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is there a C++ Drupaller in the house?
Probably unlikely...but..I thought I would ask.
I'm waiting for a company called Skype to unleash server side plugins that we can use to create a skype.module for drupal, Skype have a multi platform computer-2-computer telephone software system that is very popular and I think it might be useful to drupal site admins.
At the moment integrating Skype into a website is tricky. There is a public API for skype that is available to download at the skype site and there are a growing clutter of third party skype plugins for websites. Such as the online status indicator and instant messaging solutions. Which were developed using the public api.
Just wondering if there is a C++ programmer out there who can have a quick look.
There maybe a bounty involved as I notice that one of the busiest drupal driven sites - the ecademy - are struggling with their skype.module. i.e. if it was a huge a mount of work to pull together a few pieces - ecademy.com may chip into a bounty for the module.
I'm happy enough to wait until skype release more plugins themselves, but thought I'd mention it on here in case there was a drupaller out there with a bit of C++ savvy and who is wiling to help. A more detailed discussion is at this thread.
Dub
Local Skype API, not Network API
Yup, I'm a C++ programmer with Win32 experience.
I took a look at the API... it isn't so much an API with the Skype service, but rather an API with the Windows Skype client. It uses some Windows messaging magic to connect to some unspecified handler, which then passes commands to and from Skype over your own Skype account.
Integrating this with Drupal would require a Windows machine where you can install the Skype client yourself and run it permanently under an account created for your site. In other words, it's fine for a desktop PC, but for a real Drupal server? I don't see it happening.
There appears to be a Linux version of the API, but it is similar to the Windows one. It uses some COM mechanism to talk to the normal Linux Skype client, which needs to be installed.
Furthermore, both APIs pop up a message in your local Skype client the first time they are used. Though you can choose to always grant a certain program access to Skype, installing it on a headless server would be tricky at the very least.
And if you do get it installed, I'm not sure if you could get PHP to talk to Skype directly. You'd probably need some intermediate layer.
On an unrelated note, that has got to be the ugliest Windows code I have seen in a very long time. :P
thanks
Thanks Steven...sorta guessed that it might have been a dead end as I trawled their Public API forum and there was very little on integrating skype into other websites.
probably best to wait until they unleash the network API you mentioned and hope that the code is better.
Thanks again for checking it out..sounds like it's too early to be looking at integrating it into drupal..although I wonder what the guys at ecademy (drupal site) are doing.
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=47070
Dub
DUBLIN DRUPALLER
___________________________________________________
A drupal user by chance and a dubliner by sheer luck.
Using Drupal to help build Artist & Band web communities.
Presence indicator
They are going to all the trouble just to have their website show other people's Skype status.
Skype Presence Indicator Web Serviceusage:
index.php?sid=your_skype_name&presence=your_presence
where presence is the text or number from
offline => 0, online => 1, away => 2, not available => 3, dnd => 4, invisible => 5, skypeme => 6, loggedout => 7
That's fine, but in the end I don't think you get much bang for your buck since, as stated below, this is nothing you can't see just by looking at your contact list in Skype.
- Robert Douglass
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http://www.hornroller.com/French_Horn_News
www.robshouse.net
Re: skyperunners
http://www.skyperunners.com/instant/
This service has the potential to ruin the Skype experience. Since Skype allows you unfettered access to lists of all the Skype users, and skyerunners.com allows you to send unsolicited messages to them, it seems like only a matter of time before Skype becomes spammers' vehicle of choice.
Dub, on a side note, I've got to wonder how important the status indicator really is. If I know your Skype name, all I have to do is open Skype and call you to see if you're online or not.
The callto: links based on users entering their Skype name are nice, but only work for people running Windows afaik.
So in terms of what Drupal can do to enable voice communications, I think we don't have a huge number of options. Out of them, using it to make podcast forums (as we've been discussing here http://drupal.org/node/13988) is the most interesting to me.
Excellent research you've been doing, by the way - real fodder for discussion.
- Robert Douglass
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http://www.hornroller.com/French_Horn_News
www.robshouse.net
good point..
without digressing the discussion...you have a point.
and I have posted some tips on how to integrate a callto:skypename function into drupal without any modules. (AFAIK it's like a mailto: call...will work on any browser)
I have put a lot of time and effort into digging into the area...and it tends to be leading to a dead-end most of the time. The most frequent "back-end" for simple to use and simple to implement a voicemail.module or voiceforum.module you are looking at seems to be the macromedia flash communicator server...which is very expensive.
For what it's worth...the only non-commercial alternative for what you are doing I have come across is the Flash Remoting for PHP which has a huge amount of applications beyond a voiceforum.module such as the stunning image browser that I tried for ages to get working with drupal, but gave up - more due to lack of knowledge than anything else.
Anyway..getting back to the Skype.module discussion...I agree with you Robert, there is not much point in looking further than just integrating a "callto:skypename" function at the moment for drupal.
As a final note, I too was worried about unsolicited skype messages and calls. there is a very robust privacy setting within skype that only allows calls from people you know. i.e. someone has to formally request permission to call you before they can.
What I was looking to do with a skype.module was to only allow people from a drupal site to contact you....so a community would feel secure communicating within a drupal site environment. Or with the skypestatus type jyvecard thing...only other users of the drupal site would know I was online. Allowing a drupal community to use the existing one-2-one voice-chat and conferencing capabilities that already comes with a skype download (mac, Pc, linux & pocket pc).
Hope that makes sense...
Dub
DUBLIN DRUPALLER
___________________________________________________
A drupal user by chance and a dubliner by sheer luck.
Using Drupal to help build Artist & Band web communities.
callto: needs to be a registered protocol
Windows has it already because it comes with NetMeeting and Skype hijacks it. That's why I don't think it exists on Linux or OSX, not that it couldn't be implemented, but it woud then need to be installed on every single client. It will (of course) not work on Windows machines without Skype, and worse, if NetMeeting is activated, would probably launch that.
- Robert Douglass
PS - the discussion has been very fruitful with many people benefitting from the research you've been doing.
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http://www.hornroller.com/French_Horn_News
www.robshouse.net
Privacy must not apply to text messages
Either the privacy doesn't apply to text messages (like from the website mentioned above) or I don't have it set right.
- Robert Douglass
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http://www.hornroller.com/French_Horn_News
www.robshouse.net