Tag Archives: OpenAIM

Get AIM Stats and be an imFreaq

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We have posted a couple more plugins today to the AIM Gallery that are fun little utilities. The first is a plugin that was written by Gus, called IM Freaqs, that will show you the buddies that you interact with the most. You can easily launch an IM Window from this plugin by clicking on the screen name. IM Freaqs will show you the frequency score, online state (away, online, offline, etc) and buddy icon of each user. We are using the Open AIM API to get a user’s frequency score via AccUserProp_Frequency. This is the same API that was used to create the Google Desktop Gadget.

The other plugin called AIM Stats allows you to view a few different stat categories. You can now view how close you are to the maximum buddy list size as well as group maximum. AIM Stat will also show you how many IMs you have sent and received during the session.

Both plugins require AIM 6.8 Beta 3. You can download the AIM 6.8 Beta client here.

Download IM Freaqs here.

Download AIM Stats here.

Open AIM Developer Contest Results

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When we launched Open AIM 2.0 in March we announced a contest being run through TopCoder that was part of the launch where AIM gave away $100,000 in prizes, and some t-shirts along the way. We saw dozens of really top notch submissions and judging them was no easy task.

Last week at the Top Coder Open in Las Vegas we announced the winners, the top 9 got to split the $10,000 each while 20 runners up got $500 each. Winning submissions ranged from whiteboarding plugins to an IM translation tool to a viral video sharing web site via web AIM APIs.

Here is the winners list:

  • IM Remote – Screen to screen desktop sharing over AIM.
  • IM Loud: This plugin reads IMs out loud to the user.
  • IM Whiteboard: Use AIM as a whiteboard and simultaneously draw with buddies.
  • LinkPreview: Thumbnail link previews when hovering over a link sent to you in chat.
  • Free2IM: Provides automatic, on-the-fly language translation back and forth over IM.
  • Infomess: Chat and share videos at the same time.
  • Share-A-Map: Share and collaboratively edit MapQuest maps. Giving someone directions will never be the same…
  • PopsChat: Bound to score points with TopCoder users, this plugin brings AIM chat and features to the TopCoder Arena (a chat and messaging area).
  • FeedReader: An RSS feedreader for AIM.

Congrats to all the winners. AOL is actively running a competition right now with TopCoder, this time for developers wanting to build video search applications via Truveo APIs.

AIM Express 7.0 Beta

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Today we are launching a new version of AIM Express. This version, 7.0 is a beta and is built on top of the Open AIM WimAS3 library that we released back in March as part of the Open AIM 2.0 announcement. This Adobe Flash based application allows you to use AIM any where you have an internet connection and not have to worry about downloading the full AIM 6.8 client.

As we posted on the beta website…

Although this application will work with most versions of Adobe® Flash® 9, we highly recommend you upgrade to the most recent version of Flash, as older versions have a serious security flaw. The upgrade is available here.

Check out AIM Express 7.0 Beta here.

Let us know what you think of AIM Express 7.

New TwitterMan for AIM 6.8 Beta

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I posted a new version of TwitterMan for AIM 6.8 Beta 3. This plugin was a collaboration between myself and one of my teammates, Gus.

This build will only work with the latest AIM 6.8 Beta or newer. For those unfamiliar with TwitterMan, this AIM plugin will set your status message on Twitter to the same status you have currently set on AIM. Recently Twitter added the ability to push your Twitter status to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, and others. So now TwitterMan will be able to propagate your AIM status from AIM to Twitter then to Facebook for example. The latest version will securely store your Twitter credentials so you do not have to enter them every time you sign into AIM. The latest version appears at the bottom of your buddy list where you can log into Twitter and manage your settings.

We will be making some improvements over time, including getting alerts when your Twitter Friend Feed has changed.

AIM MusicLink Feedback

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I want to say thank you to all the people who have downloaded the latest AIM MusicLink version 2.2.0.0 and are using it every day. The uptake for the plugin has been really great, and I have to be honest this release has gone much better than earlier ones. I wanted to address some of the issues people have been having.

  • I have fixed the problem with the Songbird Extension for AIM MusicLink and you can download the extension here. Once you download the extension, please use Songbird to load the sbMusicLink.xpi file.
  • I have spent a few hours testing this version of AIM MusicLink with Windows Media Player 11 in just about every configuration possible and cannot reproduce any of the reports people have. All my WMP plugin does is listen to the current playing song and then writes to the Windows Registry if the player is playing and if so what is the current song. Then AIM MusicLink reads the registry key. These two keys can be found in HKCUSoftwareAIMAIMPluginsAIM MusicLinkWMPCurrentMedia and WMPIsPlaying. If you observe weird behavior with these keys please let me know.
  • The latest WinAMP version has been working for me.
  • The theory I have regarding those who have issues with players beyond iTunes working, is that make sure iTunes is truly closed. I have seen instances where I close iTunes yet it is not truly shutdown. AIM MusicLink will still think it sees iTunes opened and try to set the iTunes song not WinAmp or other player you are using. AIM MusicLink has a specific order of operations that it looks for music. The first player it finds music for, it will try to report the result, even if no song is loaded on the player in some cases. Here is the order that I use:
  1. iTunes
  2. WinAmp
  3. MediaMonkey
  4. Windows Media Player 9/10/11
  5. Yahoo Jukebox
  6. Songbird
  7. RealPlayer

Please make sure if you are seeing issues where AIM MusicLink is reporting an incorrect or unexpected result, check the above list and make sure that a player is not accidentally loaded that you think you closed. As always I appreciate all the feedback, and keep it coming so I can make sure AIM MusicLink continues to be the top AIM Plugin.

