Pidgin: Birthday Reminder
Finally I finished a plugin which implements a feature that I was missing really much in Pidgin for ages now: the Birthday Reminder. Since I used Miranda before I switched to Pidgin you will be able to find some ideas my plugin has in common with WhenWasIt. 
So, what does the plugin do?
- Scanning Birthdays: Every 2 minutes the plugin chooses a buddy to query its user info which is similar to “right click -> Get Info”. This is supposed to work on ICQ, AIM, XMPP and MSN protocols in case the buddy has entered its birthday. The birthday can be set manually for all protocols.
- Checking Birthdays: Stored birthdays will be checked at midnight or whenever an account goes online. Of course this can be triggered manually too.
- Notification: The plugin reminds you using either a mini dialog in your buddy list or a notification window or a birthday melody or, last but not least, an icon next to your buddies entry in your buddy list. Enjoy the screenshot!
- Tooltip: Shows your buddies (stored) birthday on its buddy list tooltip.
- Overview: There is an overview provided which enables you to see all (stored) birthdays.
- Localization: There is just a german translation for now. I would be glad if you like to translate it into other languages.
Download: launchpad.net
I wish you a happy St. Valentine’s Day. 
Version 1.2 (2009/07/05):
* Added new birthday icons (many thanks to Alexey L.)
* Added an option to remind just once a day
* Added ReadMe-Files
Amazing plugin! I noticed for Facebook Chat it does not have the option to scan periodically but does get the birthday when you Get Info. Also any plans on supporting msn-pecan?
I don’t think so since msn-pecan and facebook are no official plugins. But I think I would accept sane patches.
Well, I tried adding Facebook Chat support myself, and it works! Well, mostly, if users don’t include their year in their birthday (as many don’t) it doesn’t notify about their birthday. Couldn’t figure this out in the code but it would be cool if it still notified.
Actually, the birthday is reported wrongly in the plugin. A girl on my list’s birthday is on the 6th August (shown in Get Info) but the Birthday Reminder plugin shows it as 08/01 (1st of August in the American date format).
As I am using GTK+ framework for parsing the dates there is nothing that I can do about this, sorry.
Hi,
ich hab kubuntu 9.04 amd64 und versuche gerade verzweifelt das Plugin hinzufrickeln. Ich hab langsam den bösen Verdacht, dass das nicht in der 64 bit Version läuft (oder ich hab es einfach schon beim Installieren von Pidgin verkackt).
Ich hab das Plugin über install.sh reingehauen, aber ich seh es nicht in der Pluginliste.
Ja, weil die vorkompilierte Version nur mit x86-Prozessoren (sprich: 32-Bit) funktioniert.
Du musst das Plugin aus dem Quellcode kompilieren.
Mist, das hatte ich befürchtet. ^^
Aber trotzdem tausend Dank für die Info.
BIG THX 4 that birthday reminder plug-in