevented Yahoo! Messenger accounts with non-@yahoo.com usernames from connecting. It also fixes failures with certain additional message styles from AdiumXtras and corrects a few other minor issues with Adium 1.2.x. The version history has the details. Quack on!

Labels: 1.2, 1.2.3, Yahoo

A number of you have reported being unable to sign into Yahoo! using Adium 1.2.2. We've discovered the problem; this post is to tell you what we did wrong and what we're doing about it.

When you enter a Yahoo! email address (such as jdoe@yahoo.com) into the username field in Adium 1.2 and later, Adium strips off the @yahoo.com part before trying to sign in with it. This is because Yahoo! expects only the jdoe part (the username); signing in with the whole email address will result in an unknown-username error.

Back on the 11th of February, Evan committed this change:

Yahoo accounts shouldn't include the @domain.suffix regardless of what it is (e.g. @yahoo.com, @yahoo.it). Generalize our removal to account for this.

Before that change, we looked for “@yahoo.com” specifically, and removed it if present. This didn't work for other Yahoo! suffixes, such as “@yahoo.it”. Thus, Evan intended to make Adium delete all Yahoo! suffixes, not just the US one.

The code that Evan committed removes any email-address suffix—in other words, if there's an @, Adium will remove that and anything after it before trying to log in. This was a good plan, except for those who use Yahoo! AT&T.

SBC was a US telephone company, which became AT&T back in 2005. SBC offered, and AT&T still offers, an internet connection with Yahoo! services bundled, including Yahoo! Messenger. Instead of a plain old “jdoe” username, these customers' Yahoo! IDs are their entire “jdoe@sbcglobal.net” address. For these users, stripping off the “@sbcglobal.net” suffix makes sign-in not work.

So, this is a regression. I've already committed a fix: we now only strip the suffix if the suffix starts with “@yahoo.”, so that “@yahoo.com”, “@yahoo.it”, etc. will be stripped but “@sbcglobal.net” won't). That fix is present in what will be 1.2.3. While we're at it, we know of a couple other regressions which we'll also fix in 1.2.3.

Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Labels: 1.2.2, bugs, Yahoo

News flash! Minor release of Adium with a major number of bug fixes! Grab it while supplies last!

Adium 1.2.2 is now available. It fixes a variety of bugs and crashes and is a recommended download for all Mac OS X 10.4 or later folk. Check the version history for the details.

Don't forget to read Contributing to Adium to learn how you can submit patches and code, help hunt down bugs, and donate to support the project!

We greatly appreciate the donated resources of our excellent site and code host NetworkRedux and our download host CacheFly. :)

Labels: 1.2, 1.2.2, release

I did in fact solve the problems we were having with Adium's install of buildbot. It turns out that because of some security features of Mac OS X, I needed to start the buildbot process from an actual Terminal window on that machine, not from ssh. You can read about all this (and much, much more!) in this technote.

A big thank you to everyone who helped out, especially Keith, Rob and Ben.