Aug 06 2004

Microsoft releases web interface for MSN Messenger

Published by Waldo Smeets at 16:15 under Site Seeing

See http://webmessenger.msn.com. I gave it a quick try and even though it’s a nice initiative, this web application does not yet feel like the desktop application. You all know what I am going to say; this *begs* for a Flash interface :-)

I have not looked into it, but since it’s fully build with HTML and JavaScript (I heard it even works in some non IE browsers) it seems to be possible to put a RIA frontend on top of it. Who’s going to be the first one to realise this?????

I also see some extra benefits; the web messenger currently does not support advanced stuff like webcam integration, what other webcam broadcast software is more widespread than the Flash Player :-)

ps: I’d love to get a report from someone who looked into the code of this application. How is Microsoft simulating the ‘push’ for example, just a frequent page call I expect? Any other cool things they are using, it’s been too long since I dived into DHTML programming.

9 Responses to “Microsoft releases web interface for MSN Messenger”

  1. # Nik Khilnanion 06 Aug 2004 at 17:03

    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

  2. # Peteron 06 Aug 2004 at 17:34

    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.

  3. # johnbon 06 Aug 2004 at 17:34

    yep, works on Firefox 0.9.2

  4. # Nik Khilnanion 06 Aug 2004 at 19:40

    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

  5. # benteon 08 Aug 2004 at 12:26

    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)

  6. # hon 15 Aug 2004 at 16:59

    webmessenger.js is a big js block!

  7. # hon 17 Aug 2004 at 8:55

    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
    }
    }

  8. # hon 17 Aug 2004 at 9:03

    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
    }

  9. # Derek Libbyon 10 Sep 2004 at 6:31

    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.

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