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#6 Sharing Session
There is an option to "Start Application Sharing or Whiteboard" in Communicator 2005. Clicking on this sends an im to the person saying would you like to accept or decline. Upon acceptance, it starts a NetMeeting session with both people (all application sharing and whiteboarding is done through NetMeeting, not through the client).
I bumped up the priority because, like group chat, it is evident to other users that you are not using the native client when they try to start a session, and they get a fail message back.
Pidgin is a multiplatform client. While NetMeeting is very much MS thing.
What would people on Mac or Linux share with Windows users and vice versa?
Is there a NetMeeting clients for Mac/Linux by a chance?
I'm not on Mac or Linux; do people on Mac or Linux use the native Microsoft Office Communicator client? If so, your question is apt: does it not have that functionality available, or does that functionality tie in to a different application?
I don't think pidgin itself has these capabilities (yet). There is a Video & Voice development branch, for more details please consult the pidgin trac. Lowered the priority for now.
Normal State
Session State
This is totally different from video and voice, and is specific to the functionality found in the native client. I'm not going to squabble over the priority. I've attached screenshots of what I'm talking about, specifically.
Apparently, there is such a thing as MOC for Mac: http://www.google.com/search?q=office+communicator+for+mac ... but no one has chipped in yet, to say if that functionality exists on a MacMOC, and if so, how it works.
Please remember that pidgin-sipe is just a plugin. If libpurple/pidgin doesn't have whiteboard capabilities then we can't implement support from the protocol side.You might want to check if such capabilities are being worked on in the pidgin project or have been requested. I wouldn't be surprised if that is one part of the work of the VV branch, because I remember that whiteboard and video protocols are related somehow.
Then there is the question if this part of the M$ extension is publically documented.
BTW: if I remember correctly the problem is exactly the same for the sametime plugin.
I have a bit different view.
SIP is by name a session initiation protocol. Its main purpose is to negotiate session PARAMETERS between parties and hand over the actual data/media transfer to the parties.
For example in case of file transfer, parameters are negotiated over SIP and then happens actual file transfer directly between parties using some sort of FTP protocol.
The same thing is with application sharing. Neither SIPE nor Communicator implement this protocol. But dedicated application - NetMeeting (at least in case of 2005 environment) - is actually responsible for app session sharing. Role of Communicator here is just to negotiate parameters of this session.
So for windows platform it can quite easily be implemented. Same could be for MAC if Netmeeting or something is supported there.
As session can be multi-modal (chat, voice, video, app sharing, remote desktop, file transfer, whatever), some modes are usually combined. For example app sharing + voice.
As for voice mode. If we were using sofia-sip, they have pidgin plugin with voice support. It can easily be ported, even though pidgin does not support VV yet/at all. The only problem - that was entirely based on gstreamer, so not very suitable for windows.
In OC 2007 the Live Meeting Client is responsible for application/desktop sharing. It is installed as a separate application but can be initiated (with counterparty) from OC client.
Just played with the set up.
This is absolutely different from as in LCS 2005.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd425349\(office.13).aspx
Yes, Live Meeting client is responsible for application/desktop sharing but OC R2 also supports "native" desktop
sharing which uses Application Sharing Server services in OCS R2. To able to use that feature the presenter
and the attendees must use OC R2 client - attendees can also use OCSR2 web access (Linux: can see what other
people is sharing but cannot share their own docs). Btw: In the end all functions will be moved from LM to new
the version of OC (Lync).
Since we already have video support in the plugin (and in pidgin for that matter), is this anywhere on the backlog?
Will this help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd572758\(v=office.13).aspx
Being able to share my desktop when I join a Lync meeting would be nice. But what's more important to me, more often, is just being able to see a desktop that someone else is sharing.
That could be considered a special case of a video call, couldn't it? I don't think we'd need any special support in generic pidgin code for that? I can't see a separate feature request for "viewing a shared desktop"... should I file one or is it best to handle it together with "desktop sharing"?
With version 1.22.0 Sharing has been introduced, but how to use it? Don't see any menu item for this. thanks
With the appshare server bits committed to mob HEAD this feature request can finally be closed.