Here it is, my first plugin, still in beta so I really need your feedback
I searched for a long time a rss feeder program that would be really integrated to windows xp, but I didn't find any. Then I discovered Messenger Plus and his API, so I decided to make my own.
This plugin is very easy to use : just indicate url and delay between each check in the configure panel, and that's all. Each time the rss feed is changed, the plugin will display a notification toast with the rss's title property, and a link to the rss's link property.
For now two commands are recognized :
/xrssremind
which display the last displayed notification.

/xrsshistory <name of the rss feed>
which display history of the rss feed
----------------------------------------------------------------
Rssplug 0.3 is now available

Download Rssplug Beta 0.3


CHANGELOG
=========
V 0.3 (07/08/05)
- Removed the status change when displaying a notification
- Added history logging
- Added /xrsshistory command
- Added some debug informations for easier bug fixing
- Added automatic check for update
- Configuration file is now stored in a xml file to provide ascendant compatibility

V 0.2.2 (16/02/05)
- Fixed "active =-1" error message (I hope so)

V 0.2.1 (19/01/05)
- Fixed error message when adding a new rss feed
- Fixed missing delay when double-clicking on an item in configuration screen
- Fixed /xrssremind command

V 0.2 (19/01/05)
- Added multiple rss support
- Configuration is now saved in a file (instead of registry like previous version)
- Notification is disabled when status is "away"

V 0.1 (12/11/04)
- First released version

The server hosting the previous versions is temporary unavailable.

Download Rssplug Beta 0.2.2

Download Rssplug Beta 0.2.1

Download Rssplug Beta 0.1



This plugin use the excellent library rss.net : http://www.rssdotnet.com/

I don't know what a rss feeder is exactly, could you please explain exactly what it is and what it does? I might download it then if it sounds usefull to me.

I'll make an exemple. Imagine that you are someone who regulary check yahoo's news : http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=716
But you are bored to reload the page every five minutes to see if there is a change. Then juste take a rss feeder program, and configure it to check this url : http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories  , which is the rss feed of the news page. Then each time there is a change, the rss feeder program will inform you, so you can go and see the news

Sounds like an execellent idea. Never used rss feeds before, but I think I'm gonna like this one.

Can you also add a fuction that it only display toast when for example I'm logged in @ msn and that it is disabled with all the other accounts, like my little brothers account?

EDIT:

Installed it. It's not in the plugin list. I think you need to check the installer

Sounds interesting. I don't use any of those sites though so it wouldn't be useful to me, hehe.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jaguar
Sounds interesting. I don't use any of those sites though so it wouldn't be useful to me, hehe.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by traxor

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jaguar
Sounds interesting. I don't use any of those sites though so it wouldn't be useful to me, hehe.

---

I think that you can use any url for it..

It sounds good, does this mean that it may also be able to check such sites as gmail?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Markus
EDIT:

Installed it. It's not in the plugin list. I think you need to check the installer 

---

yea the installer places the dlls into the msgplus folder
Rssplug.dll
RSS.NET.dll
interrop.MessengerAPI.dll

and your reg settings were put in correctly (well so it seems) so im clueless to what it could be maby a bad compile?

The plugin had been created in vb.net, so it need regasm registration. It seems that the installer doesn't  do that step (I couldn't test it since my dll are already registered...). Well, I think I'll have to create my own installer....

ok i tried the regasm thing on the dls and it still dosnt show up on my plugin's list

I found the problem. Juste type :
regasm rssplug.dll /codebase
and that'll work. Do anyone know why must I add this parameter ?

I've finished the installer, this time it works

http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/rssplug.rar

This feels very usefull but you should have a possibility of having multiple rss feeds and have options to disable and enable witch feeds should be on and witch not. Also would be nice if people could translate the plugin easly cause this plugin feels to be so usefull
The new installer works and now you can edit the settings from Plus's config

Nice plugin! I agree with DJHasis that you should be able to have multiple feeds and set individual update frequency.

I cant download it!
My winrar says "unexpected end of archive" then i cant run the installer
Please help

Thanks
James

EDIT:

I got it to work (think its because i was using a download manager)

Well, I realy like the idea, this can be very usefull. Although I doubt this is ever going to replace FeedReader. I've got loads of RSS feeds, and I don't think they're all going to fit in the Messenger Plus! toasts, too bad, because the Messenger Plus toasts look better.

