The Windows Live Messenger IM Control enables Web sites to show the presence of Windows Live Messenger users, and lets site visitors engage in instant messaging (IM) conversations with these Messenger users. A Web site can invite its users to share their Messenger presence and exchange messages with visitors to the site.
When a site hosts the Windows Live Messenger IM Control, site visitors can send instant messages to Messenger users directly from the browser without installing the Windows Live Messenger desktop client on their computers. This feature provides an ideal mechanism for Web sites to enable site visitors to send messages to Messenger users who agree to share their presence on the Web. For example, a social networking site can invite its users to share their Messenger presence on user profile pages, or a blog author could use the IM Control to invite readers to discuss a particular topic.
The following steps describe how the IM Control is used.
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A Web site places the IM Control for a specific Messenger user on a page.
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A user navigates to the page that contains the IM Control.
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The user can send messages to the Messenger user through the IM Control.
For a Web site to show a Messenger user’s presence, the Messenger user must give permission to share presence and receive messages. The Web site should invite the user to share Messenger presence and obtain the user CID. To invite the user to give permission to share presence and receive messages from a specific site, the Web site should use Delegated Authentication. See Delegated Authentication with the Windows Live Messenger IM Control.
The following topics are discussed in this section.
Describes new features that are available with this version of the IM Control. | |
Explains basic requirements for developing with the IM Control. | |
Delegated Authentication with the Windows Live Messenger IM Control | Explains how Delegated Authentication can be used with the IM Control, and describes features of the IM Control that are available only if used with Delegated Authentication. |
Describes how to invite users to grant permission to reveal a user's online presence and obtain a user ID that can be used with the IM Control and the Windows Live Presence API. | |
Describes the parameters that can be used with the IM Control. |
The use of the Windows Live Messenger IM Control is governed by the Terms of Use.
