Comments on: Microsoft releases web interface for MSN Messenger

By: Nik Khilnani

Nik Khilnani — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:03:36 +0000

a quick look at the main js file (webmessenger.js) showed posible binary or encrypted content… anyone know whats happening here? i didnt know IE could support encrypted js files?

nik

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:34:23 +0000

That’s pretty cool — seems to be working just fine on FireFox.

I can’t help but wonder how much easier it would’ve been to simply have that interface done in Flash in the first place.

Not sure how they push the data, frequent checks would sure put some serious strain on their servers and result in a lot of overhead. Its definitely an interesting piece of technology, I’d imagine they’ve looked at creating persistent connections to the backend.

By: johnb

johnb — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:34:54 +0000

yep, works on Firefox 0.9.2

By: Nik Khilnani

Nik Khilnani — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 19:40:31 +0000

their source is pretty interesting.. but looking at their code, a lot of html parsing would be needed,,, i havent checked if theyre xhtml complient…. would make the parsing easier….

trying making a flash app of this would be interesting….
nik

By: bente

bente — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 12:26:35 +0000

I have not checked the code, but there is a mechanism called pushlets that enables server side java objects to push data directly to javascript in a browser. It’s is based on http streaming: instead of closing a http connection after fetching an html page, you keep the connection open.

http://www.pushlets.com/doc/whitepaper.html

(wouldn’t think micsrosoft is using java though, but maybe a similar technique)

By: h

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 16:59:03 +0000

webmessenger.js is a big js block!

By: h

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:55:58 +0000

webmessenger.js

function Queue()
{
var items = new Array();
var first = 0;
var count = 0;
this.Count = function()
{
return count
};

this.Peek = function(last)
{
var result = null;
if(count > 0)
{
if(null != last && true == last)
{
result = items[first + (count - 1)]
}
else
{
result = items[first]
}
}

return result
};

this.Enqueue = function(x)
{
items[first + count] = x;
count++;
return x
};

this.Dequeue = function()
{
var result = null;
if(count > 0)
{
result = items[first];
delete items[first];
first++;
count–
}

return result
}
}

By: h

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:03:15 +0000

function TrimEllipsis(str, len)
{
var result = str;
if(str.length > len)
{
result = FormatString(L_IDS_ELLIPSIS_FORMAT, str.substr(0, len))
}

return result
}

function PrefixPadString(str, prefix, length)
{
while(str.length < length)
{
str = prefix + str
}

return str
}

By: Derek Libby

Derek Libby — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 06:31:03 +0000

Has anyone figured out how Microsoft is doing the pull? I’m trying to do something similar with a hidden IFrame, but I get those annoying refresh clicks every time I attempt to pull in IE6. I’ve searched and searched but cannot figure out how to make them go away.

As far as Pushlets are concerned, there is no reason they could not be implemented in any server side scripting language.