Multiple feed support will be integrated in version beta 0.2, in one week or two I think

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
in one week or two I think

---

Tsss.... WDZ being impatient...

* Markus would kinda like to see this plugin in final too

Well, next version (with multiple rss feed support) is ready since a long time but I've got some problems with visual studio that doesn't recognize messenger api anymore so I can't compile
My examinations finish wednesday, then I'll reinstall everything and I hope that will be ok

Still a little bit of debugging for the thread synchronization and I'll release it

It's done, Rssplug 0.2 is available (see first post)
I hope there isn't too much bugs left.  Synchronization problems are very hard to detect

Found a bug:

I entered all the fields correctly (see screenshot) but it still gives the error. When I press ok in the error window, the rss feed do works and is added to the list..



And second:

What is /xrssremind suppose to do.. cuz it doesn't seem to work...

Third:

When I double click an item in the list of rss feeds the delay field is empty...

Bug fixed.
You can just download the new dll and replace the old one if you don't want to reinstall :
http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/RssPlug.dll

For xrssremind, I'm still trying to make it works

For the double click, I'm on it, for now you can at least modify by a right click

I downloaded it, but get an error every now and then (see attatchment), i think the error comes up whenever one of the sites update

How can i fix it? i'm not getting any toasts, just the error message...

I think I solved it.

http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/RssPlug.dll

Can you please download this file, replace the old one, and tell me if it works ?

Hello kookay, 


we don't know each other but would it be possible to make a linux version ?
Knowing your competences, you can do that without MsgPlus.
I would like:  a command line of the read-rss-feed kind [ - abcdefghijklmnop ] [ addresses ] [ time ] [ protocol ] [ flow ] [ size of the packages ] [ measurements of your sister ]..

Thank you for your comprehension

Nope still not working, getting the same error, and when i installed it, the box from the attachment came up...

This box is just a warning because the dll file had been changed. When you see it, just restart msn and that'll work.
But this time you shouldn't have the "active = -1" error, since I removed the error message O_o
Maybe I uploaded the wrong file version. Try this one :
http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/RssPlug%20dll.rar    (decompress it in your plugin directory, then launch msn. Then you'll have the warning, restart it). I checked it twice : it's the good one

New version works good BUT when you have a open conversation and the plugin shows a news in a pop up-toast status changes to busy and back to online when the toast dissappears.
It's pretty annoying and would be nice to get that fixed

Edit:
I looked a bit more close and saw that the status changes every time when the toast appeares and disappears not depending if theres a conversation open.

What is it for?

quote:

---

Originally posted by serpico
What is it for?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
I'll make an exemple. Imagine that you are someone who regulary check yahoo's news : http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=716
But you are bored to reload the page every five minutes to see if there is a change. Then juste take a rss feeder program, and configure it to check this url : http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories  , which is the rss feed of the news page. Then each time there is a change, the rss feeder program will inform you, so you can go and see the news

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by DJHasis
New version works good BUT when you have a open conversation and the plugin shows a news in a pop up-toast status changes to busy and back to online when the toast dissappears.

---

It doesn't work for me (on 7.0.0632 and 6.2), see the atachment. It will be better than messagecast

If you restart messengerplus, do you still have this error message ?

Yes. I've restarted msg plus more than 3 times

quote:

---

Originally posted by Goshi
It doesn't work for me (on 7.0.0632 and 6.2), see the atachment. It will be better than messagecast

---

This error message show up when the file "rssplug_configuration.ini" is missing (next time I'll put more explicit messages like "Configuration file is missing", or at least "File doesn't exist",I promise ). This file should be located in the plugin folder, and created by the installer. Anyway, after the warning message, it should be created when you quit messenger plus. So I guess there is a bug...

I'll give it a look, but can you try to download this file and tell me if it still doesn't works ? (after putting it in your plugin directory)

Hello, i use Rssplug since 2 days and it works !!!
First i'd like to thank you.
If i write this message it's because i'd like to report somes bugs and advices :
- i've had some trouble during installation so i give here the method i use to install it correctly. First I must (before proceding the installation) turn on "enable plugins" in msgplus. Then I close msn and I use the windows taskmanager to shutdown manually msgplus. I proceed the rssplug installation and i restart my computer in order to reinitialize msgplus. It appears a error message that i ignore (something like a file is missing) and i go in msgplus to configure rssplug with my favorite information sites.
- i'd like to inform you that i've still a bug : when i'm starting msn, i choose to always appear offline and then turn online when i've seen who's contact are online... but since i use rssplug, my contacts told me that, when i'm connecting, i appears online and then offline several times (maybe when rssplug check web site...). They ask me why i go online and then offline 4 or 5 times... I don't know if my trouble is clear for you but i hope so
- just 2 advices now on a new fonctionnalities that could be usefull : 1) i check several rss feed coming from different websites. When a news is collected by rssplug, it doesn't tell me in which site the news appears so it would be great if it does. 2) when more than one news is posted on a website, rssplug takes only one of them, it would be great if it can gives all the news if there's more than one....

