[RELEASE vB 2.0] MSN Message Center like available on http://www.msn.com

[Christian]

I could manage to implement the Messege Center from msn.com to vBulletin.
It doesn't work yet like the online indicators for Yahoo or ICQ, but that can perhaps be added by editing the VBS file.

Anyway, it offers the function to access your hotmail account, to create a new one, to download MSN Messenger, to start it and viewing the contacts in real time (without to have to refresh the page).

You can look at it here:

http://www.knowledge-emporium.com/tke/forum/index.php


I'm currently writing the instructions how to install it!


But before I release it I need to know one thing:

If someone has the MSN Messenger NOT installed, please go to our site and tell me if there is a link shown where you can download it!
I don't want to uninstall it just to see if it works! :D :p

[teenfront]

nice script ............ the link appeared and worked for me

[Christian]

Cool, thanks for the info! :)

[Christian]

Here is the installation package!

File size: 8.51 KB



Version 1.1 now

Changes in v1.1:

- The maximum number of shown online contacts has been changed from 5 to 30

- Contact names are shown in full length now

- Link name to open the MSN window has changed from
"Show all contacts..." to "Open MSN Messenger main window"

- As icon in the left table it is always used ON.GIF now
-> No more wrong displaying icon when not cookied

- Installation instructions in German and Dutch added

[Johnny]

my english is not very good! i want that hack to! it's very cool! can someone tell it me how i must do it in dutch?? :)

Johnny

[Christian]

My co-admin is dutch, i'm sure he will translate the instructions for you! :)

It is not very much anyway!

[AssassinGF]

I can't wait to install this!
Great job Christian!

[Christian]

It was not that hard!

The hardest thing was to filter out the needed code from the MSN page! :D

I have never seen such a crap code! :rolleyes:

I spent hours with reducing it to the minimum.

Some needed scripts have been added to tables with totally different contents, e.g the shop offers and all that.

One line deleted false and you has 1000s of script errors!

In the attached text file is what I started with! ;)

If you wonder if I did anything to the formatting of the text file, or it went something wrong during saving, then the answer is NO!

This is HTML code written in a away that nobody shall understand it!


Nice, eh? ;) LOL

[AssassinGF]

*opens up frontpage, pastes the code into the HTML viewer, and watches it auto format into something very readable*

lol! :D

[Christian]

Do you think it is W3C compliant?

:D :p :D :p

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by Christian
Do you think it is W3C compliant?

:D :p :D :p

Nope... it's Microsoft compliant :D

[Yaa 101]

Hi I made the dutch translation for johnny.

Hello all i am the coding and administrative partner of Christian on TKE.
Basicly I do most things in computing and never afraid to experiment with webservers.

We are just starting with another site wich you can get to by clicking the link in my sig.

Bassie. :)

[Christian]

Thanks, my big friend!

You forgot to mention that you are the number 1 database's broken table fixer! :) ;)

[Christian]

To raise the number of shown online contacts from 5 to a higher number, open the file MC.VBS.

There you look for

nc=5

It is in line 130.

Set the number you want to have there!

Upload it again to your server!

BUT:

More than 75 doesn't make sense because that the maximum number of online contacts you can have in MSN Messenger!

[Yaa 101]

Good job my friend the 30 is enough for us indeed...

I thought strange that list and how can we incorperate as like the other icons...
I kinda like it now it even shows the number of mails in your box...

What's next? Weather? lol...

Bassie. :)

[Christian]

The names of the online contacts are cut to 17 letters by default.

To show the full length (the table is wide enough) find:


AB_=fixName(H_(i).FriendlyName,17)


It is in line 140

Replace it with:


AB_=fixName(H_(i).FriendlyName,130)


130 signs is the maximum length of a name in MSN Messenger!


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


All updates are included in version 1.1 which replaced the old version.
Zip file is updated

[DeMoN]

god i love you!
well i dont but ya know what i mean. i've asked for this hack b4

[cyrus]

Hi

the hack is working fine apart from the fact that when you log out of the board, the image in the left bar next to the hack doesnt appear.

when i find out the properties of the image location is says :-

...folder/.gif

this is why it doesnt appear but I dont know how I can fix this. :( :( :(

Can someone tell me how please.

