Previously I tried to find a way to sync the Instant Messenger History between computers, or rather between multiple instances of Pidgin/Finch. Honestly I am surprised that there is a wide-spread lack of these tools, and web-services.
To cope with this, I looked at the Pidgin (yes, I admit that I prefer Pidgin/Finch over whatever alternative there is, even under Windows systems) Logs, which turned out to be a series of html/txt files in an extensive linux-way folder structure.
Requirements
- Windows/Linux
- Perl (Linux users have this, Windows users need to grab a copy of ActivePerl 5.10 x86, not 5.12 or anything newer)
- libwww-perl (Available via Ubuntu aptitude or CPAN, ActivePerl users can obtain it through the Package Manager)
- Pidgin/Finch
- Access to some webspace that supports PHP
- Access to a MYSQL Database, that PHP can work with
Installation
After you made sure, that your system’s requirements match the ones needed for the plugin, this small guide will lead you through the installation.
There is two pieces to this, a web application and the plugin itself.
To run the plugin, you obviously need a web application, that will store your history, and that intermediates between your different Pidgin copies. More information on downloads and installation here: Sync Hub.
The plugin on the other hand is fairly easy to install. Linux users have a folder .purple inside their home directory. Windows Vista/7 users find this under C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\.purple. Copy the pidgin-history-control.pl into the plugins-Folder inside .purple. Create it if necessary.
Assuming everything went well, you should see the plugin inside the plugins menu inside Pidgin. If not, head down to troubleshooting.
Configuration
After your are done installing, you should provide a valid URL, as well as a username and password, that the plugin can use to store its history logs.
Pidgin conveniently allows you to do that in the plugin dialog, by using configure plugin. Reload the plugin after you are done, which will render the application unresponsive for a while. This is caused by the upload, which cannot be threaded into the background at the moment unfortunately. Check your MYSQL administration frontend to confirm the sync, and you are done!
Finch users possibly (usually you load the plugin, close the dialog, reopen and navigate to the plugin again to receive a configure menu option) have to use the inconvenient way to configure the plugin. Pidgin and Finch share the .purple-Folder, so it is possible to do all the configuration under Pidgin.
Alternatively open the prefs.xml inside the .purple-Folder. Lookup this path: <pref version=’1′ name=’/'>, then <pref name=’plugins’> and last <pref name=’core’>. Copy the following code inside this path, effectively making the code a part of the Core Plugin preferences. Restart Finch to make the settings available.
Troubleshooting
<pref name=’perl_history_control’>
<pref name=’string_url’ type=’string’ value=’http://your.website.for/synching/’/>
<pref name=’string_user’ type=’string’ value=’username’/>
<pref name=’string_pass’ type=’string’ value=’password’/>
</pref>
Pidgin provides you with some build information available through the Help dialog. Make sure that Perl is active.
If not, make sure you have the right version of Perl installed under Windows. Pidgin might not work with any new ActivePerl releases, therefore try 5.8 or 5.10 (x86 either way since Pidgin is a 32-bit application) instead. More help is available on the Pidgin website.
If Perl is active, but the plugin does not show, make certain that you have installed the libwww-perl package. Details on what is wrong with the plugin can be found by opening the Debug console in Pidgin and then opening the Plugin dialog. Every plugin that is unable to load throws a red warning with the error message. Typical contents for the lack of libwww-perl include LWP::UserAgent or HTTP::Request::Common.