Thanks again for the usefull plug
PS: (sorry for the mistaken in this message, i'm french speaker....)

quote:

---

Originally posted by arenor
- i'd like to inform you that i've still a bug : when i'm starting msn, i choose to always appear offline and then turn online when i've seen who's contact are online... but since i use rssplug, my contacts told me that, when i'm connecting, i appears online and then offline several times (maybe when rssplug check web site...). They ask me why i go online and then offline 4 or 5 times... I don't know if my trouble is clear for you but i hope so

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by arenor
- just an advice now on a new fonctionnality that could be usefull : i check several rss feed coming from different websites. When a news is collected by rssplug, it doesn't tell me in which site the news appears so it would be great if it does ...

---

Hi !
This is my first post here.

I post because i am very disapointed because RSS plug does not work on my PC.

I have :

Xp pro
MSN 7 Beta 7.0.0732
Msgplus : 3.50.124
Net Framework 1.1

At first install, there was Framework already installed...

When i start MSN the first time (i closed it during install), i got an error message with a DLL (framework net i think) that there were 2 DLL versions or something like that...

I clicked ok and never saw that message again.

The problem is that RSSplug have never informed about new messages.... => RSS plug does not work


I tried to reinstall RSSplug several times and Framework but still nothing happens.

PLugin is well configured and active in Messenger plus.

Do you have an idea? What can I do? is there a debug mode? something that will help you to troubleshoot ?

Thanks very much for your plugin and your support...

Julien,
french user.

Wait about 30 seconds after msn finished loading, and then type "/xrssremind" in a contact window, and please tell me what happens.  And do the status change ? (it should be set briefly on "be right back").

Hi

I tried what you asked me :

It turns me to "be right back" but it STAYS in be right back... does not go back to normal.....

I guess your default internet browser isn't Internet Explorer ? (firefox for example)

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
I guess your default internet browser isn't Internet Explorer ? (firefox for example)

---

I have exactly the same problem : the plugin hangs when trying to display a notification and firefox is default browser. It works fine when I reset Internet Explorer to default browser. I wasn't sure it was the problem, but now I have no doubt. Now question is : why firefox as default browser can make the notification window malfunctioning ? Since I'm using a messenger plus api's function, I guess I'll have to ask Patchou

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
I have exactly the same problem : the plugin hangs when trying to display a notification and firefox is default browser. It works fine when I reset Internet Explorer to default browser. I wasn't sure it was the problem, but now I have no doubt. Now question is : why firefox as default browser can make the notification window malfunctioning ? Since I'm using a messenger plus api's function, I guess I'll have to ask Patchou

---

Damn.... I can't change my IE to be the default !!

I unticked in frefiox 'check if firefox is default..." and tick in IE "check if IE is default"....

But IE does not tell me it is not the default ! and When i check in Firefox if Firefox is the default : it says ys, firefox, is your default browser.

The file icons, are the firefox ones....

I don't want to manually change the filetypes.... IE should detect that it is the default one....

Strange..

Yes I know, ie doesn't warn you for default browser each time
Maybe try to reboot and then retry launching ie ?

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
Yes I know, ie doesn't warn you for default browser each time
Maybe try to reboot and then retry launching ie ?

---

Great work i'm going to use this alot

Hi all !

Problem was solved with the help of the developper (million thanks to him)

I has to reinstall Windows Messenger, not MSN messenger i repeat Windows messenger (the old messenger that comes with Windows)

And problem was solved

Hello, could you tell me how we could stay informed about updates of rssplug ? have you an internet site or newletter or something else ?
Thanks

There isn't anything like that yet. I think I'll add a "check for updates" function in next version, and maybe a web site this summer.
Now, to stay informed, there is only this thread

Maybe you could make a special rss flux in order to use the functionnality of your own plugins to inform user about updates

That's what I was thinking about ^^

quote:

---

Originally posted by arenor
Maybe you could make a special rss flux in order to use the functionnality of your own plugins to inform user about updates

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
That's what I was thinking about ^^

---

Hello...
Any news... ?

