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Plug-in development questions - Printable Version

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+-- Forum: MsgHelp Archive (/forumdisplay.php?fid=58)
+--- Forum: Messenger Plus! for Live Messenger (/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+---- Forum: Scripting (/forumdisplay.php?fid=39)
+----- Forum: Plug-Ins (/forumdisplay.php?fid=28)
+------ Thread: Plug-in development questions (/showthread.php?tid=52769)

Plug-in development questions by FFighter on 11-08-2005 at 08:58 PM

Hi!

Iīm starting in the adventure of Windows development with C++ and the .NET framework, I originally started programming many years ago with Delphi (5) but since I got to the web business, I never came back (I work with Flash Platform, HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and SQL currently). Now I just downloaded a copy of the Visual Studio 2005 (Express). What I want to do is develop a MSN Messenger plug-in that interfaces with my site server-system (built in PHP4 and MySQL for db), I had so many great ideas on what I could do with it that I even bought a book on C++ and started sutdying it, but before I dive into MSN plug-in development, I would like to be sure of the following:

- Is it better to interface directly with the MSN COM API or Plus! really does make life easier? Is there any drawback on using it (other from having it installed);
- Is the Plus! API justa  wrapper around the default MSN API?
- As I come from ActionScript, the .NET managed languages are easier for me but I sincerelly donīt like VB... Is there a implementation of the Plus! API for C#?
- I want my plug-in to communicate to my PHP app on the server.. what techinique would be the best to use - (HTTP VARS, XML/SOAP) Iīm not that good on Windows client/sever programming.

Thatīs it for now! :D

Thanks in advance,

Marcelo Serpa.


RE: Plug-in development questions by Dempsey on 11-08-2005 at 09:05 PM

Welcome to the forums :)

Is it better to interface directly with the MSN COM API or Plus! really does make life easier?
Well from my experience using the Messenger object passed from Plus! is a lot easier, paticurly with C++.

Is the Plus! API justa  wrapper around the default MSN API
No, the Plus! API and MSN API are totally different.  Plus! passes a reference to a Messenger API object, and then it has its own Plus! API which allows things such as parsing commands/tags, showing toasts and adding to the event log.

Is there a implementation of the Plus! API for C#?
I think there is yes, although I don't think it is an official version included with the plugin documentation ---> Help: Plugins

I want my plug-in to communicate to my PHP app on the server.. what techinique would be the best to use?
I would use HTTP myself, although I think XML/SOAP would probably be the best way.


RE: Plug-in development questions by n0n4m3 on 11-08-2005 at 10:27 PM

The C# framework can be found in this link: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/attachment.php?pid=259848


RE: Plug-in development questions by FFighter on 11-08-2005 at 10:32 PM

Thank you Dempsey for the answers! And thank you n0n4m3 for the link to the file. Iīll start my experiements right now!

Thank you again,

Marcelo.