MSN Messenger Plugin

[CodeMonkey]

I was thinking of doing a MSN Messenger plugin.  Trying to keep it simple, I would display contact information (online/offline etc.), and require the use of a keyboard to enter a message in a conversation. I decided on MSN only rather than one of the multi-protocol clients for two reasons;  wanting to keep it simple, and I only use MSN Messenger .  I will use one of the existing libraries for the communication to MSN.  I am favoring dotMSN at the moment.  So everyone won't have to flock to the site to check it's license, here it is

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">dotMSN can be used free of charge in both commercial and non-commercial software. Selling dotMSN as a library is forbidden. dotMSN is not (yet) open-source. It isn't that important, the documentation will answer most of your questions quicker than the source-code. [/QUOTE]

If you have a better suggestion for a library to use, or other comments, this is the place!

Sub, would there be a way for me to:

1) On the plugins display page (i.e. where the conversation is happening), also show whatever is currently being played (live tv, dvd, whatever) in a small window on that display?

2) Put a message on the live tv screen /dvd playback or whatever when a contact came online?  (This would be configurable on/off).

3) Is there a way to kickoff this plugin when GBPVR starts so that it could log in to MSN and notify the user (see #2 above) when a contact came online?

Thanks.

[sub]

It would be a nice plugin to have.

I suspect showing the current playback window in a sub window could be a problem, as up until now I've tried to keep everything compatible with the PVR350, XCard and MVP. This wouldn't be compatible. Let me think on this a bit further, it may still be worth doing for those that use software playback.

Plugins to get created when GB-PVR starts, so can preform any initialization (like connecting) from the constructor if they need to.

[colin]

Quote[/b] ]2) Put a message on the live tv screen /dvd playback or whatever when a contact came online? (This would be configurable on/off).

Sub, will this be possible as an api?

Cheers,
Colin.

[sub]

If I do it, then yes it will be possible for plugins to show messages. I'm guessing you're think about email notifications.

[colin]

I don't want to highjack the thread, but yes. Though I imagine this would be quite a useful api which could also be used by other plugins.

Colin.

[CodeMonkey]

For now I will have it connect to MSN when GBPVR starts up. This way I can display the number of contacts currently online on the main menu. When the notification becomes possible I will modify the code to do so.  Being notified on screen when a contact comes online would make it much more useful.

Email notifications would make that plugin much more useful as well, in my opinion.

[colin]

Yip I agree with that,

Colin.

[colin]

Quote[/b] ]Quote
2) Put a message on the live tv screen /dvd playback or whatever when a contact came online? (This would be configurable on/off).


Sub, will this be possible as an api?

Cheers,
Colin.

Hey Sub,

just wondering if you have decided whether to include this API or not?

Cheers,
Colin.

[sub]

Yes, I'm going to include this API. You'll notice that as of the last release, there is now a method on the PluginHelp &quot;void ShowMessage(String message)&quot;, but its not really useable in the current version. It'll be working in the next release.

[colin]

Sweet, I really should pay more attention to the Helper class

Colin.