Thanx

[Christian]

The same things appeared for some ppl with the world time zone hack!

It uses the icon for the PM status!

I really dunno what accours this.

For me it works fine, and it is not an error in the code!

One question:

Is the icon for the PMs also away?

[Christian]

OK, I found a solution:

in the template replace "$lightbulb.gif" with "on.gif".

The always the yellow icon is shown and it is not dependent on the PM status anymore.

THIS FIX IS ALSO INCLUDED IN 1.1!!!

[Sarge]

This is cool,
But is there anyway that we can get the online names to appear in rows of 4 or 5 next to eachother?

If you have 30 names and all the names are under eachother it would look tore up from the floor up

Just wondering.
Cool hack

[Christian]

First of all 30 online contacts is very much!

I never have 30 of my ppl online the same time although I have about 70 in my list!


Then the problem with the tables is that you can't do that in the template!

You would have to edit the VBS script!
But if you find a solution you can tell me! ;)

[Christian]

Sarge, here is the code which list the users online:


If I_>0 Then
Dim Z_,ol,nc
Z_=""
ol=0
nc=30
Dim i
i=0
While i<I_ And ol<nc
Dim s
s=H_(i).State
If s AND 2 Then
ol=ol+1
Dim h,AB_
h=" href="""&"vbscript:op("&i&")"""
AB_=fixName(H_(i).FriendlyName,130)
Z_=Z_&"<a"&h&">"&getStateImage(s)&"</a> "&"<a"&h&" title="""
Z_=Z_&"Send an instant message to"&" "&AB_&"."
Z_=Z_&""" class=mclink>"&K_&AB_
Z_=Z_&"</font></a><br>"
End If
i=i+1
Wend
If ol>0 Then
W_="block"


What you could try is to make let this loop run until let's say 10 contacts.
Then make a new loops which runs from 11 to 20, and so on.
Give the class always a different name like mclink1, mclink2, ...
Then you can try if you can create several columns in the table row containing the online contacts in the template, by using clas mclink1 for the first comlumn, mclink2 for the second, and so on.

I think that is the only way to seperate the online users and put them in different tablerows or columns!

[Christian]

What I meant with the creating of the classes mclink1 and mclink2 is the following line:


Z_=Z_&""" class=mclink>"&K_&AB_


But I really can't say if this commands creates this class or calls it!

You have to ask some Visual Basic coders!

They will know what to do in your case! :)

[Wayne Luke]

I thought about doing this, the thought of redistributing Microsoft's code didn't please me. Especially when it specifically was not released for public distribution and they went to a decent amount of effort to obfuscate it to prevent it from being stolen.

[Johnny]

tnx a lot for the dutch installation version! :D

Johnny

[Christian]

Originally posted by wluke
I thought about doing this, the thought of redistributing Microsoft's code didn't please me. Especially when it specifically was not released for public distribution and they went to a decent amount of effort to obfuscate it to prevent it from being stolen.

First of all they did not do any effort to prevent it from being stolen!

Second is that it is NO service that runs from their server!

The Message Center does nothing but reflecting the status of your local running program to an internet site!

It would be something different if you would get access to the MSN main server where the online status is stored so that you could display if a user is online in MSN WITHOUT having to start the program! That would be access to their services!

All it does now it showing your own contacts only to you!

[Sarge]

I removed this hack.

It is a good idea, but it looks like crap (to much wasted space). I will wait for a newer release

[Christian]

What exactly do you want to look it like?

[Sarge]

i dont like how all the names are undereachother.

I had 12 people on the other day and that table was huge.

It would look more sweet if the names were next to eachother and wrapped.

Also if the login boxes were next to eachother also

[Johnny]

yes your right! if i have 23 people in my list from msn then is that much space! and i;ve got my board on f2s :(

johnny

[carrillo]

Mmmm.... do not work with Netscape 6

carrillo

Originally posted by Christian
I could manage to implement the Messege Center from msn.com to vBulletin.
It doesn't work yet like the online indicators for Yahoo or ICQ, but that can perhaps be added by editing the VBS file.