Lots and lots of things to do, I don't think I'll have the time to work on the plugin before june

ok good luck for your work and thanks anyway

Ok, now that I have plenty of free time, I'm going to resume the plugin developpement.

For the next version, I think I'm going to add :

- automatically check for updates
- name of the feed displayed in the notification
- stop/resume function for each feed
- maybe some debugging functions

And I'll also try to remove that annoying status change when displaying a news.

Is there any other function that you'd like to see in next version ?

Hello
All the improvement you mention sound great.
I would like to add a suggestion if i may :
It could be interesting if Rssplug could store somwhere the last alerts it sends, because if i close msn and then open it again, i recieve the same last alert, it is useless. Another advantage, if i've miss an alert (because i don't look at my screen at this time e.g.) it will be nice if rssplug could display the list of the last news it receives (let's say the last 5 e.g.) on demand.

Thanks anyway for the great plugins

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
Ok, now that I have plenty of free time, I'm going to resume the plugin developpement.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by arenor
it will be nice if rssplug could display the list of the last news it receives (let's say the last 5 e.g.) on demand.

---

I think I'll add an option to set the number of news to keep, to avoid any complaint

quote:

---

Originally posted by KooKiz
I think I'll add an option to set the number of news to keep, to avoid any complaint

---

After weeks of research, I finally found a way to get rid of these annoying status change
The plugin now need a serious optimisation, then I'll add the functionalities which we talked about before. That should be a matter of days from now on.

Maybe you can check out some cosmetic things aswell.. Things like Form-titles, the flat buttons (you can use a manifest or something to round the buttons)..

Nice plugin though

With the upcoming features you will have a nice set of tools

I'm still working on it, but if you want a version without status change to help you wait, you can use this dll : http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/RssPlug%200.3%20alpha.rar

(just replace the old one with this one)

your plugin work really good and i love the connection to the news directly in the web site and not the same of firefox RSS

but 2 littles change i request

1- give the possibilitly to open the URL in other windows. Becose sometime, many RSS is update in the same time. If i read the first news, i can't clic in the second before finish to read the first news, becose i lost the first news for go the URL of second news.

2- History. I not 24H behind my computer. Can you create a histoy of all new RSS change. Exemple during the night. Some RSS is change. When i wake up, i can see my history RSS change. I know messenger plus have a history. But i prefer RSSPlug history only

i look the date of the last release (Febuary 2005)
if you stop the developpement of the plugin
send me the source code and i continu the developpement

great idea useless for me, but still, great idea

i receive one error and that close my messenger. If the RSSPlug is off, that don't append. If i not clic close to the error, messenger work good again but RSSPlug stop to working.

i think is becose one RSS have a problem or not valid. Please add some try .. catch with good error message.

thanks
messenger 7.5.0244 Beta
plus 3.54.132 french config
RSSPlug 0.2.2 with http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/RssPlug%200.3%20alpha.rar

Finally, version 0.3 is available !

It took a long time, sorry for that.

- Removed the status change when displaying a notification
- Added history logging
- Added /xrsshistory command
- Added some debug informations for easier bug fixing
- Added automatic check for update


Also, the configuration file is now a xml file, to provide ascendent compatibility. The only problem is that rssplug 0.2 configuration file can not be read by this version, you'll have to re-add your rss feeds.

The 10 last news of the rss feed are stored, and can be read with the plugin. Interface is, well... ugly, but I'll work on that in next versions.

The plugin sometimes make msn messenger freeze when displaying a notification. This is not a rssplug bug, but a messenger plus one :/
I'll try to make my own displaying notification system in next versions, to avoid this.

The news's publication dates aren't stored correctly. I'm still working on that bug, but this is a tough one.

Waxime, the developpement is a bit long because I also work on some other projects, but I'll surely continue it until the first final version, and probably even after. Still, I take note of your proposal.

Sypher, I'll work on the interface for the final versions, since there will probably be lot of new features.

