Hi Everybody,
I´m new on this Forum, and i´ll start to read and post today.

I´m using MSGPlus for a long time, and i really enjoy the features!

So, let´s talk about my idea:

I´ve been logging my conversations since 2002, and i have a lot of text files, in different layouts.

To complicate, i´ve been using 3 different computers: one in my house, one in my workplace, and one in my parent´s house. So, I have 3 different text files for each contact, for each month.

To complicate a bit more, i have a brother, and he uses my computer and my parent´s computer. And he have in his contact list some of contacts that i have too. So, i have some text files with chats from him and from me.

For me, this is a Problem.
So, i got an idea: To save this conversation in a commom place, in the Internet, and have - in any part of the World - an organized chat log.

First i thinked in a FTP Server... but now i think is better a DATABASE server, like Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL.

Most web hosts offer this service, and I have a SQL Server Account in one service provider... Shoud be good if i can, in MSGplus setup, configure a connection to an ODBC-like database, and save my conversation in a easy way.

It´s just a suggestion! Think about it!

PS. Sorry my english... if i commited some mistakes. I´m Brazilian and my primary language is Portuguese.

Thanks for your atention,
Regards
- Daniel

quote:

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Originally posted by Shadow Brujah
To complicate a bit more, i have a brother, and he uses my computer and my parent´s computer. And he have in his contact list some of contacts that i have too. So, i have some text files with chats from him and from me.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Shadow Brujah
but now i think is better a DATABASE server, like Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Shadow Brujah
First i thinked in a FTP Server...

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While all this is being done, u could save it in ur web inbozx as a template as a quick fix, copy and paste style. u know, jus while ur waiting.....

I can very much relate to original poster's concern and I think that this idea is great. FTP would be good and database sounds even better because then we wouldn't have to worry about overwriting files (as with sending logfiles over slow connection and internet connection dies or computer crashes).

Would the database logging be doable as a plugin?

No, it´s impossible to make as a plug-in for MSGPlus. We need to interact directly with MSN Messenger.

I already searched the Internet for some documentation, but i was unsucessful to do it...

Patchou shoud think about do it in next release... a lot of people can use this!

Regards
- Daniel

And even more people wont use it....

I agree with Choli that this is something not for Plus!. If you want your chatlogs organized, use a 3rd party application to organize them (or even put them in a DB)

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
And even more people wont use it....

I agree with Choli that this is something not for Plus!. If you want your chatlogs organized, use a 3rd party application to organize them (or even put them in a DB)

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It's not because they don't know it exists or how to use it (well, they there will be people that don't know it of course). Most people wont simply have the need/use for it.

Personaly I don't see why a DB is handier then just old plain Windows Explorer to read and organize the logs. I have also multiple accounts on multiple PC's and I have no problem with them, as I keep everything nice and organized within Windows Explorer... ("Making things more complicated then needed" comes into my mind tbh)

And as Choli also said, you can use shared drivers, this is just a common Windows "thing". In that way, you can make a nice directory for each account, for each PC on a shared drive. No need for a DB at all...

Also, there are many programs which can import files to databases. Search the net.... This is actualy not a specific problem, so this means you can use whatever you like to create a database. (even common MS Access if you like). It's like "tell me a program which can read a textfile", there are hundreds of possebilities....

Ok, I understand. And I can handle my files in a single computer... no problem. But if I use a second computer, this one will create a file with same name, and if i simply drag´n´drop this files in the same folder, one file will be overwritten, and i´ll lost it. If I want to preserve all conversation, I´ll need to open, copy manually and past in another file, and taking carrefull to sort correctly the conversations.