Anyway, it offers the function to access your hotmail account, to create a new one, to download MSN Messenger, to start it and viewing the contacts in real time (without to have to refresh the page).

You can look at it here:

http://www.knowledge-emporium.com/tke/forum/index.php


I'm currently writing the instructions how to install it!


But before I release it I need to know one thing:

If someone has the MSN Messenger NOT installed, please go to our site and tell me if there is a link shown where you can download it!
I don't want to uninstall it just to see if it works! :D :p :(

[Sarge]

Nothing works on netscape 6!
Netscape 6 is a worthless product

[webhost]

Added tonight to http://forums.realwebhost.net

Works Great Thanks For The HACK

Joey

[webhost]

Have loaded the msn hotmail hack. Is there a way to add this to templates where it acks like AOL.ICQ, and Yahoo instead of showing up on the main page?

Joey

[Christian]

You can add the varaible $messageceneter wherever you like

[webhost]

Would I need some kind of ICON are something, I would like it not to show up on the main page but showup in the member list information like aol,icq,yahoo, and also a field in the registration signup form.

Joey

[Christian]

The MSN Hack is not like the ICQ thing, where you can see who is online in ICQ or not!

It only reflects your personal status of your MSN Messenger!

To realize that the online status of a MSN user is shown independent from your local running MSN Messenger application Microsoft would have to publish a code which accesses the MSN server to ask for the online status!
But I doubt that they would do that!

[webhost]

Understand Thanks

[mikezs]

it totally doesnt work for me :S

I have followed the instructions perfectly and it doesnt disply at all :(

Please help?

[Christian]

Perhaps you use Netscape?

It looks like it only works with IE (perhaps Opera).

Also give me an URL where I can look at the result of your hacking!

[mikezs]

Well, im using IE (MSN messenger = Microsoft Network messenger so its bound not to work in netscape :rolleyes:)

My url is http://www.zpicz.f2s.com/forum/ and i have had other people look at it and they say it has had no effect either...

thanx for your help ;)

[adrianmak]

Great Hack !:D

I used 10mins to finish this hack :)

[Christian]

mikezs, there is a script error on your page!

Do you use any other Javascripts?

[mikezs]

I seemed to have got it to work now :D

1. I just copyed the contents on messengecentre.php to the end of the script (instead of the include).

2. I added the stuff that was supposed to go in the "messagecentre" template into the forumhome template, and it all worked :D

I have no idea what the javascript error was... Try pressing refresh+[shift], f2s has been slightly dodgy with dealing out files (you might get index.php but not msn.vbs

Thanx alot 4 all your help ;)

[shady]

i have more or less the same problem as mikezs although it seems to be intermittant (thats prob. spelt wrong).

I have no script errors or anything and i followed the instructions exactly.

It seems to only appear every now and again, always appears when i click 'Mark All Forums Read', until i refresh or something and then it goes again :(.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, Thanks!

[shady]

forget that, sorted now :p.

It wont work just using the method in the instructions (unless i read wrong) so i had to do some more editing of the 'ForumHome'.

Thanks anyway!

TOP HACK

[Christian]

I read the intructiosn again and look if there is an error!

You know, when you write such instructions you sometimes forget to explain things which are totally clear to you, but the reader can't know!

[Christian]

Hmm

I have only the variable $messagecenter added to my forumhome template and everything works!

And that step is explained in the instructions!

[webhost]

Christian:
Need some help I want to add something to your hack.

If you go to my site at http://forums.realwebhost.net
go to the bottom you will see your message center.
I have a news/stock quote script from msn that I have on one
of my other sites. I want to add it in the same table with the messagecenter to right. There is alot of empty space there. I believe I would have to add it to your messagecenter template somehow. If I show you the script could you help or look at it?

Joey

[Christian]

Yep. but it can take a few days. I have the final tests of my semester at the moment!

I do it tomorrow or at the weekend, OK?

Send the script to admin@knowledge-emporium.com and I test it with my test style and look if and how it works!