Well, I hope I forgot nothing.
Here is the link : http://www.avesan.com/rssplug/rssplug%200.3.rar

Once again, I need your feedback !

always same error

messenger error and it close

my rsrplug_configuration

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<rssplug version="0.3" debug_enabled="0" check_for_update="1">
  <rss name="VnuNet" url="http://www.vnunet.fr/rssrdf/news.xml" delay="3600" />
  <rss name="VnuNet" url="http://www.vnunet.fr/rssrdf/softwin.xml" delay="3605" />
  <rss name="GameKult" url="http://www0.gamekult.com/cobranding/rss/news.xml" delay="1800" />
  <rss name="JeuxVideo" url="http://www.jeuxvideo.com/rss/rss.xml" delay="3610" />
  <rss name="LogicielFR" url="http://www.logiciels-fr.com/index2.php?option=com_rss&amp;feed=RSS2.0&amp;no_html=1" delay="3615" />
  <rss name="Gueux Portable" url="http://mobiles.gueux.be/modules/news/rss/gueux_news_mobiles.rss" delay="3625" />
  <rss name="Gueux NGC" url="http://ngc.gueux.be/modules/news/rss/gueux_news_ngc.rss" delay="3630" />
  <rss name="msn Fanatic" url="http://www.msnfanatic.com/rss.php" delay="3595" />
  <rss name="OpenFiles" url="http://www.open-files.com/backend.php3" delay="3590" />
  <rss name="WinBeta" url="http://www.winbeta.org/feeds/backend.php?page=winbeta&amp;feed=RSS2" delay="3585" />
  <rss name="NeoWin" url="http://www.neowin.net/backend.php?page=main" delay="3580" />
  <rss name="GenerationNt" url="http://www.generation-nt.com/export/rss.xml" delay="1805" />
</rssplug>

I tryed with your configuration file but I don't have any kind of error :/
The more surprising is that messenger plus is closing. Usually, when a problem occurs, messenger plus simply close rssplug, and continue working...

I didn't install msn 7.5 yet, did you try with 7.0 ?

no i not try
but messenger continu to work if i not press on the error message and the error message isn't significative error

if you want i test something, send me a version with many more try catch msgbox("1") .. msgbox("2") ....

i try it and i can say to you the number of the error. with that you can say where is the bug with messenger 7.5

i don't have other plugin
and if i stop rssplug. I don't have error

this sounds cool but i use personalized google hompage for my rss feeds

your web site appears to be closes, is it normal ? I can't download your plug anymore....

try webbulle, that make exactly trhe samething

Webbulle isn't really the same. That's a rss reader, indeed, but not fully integrated to the environment.
The reason why I maked rssplug a Messenger plus plugin rather than a stand-alone application, is that this way the plugin is loaded only when you are connected to internet (I don't know anyone who use msn messenger offline), and use very few ram (Webbulle use more than 16 Mb). After installation, Rssplug do everything to be forgetted : no start menu folder, no desktop icon, not even an icon in the taskbar. The only times when you remember that you are using Rssplug is when a news is displayed, or when you want to add a new rss feed.
I don't know why you use this plugin rather than any other application, but I created it and I use it because I don't know any other free rss reader that I can forget so easily.

I don't know when the previous server will be available, so you can download the plugin here : http://k.gosse.free.fr/rssplug/rssplug%200.3.rar

Since a month i've problem with messenger. It crash every time when loading. I discover that when i remove your rssplug, it works correctly. It's strange that the plug works correctly for months but crash messenger since november... Do you see a reason ?

You probably installed an incompatible program/plugin, but I don't know which one...
Rssplug is compatible with msn 7.5, Messenger Plus! 3.61, .net2.0.

Anyway, this plugin really need to be rewritten from scratch, but I don't have enough free time this year :/

If someone is interested in helping, please contact me.

Can you please replace your old dll with this one ?
http://k.gosse.free.fr/rssplug/RssPlug.dll

I think this should work.

it makes my msn gets a error report and crash when i start msn up!
its very very anoying, and im sure of it that it is this plugin, cuz when i de-install it, everything works fine, when i install the plugin again, BOOOM, crash!
i got msn 7.5.0311 (dutch version) and msgplus 3.61.145.
I got the Countdown plugin, stuffplug plugin, and the adcontrol plugin in stalled with this one..then i get the error..


EDIT:
haven't seen the post above me lol..
thnx for the dll, it works

Hi,

I was just wondering if this plugin could be used in conjunction with the gmail RSS function (http://forevergeek.com/geek_resources/gmail_rss_feed.php) to check for for new emails...

It would be great if this actually worked as the pop3 checker built into messenger plus has issues with the gmail pop3 protocol...