Shoutbox

Hello,

  I have no knowledge what-so-ever of XML, and I believe what I am requesting would be too difficult for me to ever do. thats why Im requesting a skin here.
   I am not even sure if this is able to be done, with the skins, but I really hope it is able to be done, even though it would be difficult.
  The skin I am requesting, is only for the chat windows, and not for the contact list or anything else. My Idea for this came from looking through forums, so thats what this will sort of look like. So in otherwords, everything will have borders around it (every action, and ever message), and display pictures will be shown with every message too.

  I have made images (and took the time too) to show as an example of what I am looking for, so it would be easier to understand what I am looking for.

Here is the image of what I am looking for:


For each number, I have an explination below of what I would like for it:

1  -  The Top
The look of both the Display Name, Personal Message and email adress of the contact is the exact same as the normal skin. The Icons below (Add Contact, Block Contact, etc..) have the option to be removed in the skin options menu.

2  -  Status
The contact's status would appear at the top of the screen, like it did in the original skin. If the contact is online, it would not appear though (also like the original skin)

3  -  Messages
Here comes the difficult stuff...
  i  -  Messages
    Each message sent will have its own border around it, and the persons display picture.
  ii  -  Display Pictures
    It will display the contact's display picture used at that time (so it doesnt change, even if they change it). If they are using an animated display picture, it will be changed to the default msn one (the one with the blue guy).
  iii  -  Display Name
    The contact's display name run's across in the border at the top above the display picture.
  iv  -  Status
    On the very right in the border, it displays the contact's status at that time (so it doesnt change iether as they change it). Beside the status, is the normal status' icon.
  v  -  Message Time
    Beside the Status Icon is the time that the message was sent (if the option is on)
  vi  -  The Message
    The message is in another box below the display name, and to the right of the display picture. If the text exceeds the box size, the box size will iether (depending on if the options is selected in the options menu):
      A - Have Scroll Bars
        The scroll bars will be inside the text box (not on the borders)
      B - The box will extend to fit all the desired text.
        here is an example of the box being stretched:


So both the border around the display picture and the text box stretches (and the text box stretches as well - obviously).

4  -  Message Errors:
   If a message could not be sent, it would be relatively similar as the chat box, just it would not have a Display Picture, or a Status. It would however still have the time it was recieved at. A name would also be givin, something along the lines of "Error Notice".

5  -  Nudges:
   When a contact sends a nudge, it would show the regular "<contact name> has just sent a nudge", but it would be in a border.

6  -  Your Text Panel
  i  -   Display Name:
    At the top of the text panel thing at the bottom, there will be a long bar, like the ones on the contact's text, that shows your display name. By clicking on it, it will allow you to edit it.
  ii  -  Display Picture:
    Your display picture is at the bottom-left of the screen. By clicking on the display picture, you will be able to change your display picture (instead of opening up the contact card)
  iii  -  Message Box
    In the center is where you put in your message.
  iv  -  Your Status
    Your status is displayed on the right side (along with its icon beside it in the little box). By clicking on your status you have the option to change it.

7  -  All of the normal options from the normal msn is still here, but the bar is moved to the bottom of the text box.
   If possible, I would like to have added a "left align", "center align" and "right align" text options (if its possible). I would also like icons on the bar that have the Bold, Strikeout, Italics and Underline options (instead of clicking the Text box.)

8  -  The little advertisement at the bottom can be removed if an option is selected in the options menu.

9  -  Games
Games would be played normally. When the game appears, it would squish the text (and borders) to to the left side of the screen.

==================================================================================
I would just like to add one thing... for the "skin's options" menu... These are the options I would like please:

Remove Advertisement from the bottom
Remove "Shared Files" from the top
Add "email contact" at the top
Remove "Video Call" from the top
Remove "Block Contact" from the top
Remove "Add Contact" from the top
Display the Time the message was recieved

Use Scrollbars if text is too long

Customization:
Change Status Icon for:
Away
Busy
Be Right Back
In a Call
Out To Lunch
Online
Offline
Idle

Change Button Icon for:
Emoticons
Winks
Nudges
Voiceclips


And thats all for the "Skin Options". If it is not possible to do the options requested, it is alright, but I do still really want the chat window to look the way its requested above.

I appologise if this request is really difficult and long, but I would really GREATLY appreciate it if somebody could do this for me (thats if its even possible).

Thank you in advance,
~Moon_Lit_Shadow

P.S. I forgot to mention this.
I would appreciate if it was able to use the color changing thing (so it doesnt have to be blue), and if it could use backgrounds as well. The background would be just like the other msn, so it would be lighter in the message area.
So if your background was black, the color would look grey in the text area, like this:

would be interesting, re-positioning DP's and sorting the placement of the format bar could be done, but as for changing the way text is displayed, I doubt it can be done.

quote:

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Originally posted by aNILEator
I doubt it can be done.

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Not without coding, and it would be pretty advanced.

This would be very impressive if someone could pull this off I would really like this

Looks like a great edit bye the way!

quote:

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Originally posted by john-t
Looks like a great edit bye the way!

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I swear you're either not English, not 21 as you previously claimed to be, completely failed at language classes or something

I doubt we can control how the chat box works/displays text that's the only thing I can think of.

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BTW congratulations on a highly descriptive post and images to help, I appreciate the time you put into it

Would be interesting, but may need some external application to do this. If patchou can update the skinning engine to include compatibility for external DLLs or EXEs (if not already), it would open a new world of options.

quote:

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Originally posted by aNILEator

quote:

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Originally posted by john-t
Looks like a great edit [b]bye[b] the way!

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I swear you're either not English, not 21, completely failed at language classes or something

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You should see how my dad txts... old people with technology

* Spunky tuts

[/OFF-TOPIC]

It looks like a good idea, but how would you scroll up through the text? The DP would have to move (animated). If you mean it to show the last post from each user, what about group conversations or if you wanted to see previous message you are they have sent?

Unfortunately, I have to say this: impossible with a skin.

Seriously, there's no way you can achieve that using UIFILEs. You'd have to go code it, hook into Messenger and try to get the messages appear like that, however don't count on any willing to spend his/her time on that. But I can assure you: UIFILEs can't do that.

It's an awesome idea, but here I have to tell you that the sky isn't always the limit (as Patchou claimed in his news post about skinning). Sorry!

Wait till the API gets fully released with WLM9/10 then maybe you'll see an external app with this sort of feature in

    Sorry for not responding, I sent this late at night, and then I went to school in the morning. But Im here now

quote:

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It looks like a good idea, but how would you scroll up through the text? The DP would have to move (animated). If you mean it to show the last post from each user.

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    I'm not sure what you mean by that...?
The display picture would move with the text, and to scroll up, you... well... scroll up, lol. What I forgot to post, but meant to be implied, was scroll bars appearing when the messages exceeds the amount of space in the text area.

quote:

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what about group conversations or if you wanted to see previous message you are they have sent?

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   I could see group conversations being annoying because of all the messages being sent at such a quick pace, so maybe if it would resize the Display Pictures smaller when in a group convo (like to the size it is automatically resizes to in the top right when in a group convo), and resize the text boxes with it? Thats just an idea though - I hadn't thought of that before.
   Atleast if it were to resize it would be easier to see more text at one time. And also, once again, to see the other text you would just scroll up.

quote:

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Would be interesting, but may need some external application to do this. If patchou can update the skinning engine to include compatibility for external DLLs or EXEs (if not already), it would open a new world of options.

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   If patchou ever does update to have compatibility for external DLLs or EXEs, I hope somebody would be willing to try this, even though it would be hard.
   It would be a messenger-dream come to true to me