[manars]

ÇÞæá æÑÇå ãÇÊÚÞáæä¿

[Eternal_Dragon]

ok the hack works greta

but now at the top of the page it shows this






Parse error: parse error in Unknown on line 1


what can i do to get rif of this?

[webhost]

post your url

[Eternal_Dragon]

hehe

sorry dude its a private board

[webhost]

ok that's fine, but can not help fix a ghost.

[Eternal_Dragon]

well what could it be...

i told ya what happens

[webhost]

hehe
sorry dude don't work on private boards.

[Eternal_Dragon]

k thanx for the help

:confused:

[Eternal_Dragon]

can anyone help??please:confused:


thanx!

[Christian]

Most time such errors are caused by using different script which call the same functions!
First of all look what scripts you have installed and then look for twice called functions!

[Eternal_Dragon]

do u mean

what hacks i have installed?

[Eternal_Dragon]

ahh got it

was the index file

:rolleyes:

[Kengan]

Originally posted by Eternal_Dragon
can anyone help??please:confused:


thanx!

any demo ?

[Christian]

You can see a demo at The Knowledge Emporium Forums (http://forums.knowledge-emporium.com)! :)

[matthawkins]

Originally posted by Sarge
i dont like how all the names are undereachother.

I had 12 people on the other day and that table was huge.

It would look more sweet if the names were next to eachother and wrapped.

Also if the login boxes were next to eachother also

I love this hack. We're in the middle of putting it on our new forum. I was just wondering, is there a simple way of making the usernames list after each other and wrap, or has anyone done this. It would be a massive help.

Cheers, Matt
Our URL - http://www.slinkykids.com/forum

[cyrus]

Can someone pls give instructions on how to add the msn centre on vbportal. I have seen this done but dont know how to go about doing it.

thank you

[Love&Hate]

do you think that it is possible to include the "add buddy" feature to this hack?

EXAMPLE:
just like when you get a email to your hotmail account, from let's say someone you don't know but who has Microsoft Passport. if you notice in viewing the email, it has a, "Add whoever@hotmail,com to your Contact List." by their name. I would think thank you would be able to grab that code as well somehow, and manipulate it so it could be place in the actual posts by your members, kinda like "Add to ICQ" etc...

You think you know how to do this? I believe in you! :D

by the way.. thanks for this excellent hack!

L&H

[george_proost]

Christian,

Good job. Unfortunately I am not a programmer worth talking
about, but is it not possible to do the same as the others, indicating the status with MSN messenger per user per post?

This is not in any way a hint to change the code or develop a new hack. Just some ideas on how it could be done.

I have no idea as to the performance implecations of it all and any other aspects. As I said, I'm not a programmer.

If anyone does want to develop such a thing or Christian would
like to integrate it, I would be as happy as a pig in s**t

eg:

you already have the MSN Messenger center...
here you know if your buddies are online.
So it looks as if we have all the data we need.. this data I think can then be used for the whole thread (all posts in thread)

so some things to think about:

make a new user custom field eg: 'MSN access id'
some coding required
- if the 'MSN access id' is in the 'MSN Messenger center' then show the icon that represents the user (you have it already)
- else don't show a thing.
it should work integrated with the way it is currently done I think... $post[msnbit] ..



;)

[webhost]

OK Chris how do we get a online/offline status button to work for hotmail as icq,aol,and yahoo,

joey

[cyrus]

no ones replied to my post :( :( :(

[george_proost]

<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16335&highlight=messenger" target="_blank">messenger</a>

[ThomasP]

Originally posted by Christian
You can add the varaible $messageceneter wherever you like

Hi Christian,

very nice hack!

Before I consider to integrate it, I want to add an "MSN Messenger Name" - field to the a.m. templates, as it is done with ICQ/AIM/Yahoo Messenger.
If enough users on my board use MSN i.e. do enter their info I would really love to integrate it.

So: How to add this field before integrating your hack; Preparing for your hack...

Thanks,
-Tom

[webhost]

<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=24586" target="_blank">http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=24586</a>

[ThomasP]

Hi webhost,

I see, okay - that's fine.