Schmap on the iPhone

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A post on TechCrunch caught my attention this morning. Schmap is launching their city guides for the iPhone and iPodTouch. These free travel guides are a nice way to get info on a city online or offline. As readers of this blog know, I travel a lot to meet with developers who are building Open AIM applications and to evangelize Open AIM. Schmap city guides can be browsed online or offline, so before I get onto the plane I usually download Schmap so I can browse a city guide in flight. Schmap caught my attention last year when they asked to use one of my photos on Flickr that I took during W3C for their city guide for Calgary. If you are doing a lot of travel this summer, check out Schmap as an alternative or supplement to TripAdvisor or other online travel sites.

PS – Here is the photo that Schmap used from my Calgary collection:

AOL on Desktop for the Mac

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It has been an eternity (well more like 5 years), but we have released a new AOL client for the Mac. The client will run on both MacTel and PPC for Leopard and Tiger.

So far the reviews have been very good for this application, so if you are a long time AOL user on the Mac check out the latest build.

http://macblog.aol.com/media/ADM-FullWidthFlyout.jpg

One thing about this client that is worth pointing out is the buddy list and IM functionality in the client is powered by the Open AIM Mac SDK. The Mac SDK contains framework for applications to be written using Cocoa. This framework is the same that powers our experimental AIM Lite client for the Mac that we released in January of this year. You can view the source for this experimental client in the Mac SDK. We are starting to see more applications being written for platforms other than Windows which is really exciting.

I know the AOL Mac team would love to have some feedback on their work. They have a blog where you can keep up with the latest info and where you can share your thoughts on the client.

AIM MusicLink version 2.2.0.0

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I am posting a new AIM MusicLink tonight based on feedback from all my users. I have fixed a long standing bug with the MediaMonkey player, so for those of you using MediaMonkey for your media player needs, you will now see status updates.

I have also added support to insert a music note in your status message when using AIM MusicLink. Here is an image of the new music note support.

AIM MusicLink is an Open AIM plugin, it sets your status and profile message to your current playing song on 7 different media players. I support WinAmp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Yahoo Jukebox, Songbird, RealPlayer, and MediaMonkey. AIM MusicLink also logs the songs that you play and stores them in a log where you can view what you have been listening to all week. To get started with AIM MusicLink just download the exe, exit AIM, and install AIM MusicLink. Re-start AIM, and listen to your favorite music. If you want to change and of the preferences, they can be found in the Actions menu at the bottom of the AIM buddy list.

I want to thank everyone for their feedback, AIM MusicLink depends on your feedback for new features and bug fixes. AIM MusicLink is the most popular download on the AIM Gallery and one of the most popular AIM plugins of all time, so it goes without saying, thanks for all the support. 🙂

Download AIM MusicLink version 2.2.0.0 here.

Open AIM Web Site Updates

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We updated the Open AIM development website today based on some feedback from developers as well as to correct two minor bugs with our source code samples. The big addition is to post our Visual Basic custom client sample to the web page. You can now view how to build a VB custom client and how to implement preferences, send IMs, view Buddy Profiles and more.

The other change we made was to our technotes for Buddy Info and seemless sign on to expressions and AIM startpage URLs.

As always we appreciate the feedback on our development website so please share what we can make better below. If there are specific samples people are looking for we can add them as well.

Weekend Tidbits…

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I am off to Tel Aviv and ICQ tonight so there will be only sporadic updates next week. Before I go though, one of my loyal readers mentioned that with the number of plugins available now, the Actions menu is getting crowded. We have been supporting multiple plugin command entry points for a while, but the latest AIM client built off of the Open AIM platform supports the following actions (to read all about plugin commands here is the documentation):

Now we also support flyout commands, via IAccCommand::put_Property(AccCommandProp_ParentId, …); For example here is the code from AIM MusicLink that could do the submenu support…

// Create Flyout Command Placeholder
CComPtr <IAccCommand> spiCommand;
piPluginInfo->AddCommand(kCommandId, &spiCommand);
CString menuCommand3;
menuCommand3.LoadString(IDS_ML_MENU_ITEM);
spiCommand->put_Property(AccCommandProp_Text, CComVariant(menuCommand3));
spiCommand->put_Property(AccCommandProp_Flags, CComVariant(AccCommandFlags_ActionsUi));

// add submenu by passing in the command ID of the above command

CComPtr <IAccCommand> spiSubCommand;
piPluginInfo->AddCommand(kShowLogCommandId, &spiSubCommand);
CString menuCommand;
menuCommand.LoadString(IDS_ML_SHOWLOG);
spiSubCommand->put_Property(AccCommandProp_Text, CComVariant(menuCommand));
spiSubCommand->put_Property(AccCommandProp_Flags, CComVariant(AccCommandFlags_ActionsUi));
spiSubCommand->put_Property(AccCommandProp_ParentId, CComVariant(kCommandId));

So as you can see we can easily manage the menus and keep them clean. I actually need to update a few of my plugins to take advantage of the flyout. As always keep the questions coming.