Proposal: TFCL [Tox Friend Capabilities Level]

[zoff99]

TFCL [Tox Friend Capabilities Level]

add a number (a bit like Android API Level) to know what capabilites a node (Friend) has.
so clients can react accordingly. (using a newer API, and so on ...)

getting the capabilites_level for a friend

keep old API function:
TOX_CONNECTION tox_friend_get_connection_status(const Tox *tox, uint32_t friend_number, TOX_ERR_FRIEND_QUERY *error);

and add a new one:
TOX_CONNECTION tox_friend_get_connection_status_v2(const Tox *tox, uint32_t friend_number, uint32_t *capabilites_level, TOX_ERR_FRIEND_QUERY *error);

keep old API function:
void tox_callback_friend_connection_status(Tox *tox, tox_friend_connection_status_cb *callback);

and add a new one:
void tox_callback_friend_connection_status_v2(Tox *tox, tox_friend_connection_status_cb_v2 *callback);

keep old API function:
typedef void tox_friend_connection_status_cb(Tox *tox, uint32_t friend_number, TOX_CONNECTION connection_status, void *user_data);

and add a new one:
typedef void tox_friend_connection_status_cb_v2(Tox *tox, uint32_t friend_number, uint32_t capabilites_level, TOX_CONNECTION connection_status, void *user_data);

getting the capabilites_level of own node

at runtime

add new API function:
uint32_t tox_self_get_capabilites_level();

at compile time

in toxcore/tox.h

#define TOX_CAPABILITY_LEVEL 3

description of capabilites_level value

capabilites_level	added capabilities
0	Tox Base capabilites as of c-toxcore v0.1.11
1	added Video Fix
2	added MessageV2 capability
3	added persistent Conferences
...	...
...	...

[SkyzohKey]

Nice but this doesn't allow to tell what features every client does support. :/

[zoff99]

@SkyzohKey what do you mean? it works the same way as Android API Level

[SkyzohKey]

What I mean is that clients should be able to know that Bob's client can handle text/action messages, file transfers and avatars, but do not handle inline stuffs, groupchats & stickers. Each client should publish a capabilities packet which makes friend's clients aware of which feature your client does supports. This allows to hide audio/video calls buttons if your friend's client do not have support for that, per exemple.

[zoff99]

i don't know. it seems unneeded.
audio and video will just not connect.
there are no stickers and inline stuff.

@SkyzohKey your are not very often on the IRC channel :-(

[SkyzohKey]

@zoff99 this is absolutely needed for nice UX. Instead of having the user waiting for a call that will never succeed, we could display them a message saying that the contact do not supports calls. Or stickers. Or wathever

I'm mostly h24 online on Wire (@SkyzohKey)

[sudden6]

I think the capabilities should also include the following flags:

• supports audio
• supports video
• supports filetransfer
• supports groups/conferences