I now have an extra field "MSN Messenger Name" in the register/modifyoptions & memberlist templates.
But they are sorted not the way I need it.

It's like:

ICQ Nummer:
AOL Instant Messenger Name:
Yahoo Messenger Name:
Birthday:
Signature (on profile]
MSN Messenger


Any chance to get it out of the $customfields
right under the other Messenger fields?
Thanks,
-Tom

[RobAC]

Originally posted by Cyrus
Can someone pls give instructions on how to add the msn centre on vbportal. I have seen this done but dont know how to go about doing it.

thank you

Cyrus,

Because vbPortal is a total integration system, you really need to ask your vbPortal related questions in the vbPortal support forums here: http://www.phpportals.com/index.php

[fthrjack]

now the colored online users bit doesent work!! anyone found a way to have both running? one hack killing the other... :(

never mind, my bad, i edited the backup copy of index.php and posted that up... DOH!

[TheComputerGuy]

I installed the msn hack, and it makes my world time hack go insane...like it goes half way big screen...

www.moneytec.com/forums/

[Christian]

Just play around with the colspan values of the 2 tables.

You find them in the templates which are created for the certain hacks!

[cyrus]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RobAC


Cyrus,

Because vbPortal is a total integration system, you really need to ask your vbPortal related questions in the vbPortal support forums here: http://www.phpportals.com/index.php

[Christian]

Sorry, that I didn't have time to answer all your questions.

I was (and still am) very busy with music production and releasing the site.

Anyway, the question if it is possible to show an online state has been already cleared at the beginning of the thread:

NO!!! :(

Therefor Microsoft would have to release a code how to ask for the status at the MSN server, and that will never happen! :(


To vBPortal:

I don't know this software because we have written our own CMS. :D :D
But normally it should be possible to integrate it.
Surely you can create additional boxes in vbportal and there you can add the code from the templates.
That should work.
I know that it works with phpwebsite!

[ubje]

this is a kewl hack

[cyrus]

[QUOTE][i]Surely you can create additional boxes in vbportal and there you can add the code from the templates.
That should work.
I know that it works with phpwebsite! [/B]

[BigSjedow]

great hack m8

[Ed FvC]

I'm still looking for something more simple than this. All I want is for someone to be able to have the user input their MSN contact address in the UserCP profile and have an icon show in postbit. When it's clicked, I want a small popup to appear with the info on it. Also, when someone views a profile, I want it to appear with the other IM info, not with the custom profiles.

I know it's not too tough, but it's beyond me. I'm not very experienced when it comes to this. Can this be done?

[xug]

Hi

I installed it in my vBulletin 2.2.0 and everything was done fine
but when I enter my hotmail account and hit go i get the following error :

Line 336
Error : illegal assignment : 'i'

What could be the problem here ?

[xug]

Please help me ! See the above error I get !
Most of my members use MSN so this would be a great addition to my site !

Thanks.

[jminiman]

I don't like the unnecessary line break right above where it says "Online Contacts." How can I delete this? Screen shot below:

[cobradude]

VBPORTAL: For those of you just wanting to put this into a side block, you don't need to follow any of the included directions. I am attaching what you need to put into your side and forum blocks. The only difference between what I am attaching, and what is in the template stuff included with this hack is just some table mods to accomodate the vbportals side blocks. Hope this helps; it seems to work for me fine.

BTW, thanks for the great hack!!

[Zkast]

Thanks!!!! Great hack here.. Thanks also to cobradude, that was exactly what I was looking for too.

BTW, working great, no problems at all with this one.

[Yaa 101]

the original rip was from the msn page about 3/4 of a year ago...
it was 2 parts a html frontend that calls a vbscript that connects to a OLE object made available by MSN messenger application.

Yes the script is bad and buggy, nothing is done to make it better we just repackaged it and made it working with vb and my own written portal.

In most cases only edit the template to accommodate the hack in other environments.
if you are up to cleaning up programming crap of our friend Bill then please edit the vbscript... lol...
maybe i will fetch a new script when they changed it.

[Sadie Frost]

Worked great for me - no problems (and that's saying a lot for me!)

