odd username display for facebook users

[XmanORE]

this just presented itself a couple of days ago, rather than showing user names, a numerical value began showing up. at the time I was running 2.10.6, checked updates and installed 2.10.7 but issue continues to present itself.

image attached. valid display names blurred for privacy, only usernames related to this issue are showing.

[QuLogic]

The usernames were always like that. That's just the way Facebook works. However, Facebook would also send the real name as an alias. To refresh it, you can try right-clicking a person and choosing Get Info.

[XmanORE]

Hi QuL - tried, no change in display. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[Robby]

This is an issue on Facebook's part, it's been reported for other apps as well.

[XmanORE]

Unfortunate that this is closed. Because I didn't see the behavior prior to about a month ago, it's difficult for me to understand how something 'hasn't' changed either in Pidgin or on Facebook. I'm not running any extra plugins, it's just a generic install of the program.

Ah well, back to the grind.

[Robby]

Well, obviously something has changed on Facebook's side but all evidence suggests it is a temporary issue.

[Mic92]

I have open a bug report at facebook. If you have a facebook developer account please confirm this bug in order to accelerate the process: ​​https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/495137163913432

[QuLogic]

Ticket #15727 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[jcourtei]

I've the same issue for a few weeks too (with version 2.10.3 and now with version 2.10.7) I tried with Thunderbird and it works fine When I log in with Pidgin I get the names of all my contacts and they are shown correctly, then after a while the contact list is refreshed and it shows the jabber ID for some contacts without any reasons (why does Pidgin loose the contacts names?). Even in the file blist.xml it looses some contacts aliases, I think you can fix that There is obviously an issue on Pidgin's side

[Robby]

Replying to jcourtei: […]

There is obviously an issue on Pidgin's side

You are in error. The error has been reported to Facebook by developers of different apps.

[jcourtei]

Replying to Robby:

You are in error. The error has been reported to Facebook by developers of different apps.

I've seen the bug reported on facebook, but it works fine on Thunderbird, how do you explain that? The fact that there is a bug on facebook's side doesn't mean that there is no bug on Pidgin's side To me it can be fixed on client's side as well (after all, why should facebook send the contact's name for every update since pidgin already get it at log in?)

[Robby]

I'm not a developer, I'm not even a user of Pidgin but as far as I know it interfaces with the Facebook API as it should.

[jcourtei]

I've a question for developers: could it help if pidgin prevents the deletion of alias tag in blist.xml when it doesn't get the name (the file is correct after log in)?

[Mic92]

Replying to jcourtei:

Replying to Robby:

You are in error. The error has been reported to Facebook by developers of different apps.

I've seen the bug reported on facebook, but it works fine on Thunderbird, how do you explain that? The fact that there is a bug on facebook's side doesn't mean that there is no bug on Pidgin's side To me it can be fixed on client's side as well (after all, why should facebook send the contact's name for every update since pidgin already get it at log in?)

The problem is on the protocol level (XMPP). On the first roster query, facebook returns the name and the jabber id correctly:

<!-- Out (On connection startup) -->
<iq xmlns="jabber:client" type="get" id="1233">
<query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster" />
</iq>

<!-- In -->
<iq from="jthalheim@chat.facebook.com" to="jthalheim@chat.facebook.com/6d7469e9_4E31A4DB5CB9B" id="1233" type="result">
<query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster">
<item jid="-112230****@chat.facebook.com" subscription="both" name="Andreas Schulz"> <!-- Correct name -->
<group>Facebook</group>
</item>
<!-- ... -->
</query>
</iq>

Later it sends status updates with empty names:

<!-- In (later) -->
<iq from="jthalheim@chat.facebook.com" to="jthalheim@chat.facebook.com/6d7469e9_4E31A4DB5CB9B" id="fbiq4E31A5AFC6433" type="set">
<query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster">
<item jid="-112230****@chat.facebook.com" subscription="both" name=""> <!-- Empty name -->
<group>Facebook</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>

As pidgin follow the protocol, it updates the name from this message. As it seams this problem currently is prioritized low at facebook's side...

[jcourtei]

Replying to Mic92:

As pidgin follow the protocol, it updates the name from this message. As it seams this problem currently is prioritized low at facebook's side...

Ok I understand, but Pidgin could simply ignore empty names and not update this name in the contact list in this case, am I wrong? I suppose Thunderbird does something like that since it works there

[Mic92]

Replying to jcourtei:

Replying to Mic92:

As pidgin follow the protocol, it updates the name from this message. As it seams this problem currently is prioritized low at facebook's side...

Ok I understand, but Pidgin could simply ignore empty names and not update this name in the contact list in this case, am I wrong? I suppose Thunderbird does something like that since it works there

I suppose Thunderbird just ignores any updates. Yes, this could be a workaround.

[rekkanoryo]

It could be done, but it will not. Our behavior is correct. This is stupidity in Facebook's piece of crap XMPP daemon, which is the only public XMPP server that displays this stupid behavior. We will not implement incorrect behavior just to fix Facebook's stupidity.

[jcourtei]

That's not fair Facebook sends incorrect data and you process it as correct, this is a BUG, so you should fix it I'm a developer as well and I must always consider that I can receive incorrect data and avoid doing anything with it So Pidgin's users must accept this boring bug just because you say it's "Facebook's stupidity"? It's easy to put the blame on Facebook, I would never say to my own customers that I don't fix a bug because it's a mistake in another software ;)

[rekkanoryo]

We are not a commercial product and as such do not have "customers" but "consumers" whose demands we are not in the least bit obligated to cave in to. We are not out to win popularity contests. We develop Pidgin and libpurple to be what we want it to be. We're an open source project, and code talks much louder than complaints. Feel free to fork and modify our code as you see fit (so long as you comply with the terms of GPLv2) or exercise your right to choose to use other software. It really doesn't make much of a difference to me.

[jcourtei]

I created a patch for users who want a working Pidgin even with Facebook: ​https://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/15728

[Mic92]

Replying to jcourtei:

I created a patch for users who want a working Pidgin even with Facebook: ​https://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/15728

For those who use archlinux, I created a package in AUR: ​https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libpurple-facebook-fix/

Seems to work great for the moment. Is their somebody who is willing to package it for other distribution as well?

[Robby]

Ticket #15730 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[divansantana]

I strangely still have the issue even with the patch on Arch Linux. % pacman -Q|egrep 'pidgin|purple' libpurple-facebook-fix 2.10.7-1 pidgin 2.10.7-4 pidgin-libnotify-ubuntu 0.14.9ubuntu2-4 pidgin-otr 4.0.0-1 pidgin-sipe 1.16.1-1 purple-plugin-pack 2.7.0-1 skype4pidgin 20130113-2

[Mic92]

Replying to divansantana:

I strangely still have the issue even with the patch on Arch Linux. % pacman -Q|egrep 'pidgin|purple' libpurple-facebook-fix 2.10.7-1 pidgin 2.10.7-4 pidgin-libnotify-ubuntu 0.14.9ubuntu2-4 pidgin-otr 4.0.0-1 pidgin-sipe 1.16.1-1 purple-plugin-pack 2.7.0-1 skype4pidgin 20130113-2

Does it work for you now?

[divansantana]

No, I still have the same bug. -1234567@…