I can see a lot of good point to save chats in a database server:
1 - No problem with backups, virus, accidental file deletion, etc: all conversation are stored in a different place and (in theory) safe.
2 - I can query the Conversation in any form I need: By Date, By User, By User and Date, By text, etc.
3 - Using a Business Inteligence Tool, like Cognos, I can generate some reports for conversations relating the chats for a lot of users (useful for big companys that users MSN Messenger as default messager).
4 - I can use any computer, in any part of the world, with any configuration, to save and consult my logs. (Lanhouses, cyber cafes, home, office, museum, library, etc)
5 - A Database connection like SQLServer is much times faster than a FTP Connection, and we do not need to download and upload files... Just run a query! It´s is faster than Windows Explorer network over Internet... it´s very very slow using a Dial-up or 256k DSL Connection. With a SQLServer, I use without problems with my 33.6Kbps modem.
6 - We can export this data in any format we want: Text files, Access MDB, Foxpro DBF, XML, etc.

Regards
- Daniel

just as a thaught, maybe Plus! could connect to ftp servers,

in the logs directory field, you enter a ftp location

(like ftp://yourname@ftp.yourserver.com)

then there is some place to enter the password (maybe as a pop-up dialogue with the option to save password when you open a conversation for the first time)

therefore people who want to use the feature can when they want, yet it wont clog up the messenger plus interface with an extra feature.

quote:

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Originally posted by saralk
(like ftp://yourname@ftp.yourserver.com )

then there is some place to enter the password

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quote:

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Originally posted by saralk
just as a thaught, maybe Plus! could connect to ftp servers,

in the logs directory field, you enter a ftp location

(like ftp://yourname@ftp.yourserver.com)

then there is some place to enter the password (maybe as a pop-up dialogue with the option to save password when you open a conversation for the first time)

therefore people who want to use the feature can when they want, yet it wont clog up the messenger plus interface with an extra feature.

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I have a laptop, a desktop at home and at work and some Remote Desktop connections to various servers which I must troubleshoot, maintain and use for work. The issue is that people like me (sysadmins and users who use Remote Desktop) are using their msn from multiple computers. You just log in on the remote computer because you get eventually fed up with minimising Remote Desktop connection, answering your chat and then restoring Remote Desktop every time someone sends a message. Usually you end up then having scattered logs in all of those computers. And then you have to search for a telephone number or whatever, and there you go: you need to check at least half a dozen files on three computers, if archiving is turned on, and some computers might be remotely inaccessible sometimes - turned off, for example -. So even separate msn accounts doesn't solve the problem here (and think about adding all your 150 friends to all your accounts .

FTP has some major disadvantages compared to database:
- Inefficiency. Computer has to download the log file, then modify it locally and then upload it again, overwriting the copy on the server. If your network is disconnected while transferring the logfile to FTP server or something else disrupts the FTP session, you will lose your log. As a workaround, you could have a script running periodically in Scheduled Tasks that takes My Chat Logs folder and figures out which files have been updated, compared to files in FTP, and upload only the changed files. But there is still a chance that the script will not synchronize, if you shut down (or crash or what ever) within that 1 minute. Then you chat on some other computer and next time the script activates it either overwrites the chat held on the other computer, or, runs diff with local and remote files and incorporates changes to both of the files. However, this kind of script is not something you would call a piece of cake (and it's messy to set up) and secondly, you would have duplicate log files on all of those computers, which can be a good thing - you can easily find what you're looking for as you normally would, on all of the computers - and it can be a bad thing - if don't have much hard disk space to spare and your logs date back to 2002

- Also, logs would still be text files: you cannot sort nor filter it as you could, would they be in a database. Of course, you would need a mechanism to actually retrieve the log from the database, if phpMyAdmin doesn't satisfy you. But I would gladly hack up a Google-like webpage which would allow me to securely log in, search, filter and sort by whatever all my conversations and never lose my chatlogs again!

quote:

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Originally posted by hennot
An alternative is to create an application which monitors log file dates and when it detects a file change, it parses the date: goes up the log file from the end, line by line, until it gets the "Session date" value, then, checking each line from bottom up against database, imports the lines that are not in database yet. Lot of excessive polling and querying but should work. Only that I don't do binary programming

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