I'm running 2.2.1 and all I did was follow the instructions. :)

[buro9]

Christian,

and everyone else...

I have tidied up and read through the vb part of the script (I don't put vb on my site until I know what it does) and I can tell you that:

1) The script is fine... few errors, but they're easily dealt with.
2) I have re-formatted, if you would like me to supply this to you christian I can.
3) Microsoft have implemented tracking of this app.

Number 3 being something a lot of you will have issues with.

There is an image named mctrack which is null to start with, but on every click is assigned a different value which is always a get request from the MS site.

Whilst doing a wget of the image returns a 302 and then a 404, I have no doubt that it's irrelevant... getting stats from an error log is as easy as from a web log, except you get the benefit of not having to actually serve anything so you have lower bandwidth as a result.

So there you have it, a nice tracking and stats thing built in... which, btw, is easily removed.

Again, Christian mail me and I shall give you an updated version.

I would suggest also making a second layout... so you have the default layout as currently is, and a second layout that actually resembles the vBulletin who's online bar on the forum homepage, i.e. horizontal. This was users could place it at the bottom of all forum display pages easily and avoid having to litter threads and post pages with it.

Just my thoughts and discoveries.

Cheers

David K

[buro9]

One more thing, anyone wanting more information to construct a cleaner interface can view the API's at http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/topic.asp?url=/msdn-files/028/001/359/topic.xml

[Yaa 101]

Thanks for the time you have put in this david... :)

[buro9]

I got quite far with my mine (screenshot attached), and it's a little more elegant in that it users the vBulletin template system rather than create another php file.

But... you can see that on the web it doesn't show you the user names... why? I believe this is because of a recent security change in MSN Messenger because of the virus a coupla weeks ago. Looks like the best thing we can do is re-rip the vb (now jscript) code from hotmail!

Ah well, all that effort to start over again!

Maybe I'll do it, but I'm feeling tired and exhausted so maybe not, though I'd let you all know in any case.

[Webmasta XT]

can someone Modify this Hack and make it show names of the online ppl, and when I login from the xtreme forumz it opens the hotmail login page and doesn't login MSN... can someone plz do that? or the owner?

[buro9]

There's little point Webmasta XT.

I tried to bring the hack forward somewhat to fit my own needs... and discovered in the process that Messenger 4.6 (the now default that all others will prompt upgrade to) doesn't show usernames.

This is something that Miscrosoft have hard coded into Messenger, only Microsoft domains are 'trusted' alongside 'localhost'... what this means is that you can get it working locally, and see it working on Hotmail... but you cannot use it elsewhere.

If you did not see the virus (ok, it was harmless... but M$ didn't like it) on Messenger recently... it seems that this put such a shock through the M$ system for this release to come out.

4.6 is nothing but a point release security patch addressing this issue.

Unless you can guarantee your users are on a previous version (you can't) there is no more point furthering this hack as it is. M$ simply don't want you to be able to do this, and they have very successfully stopped everyone from doing it.

Oh well, such a shame... I had such a lovely Javascript version working too.

Cheers

David K

[buro9]

I should have pointed out that the above link to the API's on the M$ site have now been updated to reflect the fact that the friendlynames array is now restricted.

[ice!~neko]

DUDE!!!

that owns.... 10/10 XD

to bad about the names :(

[madhouse]

Ok install went great and works great too . I have the news script on my board and I installed the additional hack to get it to work again but i dont know the value that I am suppose to enter for xxx....
Anyone able to help here?

[Yaa 101]

I am glad other people took over the hack and keep maintaining it...
Thanks, i simply don't have the priorities set for that piece of code... sorry i have too little time and too much to explore...

Bas.

[Smalley]

nice job guys ,, but i have one thing ,,

i can not see the names of my contacts ,, only icons are showing up.

what to do

[buro9]

read back at my posts, Microsoft changed messenger in reaction to a virus, as a result you cannot access the names array unless you are one of their trusted sites (i.e. microsoft.com, passport.com and hotmail.com).

bad luck i'm afraid.

david k

[Erwin]

Yeah - I have this running on my site really well, but no names show up unfortunately. My members do like it anyway.